[CQ-Contest] anti-contest petition MMSN

[Ryan Jairam]

Guys, I think this is more serious than we thought it was:

See here:

http://www.mmsn.org/iaru.html

Particularly troubling is this:

Efforts are underway with the major contest sponsors, namely the ARRL,
CQ magazine and the IARU, to prohibit contesting on or near the GCOA
frequencies.  Some suggestions have been put forward and continued
lobbying is progressing favourably.  We have always said that although
contesting can be scheduled, emergencies cannot.

At the August 2007 Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications
(GAREC) convention in Hunstville, AL, David Sumner K1ZZ - CEO of the
ARRL, undertook to meet with the ARRL contest committees and revamp
the contest rules to protect the COA frequencies.

Here is a quote from the ARRL web page and the URL for the complete text.

GAREC also asked Amateur Radio contest organizers to include a
provision in their rules that contest participants avoid frequencies
in the immediate vicinity of the Center of Activity frequencies (as
proposed at GAREC-05); these frequencies are 14.300, 18.160 and 21.360
MHz. According to Pitts (ARRL spokes person), "This would minimize
interference to weak or distant stations which may be passing
emergency traffic, but not heard in the contest din."
(http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/08/24/102/?nc=1)



_________________

I think that the contesting community should collectively send a
message to ARRL that the league will lose members if they bow to the
anti-contesting interests.

After all, a lot of contesters are ARRL members, and if the ARRL gets
a hint that they will lose support, lose members and in turn lose
money and eventually lose relevance, they will look after OUR
interests first.

Otherwise we are giving them a free pass to get whatever they want.
Today it is 10kc for the MMSN, tomorrow, who knows?

Ryan, N2RJ