[CQ-Contest] Something we need to remember

Mon Mar 29 15:40:18 PDT 2010

> Do non-contesters complain about the sun when a Class-X solar flare
> wipes out the spectrum for an hour or so?
>

I hate to say it but most of the Ham population doesn't know what just
happened at all because the general ham public does not know anymore or keep
up with any propagation nor have they attempted to understand it or learn
about propagation. 

They studied the questions and passed the test 
And now 'I are a Ham'.

This is also where many complaints come from in arguments about 'we were
here first'. The truth is all the stations were probably there all along and
until the argument just couldn’t hear each other. But they don’t seem to get
that part of Ham radio. Propagation changes continuously on the bands and
much of the community has been dumbed down with irrelevant testing, lack of
mentoring, poor club presentations and just don’t understand that we don’t
live in a on off digital world in ham radio --- here there is very little
that is black and white analogue never is.

>Contesters have an extremely bad name with the balance of the Ham
>community. When a contest is on it seems to bring out 
>the "to heck with you, I am going to do what I want."
> attitude. As long as I can be heard I care 
> not for what you are doing.

I haven’t seen the official independent survey results so I don’t know about
the validity of 'the balance of the ham community' allegation.

I was around 14.300 and heard a station moved by an assistant net control
operator away from the Maritime Mobile Net. Immediately after being asked to
move since he was about 1.3 khz away from 300 he immediately moved. 

Since I listen to the MM net many days I moved there to see the results of
his moving. They only complained abt him being there and never once talked
abt how great and considerate he was that he did.

I am glad he moved and so he should have - as I believe he did the right
thing and *must add* without argument.

I was also around 40 meters in the advanced and extra portion quite a bit
and heard a QSO that went on during the entire contest on the same frequency
for quite some time and without any interruption to it that I could detect
as I tuned up and down the band many times doing search and pounce (S&P).
Each time I passed through they were still talking about verticals, tractors
and guns as though they had been there forever without interruption.

Old ideas are hard to break. Once a mindset has taken over (this one being
that contesters don’t care) it will take a while to break it (if it ever
does get broken) not our responsibility to break it just ours to do the
right thing as we know it to be according to common sense.

All we can do is what we know is right. Most of the contest community are
considerate operators and humble. 

But there are 'the few', but then the rag chewers have 'the few' also.

As far as the comment 'are we responsible if someone else has less filtering
than we do' - the answer is of course no. But I do believe we should still
consider them and give them some space, just as a matter of course of doing
the right thing.

73 to all
Bob AD5VJ

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:cq-contest-
> bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Zack Widup
> Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 10:30 AM
> To: CQ Contest
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Something we need to remember
> 
> Heck, even contesters complain about contesters. I recall seeing
> complaints about RTTY contesters going too low in the CW subbands, and
> the same with European SSB ops in the CW subbands on 40.
> 
> >From what I've observed, it seems most of the people who are not
> contesters and are complaining are people who have skeds or nets on
> SSB over the weekend. As was noted earlier, I don't see too many
> complaints by CW ops who are not contesters (if there are any!)  :-)
> 
> Also, some people seem to expect the world to know that they have
> skeds on 14.2XX frequency every Sunday morning at a certain time. If
> someone is there first, contester or not, these people need a back-up
> plan. Every ARES and emergency group I've been involved with ALWAYS
> had back-up frequencies in case something happened to make the regular
> ones useless.
> 
> Do non-contesters complain about the sun when a Class-X solar flare
> wipes out the spectrum for an hour or so?
> 
> 73, Zack W9SZ
> 
> 
> On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 6:42 AM, David Kopacz
> <david.kopacz at aspwebhosting.com> wrote:
> > "Contesters have an extremely bad name with the balance of the Ham
> > community."
> >
> >
> > I'd would suggest this single comment invalidates the entire
> complaint.
> >
> > If I were to say "Rag chewers have an extremely bad name with[in] the
> > balance of the Ham community", and cited examples such as the mess on
> > 14.275 with VE7KFM, or the way W4RHE or other non contesters have
> > vehemently guarded "THEIR" frequencies even when not in use, I would
> be
> > painting the amateur community with an extremely broad brush.
> >
> > Every contest someone complains. I am quite sure there are a few
> > contesters that operate in a manner that is beyond reproach, yet I
> have
> > met hundreds that deserve considerable respect for the way they
> conduct
> > themselves during contests.
> >
> > Furthermore, I would suggest that any amateur that expects to find a
> > "clear frequency" upon which to have a successful conversation during
> a
> > major contest is clearly being unreasonable.
> >
> > Let me suggest to the entire amateur community, if you wish to make a
> > complaint, make a reasonable complaint. Complain about a SPECIFIC
> > instance and provide call signs, frequencies and times. If you can
> > record the instance, do that too.
> >
> > I am sure the amateur contesting community would be far more
> receptive
> > to complaints that are substantive as opposed to general complaints
> > about contesting. I am also quite sure that the contesting community
> > would put considerable pressure on a single [repeat] offender.
> >
> > Keep in mind, amateur radio and radio contesting are WORLD WIDE
> > activities governed by different laws, cultural ethics.
> >
> > David ~ KY1V
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> > [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Randy
> Thompson
> > K5ZD
> > Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 7:35 PM
> > To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> > Subject: [CQ-Contest] Something we need to remember
> >
> > During and after the WPX SSB Contest, I received a number of emails
> > complaining about the behavior of various contesters on the bands.
>  We
> > do all need to remember that we are sharing the road with others and
> > must do our part to help get along.
> >
> > I have copied one such message below that should remind us of this.
> >
> > Randy, K5ZD
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 2:30 PM
> > Subject:
> >
> > I have been an amateur for over 40 years. I am interested in many
> facets
> > of Ham Radio, contesting is not one of them. That said, I am also
> aware
> > that contesting is a very popular activity. Looking over the
> information
> > available to current and prospective contesters I find nothing
> printed
> > that suggests proper protocol.
> >
> > Contesters have an extremely bad name with the balance of the Ham
> > community.
> > When a contest is on it seems to bring out the "to heck with you, I
> am
> > going to do what I want." attitude. As long as I can be heard I care
> not
> > for what you are doing.
> > Sadly most of the complaining is done amongst the Hams that are on
> the
> > air most every day and not contesting.
> >
> > This letter to you is to lodge a complaint. If the rest of us behaved
> > during a contest with the utter disregard for the Gentleman aspect of
> > our hobby that used to be known as "The Gentleman's hobby" I am sure
> > that the contest community would also be complaining.
> >
> > There is Ham Radio outside of contesting and those of us that enjoy
> this
> > would really appreciate consideration by the weekend contesters. Do
> not
> > blindly call "CQ contest" without listening to see if the frequency
> is
> > in use, and if it is respect the stations using it.
> >
> > Thank you for listening.
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > CQ-Contest mailing list
> > CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
> > _______________________________________________
> > CQ-Contest mailing list
> > CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
> >
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest