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

[Kelly Taylor]

I like the intention, but I think we all know there are enough people out
there who don't exactly engage brain when shifting into grab-a-spot mode
that you'd end up with a bunch of people calling on the emergency frequency,
wondering what country is QRR?. (I'm absolutely not disparaging responsible
packet users when I say that.)

I think Ryan's notion that emcomm users have to recognize busy times and
adjust accordingly is sound, though I agree in spirit with Hans's idea that
emcomm should always take priority. I just know that in practice, Hans's
idea isn't entirely practical.

The emcomm crowd should try to understand, however, that the goal is to find
a usable frequency to pass emergency traffic, however or wherever that may
be. The goal isn't to prevail in a battle with anybody.

I believe most if not all contesters would absolutely refuse to knowingly
interfere with emcomm. The difficulty is making sure everybody knows there's
the potential. Using 60m or WARC bands is a good way for emcomm to ensure it
has clear frequency, which should always be the priority.

73, kelly
ve4xt


On 11/12/10 11:25 AM, "Jack Haverty" <jack at 3kitty.org> wrote:

> On Fri, 2010-11-12 at 10:54 +0000, kr2q at optimum.net wrote:
>> 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. 
> 
> How about spotting the emergency frequency with some readily recognized
> identifier - e.g., "3815.0 QRRR".  Do this from stations (even fake
> ones) from all sorts of locations so the spot gets through most packet
> filters.  Do it often, even automatically.  Spot +- a KHz also, to
> provide a little room for the emergency nets, and make the spots even
> more prominent.
> 
> That wouldn't get to everybody, but at least all the contesters with
> bandmaps would quickly know, and some of them might even act as a sort
> of frequency police to tell anyone who is CQing that the frequency is
> busy for emergency use.  "QRT QRT" could become a well-known
> interjection for contesters to identify an emergency frequency like "UP
> UP" is for DXing.
> 
> 73,
> /Jack de K3FIV
> 
> 
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