[CQ-Contest] From VO1DD re Interference with emergency traffic

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

Doug,
 
Was the radio on the ship crystal controlled?
 
If so, there was a problem.  If the radio actually had a VFO, did you  ever 
consider tuning around (i.e. higher in the band) to find a clear frequency, 
 and ask the ship to QSY to that clear frequency?
 
If your communication had been interrupted by a broadcast station firing up 
 on frequency (as might be common on 40 meters), would you have given up?
 
Last weekend were the two busiest days of the year on the HF CW bands,  
which is why you ran into so much CW activity in that part of the band. Had 
DD4B  moved off the frequency, you likely in a few minutes would have had 
another of  the thousands of hams taking part in the CQWW DX contest show up on 
frequency,  unaware of the situation, and you would have had to go though the 
same  process to get him to move.  And then again and again.
 
I appreciate that you at least had a real issue at hand, unlike other nets  
on 20 SSB that think it necessary to tie up a frequency for hours just in 
case  something might happen. But it sounds as if some flexibility on your 
part would  have let you maintain communication with the vessel in distress, 
irrespective on  the contest activity on the band that day.
 
 
73  -  Jim  K8MR
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 11/30/2010 4:23:19 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
weatherdeck at persona.ca writes:

Good  afternoon,

My name is Doug Card, callsign VO1DD.  During the  contest period ,
specifically Sunday on or about 1235Z , our maritime  mobile net was 
involved
with a vessel who had declared an emergency on a  frequency of 14.122.50.
This is a frequency used by the Mississauga  maritime mobile net which is on
24/7 @ 1245Z.   This vessel had  been having difficulty for a few days.
Conditions continued to deteriorate  for this vessel. We were working the
vessel and taking important  information from the captain at the time.  All
was well until a  station involved in the contest came on to the frequency
and started to  call CQ contest.



I am primarily a CW op and was able to clearly  copy the callsign, DD4B ,
which apparently is a contest station in Bonn ,  Germany.  I asked on SSB 
for
him to please respect the situation and  to please give us a clear frequency
to operate.  I asked several times  as he continued to call CQ test. His
signal here was very strong. I  switched to CW and still got no response and
the interference  continued.  He continued and started to draw other contest
stations to  the frequency which of course caused even more interference.  
If
he  heard me and still blatantly ignored the situation he is not a true  ham
operator as far as I'm concerned.  Ham radio exists because of its  public
service element and when a contest interferes with the ability of  hams to 
do
that service , I have serious problems with ham radio being used  as a
contest medium especially if they only "come out to play" for contests  as
apparently many operators do.  I have no problem with that as long  as they
are aware that there are a lot of us out there who spend  considerable
operating time in public service and deserve to be respected  as well



That far up in the band is not primarily a CW portion  of 20 mtrs although I
am well aware that CW is legal anywhere in the ham  bands.  Again I am
primarily a CW op and as such am very careful when  operating on CW in the
phone portion of the band (which does not happen  often).  I can appreciate
that the station likely had his filtering  narrowed right down and could not
read my sideband signal clearly.   However he was technically in the phone
portion of the band and should have  been more aware of the possibility that
emergency traffic might  exist.  Hopefully he was not using a code reader.

I was running  650 watts to the antenna and I am sure he would have been 
able
to hear me  if not so focused on scoring points!.  I am well aware that  CW
contesting is not the way it used to be with keyboards/computers used  for
sending as well as decoding.



The situation was very  serious and could have turned out very badly ending
in a possible loss of a  vessel at sea. For this reason as far as I'm
concerned , during contests  stations should be limited to the CW sub-bands
so that the possibility of  another incident like this occurring is 
minimized
as most vessels on the  high seas use SSB communications.



This incident has certainly  done nothing to enhance my feelings about
contesting.  I'm always told  that contesting makes better operators.  If
this incident is an  example of that , that reasoning holds no credence.  



73

Doug Card  VO1DD

Hearts Delight  ,Newfoundland



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