[CQ-Contest] Disruption of Emergency Communication during CQWW - a suggestion

[Rich NU6T]

Why not announce the emergency net on the cluster.  Everyone -could- 
know of the net and take appropriate action.  Perhaps cluster software 
could allow a special designation for officially recognized emergency nets?

Rich
NU6T

On 11/12/2010 2:54 AM, kr2q at optimum.net wrote:
> I agree with some of the comments made so far, ESPECIALLY that very few, if any,
> contesters would KNOWINGLY interfere with any emergency operation.
>
> I also agree that there needs to be multiple methods of emergency communication backup,
> meaning other modes or QRGs.
>
> Here is my analogy:
> Where I live, we have LOTS of deer.  During the Winter months, well, they are hungry and eat
> the shrubs.  So when we buy shrubs/landscaping, we look for "deer resistant" or "deer repellent"
> species of foliage.
>
> But that really means nothing because.....when the deer are hungry, they will sample everything.
> That means that each poor little shrub gets "nibbled" at least a little...by each deer.  So
> multiple a couple nibbles time hundreds of deer times the number of days of the cold season.
> When Spring rolls around, the deer resistant shrubs are GONE.
>
> Here is what I suspect might happen with the NET under IDEAL conditions: During a major
> contest (CQWW being the biggest), the e-net is operating on some fixed QRG.  The first
> contester stops by and calls CQ.  He is immediately told that the freq is in use.  He leaves.
> Less than 10 seconds later, the next contests find this "clear" spot and does the same thing.
> By the time the contest is over, 1000's of stations have stopped by this QRG.  Because of
> differences in antennas and power, some of the contesters can't even hear the e-net, but
> the e-net, due to low power, temporary antennas in the hurricane, or whatever, sure do hear
> the contesters!
>
> Further, there are many countries involved, not just USA and not all of which will look for an
> announcement of an e-net at ARRL (or wherever else).
>
> There is just no way that a "local" emergency that originates just before or even during the
> contest period is going to be able to get the word out the contest community.  This is not
> intentional ignorance by contesters...it's just the way it is.  We are focused on something
> else, at least until we run into the net and are told first-hand this "this is an emergency."
>
> It would make infinite sense to me to move the phone net to the CW portion of the band.
> Certainly that would be permissible during a declared real emergency, right?
>
> de Doug KR2Q
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