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

Steve Hanlon asciibaron at verizon.net
Mon Nov 15 17:33:12 PST 2010


i will simply point to 14.300 and the recent dust up with a Coast Guard 
training exercise that attempted to use that frequency as justification 
to ignore the demands of the "emergency nets" of the world and their 
agendas.  as a hobbyist, i have no idea who is legit, who wants a 
frequency to themselves, or who is trying to have fun by disrupting a 
contest. unless i am told explicitly from the ARRL before the contest 
that a specific range of frequencies are to be excluded from use for a 
specific reason or if i hear an actual emergency call, i will treat any 
station willfully interfering with me as just that, willful interference.

a history of poor examples really tarnishes any good will i have toward 
an "emergency net" - if comms are directly supporting the protection of 
life or property, how we can as an amateur community take it seriously 
with years of overstated cases of "saving the day" with ham radio?

from CQ WW SSB 2009 - this speaks volumes to the mindset that i feel we 
are being asked to cater to by not using frequencies "just in case"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIakXsHpCp4

the legit instances are well published and make their way around hamdom 
like a spotted P5 calling CQ on 20m.  if it's legit, we'll get it from 
many sources and most likely we'll see the event on CNN.

[sarcasm mode]
with that said, anyone who wants to check into my ecomms net on 7.037 on 
November 27/28 is welcome to, but please give me plenty of room.  the 
safety of the world demands upon it.  simply give me your callsign and 
CQ zone and i'll repond with a signal report and my CQ zone so i know if 
needed we can support life savings comms if needed during the time the 
net is active.
[/sarcasm]

-Steve, WM3O




More information about the CQ-Contest mailing list