[CQ-Contest] Is this frequency in use?

[Gert Meinen]

Tree,

Did you check if the CO2 was on 3518 kHz?
You might have been listening to his second harmonic....
Happend to me once, I heard a guy working all over EU on a dead 10 meter 
band in the solar minimum, it turned out he was working on 20m and had a 
strong second harmonic on 10m.

73,  Gert PA3AAV

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tree" <tree at kkn.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 4:26 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Is this frequency in use?


> Interesting 24 hours on this "frequency".
>
> Again - I am sorry I wasn't able to answer K3KU right away.  It certainly
> was my intent.  All
> of this discussion about not hearing anything for 7 or 8 seconds is
> certainly an interesting
> debate - but not really relevant to what happened.  K3KU heard something -
> or he wouldn't have
> called me.  I was being a lid and not getting back to him due to my fat
> fingers and it took me
> more than a couple of beats to get back to him (I think I doubled with him
> once). K3KU
> probably had a few other cases of delays happening and wasn't feeling very
> happy about having
> to wait and escalated the situation.  This kind of thing happens during a
> contest all the time.
> Honestly - I didn't even remember who I had gotten into this scuffle with
> after the contest.
> When I saw the posting on cq-contest - I figured I should do the "right"
> thing and confess
> (good for the soul).
>
> One other thought I wanted to share - is that it is a f***knig contest
> guys.  It's a competitive
> event. Many people are just there to have fun and hand out QSOs - and I
> understand that - but
> for many of us - it is (as N8XX called it) "blood and guts".  QRM is going
> to happen.  There
> will be small scuffles about frequency ownership.  People slide up and 
> down
> to try to improve
> their frequency by causing some QRM to the guy next to them to see what
> happens.  It's not
> much different than a Nascar race.  If this isn't something you are okay
> with - then perhaps
> you should operated the contest on your own terms up the band a little
> where there is less
> of this kind of thing going on.
>
> I had a case that is interesting to think about.  On 40 meters, I heard a
> CO2 calling CQ
> TEST which I needed for a multiplier.  He was on like 7036 kHz.  I called
> him a few times
> and he kept CQing in my face.  It was interesting that nobody else seemed
> to be calling
> him either (he had a pretty good signal).  After some time - he just
> disappeared.  I decided to
> steal his frequency and "tested" it by calling some CQs.  There was no
> objection (well - it
> seemed he couldn't hear me anyway) - and I started working guys.  About 10
> minutes later -
> the CO2 showed up again - and started CQing again - and not hearing my
> call.  I moved the
> dial and went up the band.  The interesting thing to think about - is how
> would I have
> responded to this situation if a different station had done this?  They
> might not have heard me
> at all and assumed the frequency was clear.  In this case - it would have
> been decided by who
> could keep their rate going and "make enough noise" for the other station
> to realize there
> might have been somebody there that they didn't hear.  I think this points
> out that a "time
> element" is important.  If you have only been on a frequency for 30 or 40
> seconds - even
> though you have made a couple of QSOs - if you find someone else on that
> frequency now,
> the statistics are not in your favor.  Chances are - they were there 
> before
> you and the
> "nice" thing to do is to leave.  Frequency "ownership" isn't a digital
> thing.  Being there for
> 20 minutes is very different than being there for one minute.
>
> Another case is when I heard a rare station on 15 meters...  I just heard
> him send his call
> twice...  well - that was enough for me and I started calling him
> "aggressively".  Turns out,
> he was trying to work my buddy N5RZ who had to finally say "N6TR QRL" for
> me to realize
> I needed to shut up.  N5RZ and I are still friends.
>
> In the NAQP - in order to be competitive - you are going to need to use 
> two
> radios so you can
> search and pounce on one band while "owning" a frequency on another.  This
> technique typically
> results in 200 or more QSOs being made.  I think anytime you take the time
> to answer someone's
> CQ - it is a "Good Thing" for the contest - so the more of this there is
> the better.  True - this will
> create occasional momentary delays on the run frequency - but the average
> NAQP QSO takes
> about 3 or 4 seconds - so it really shouldn't be an issue from a "making
> enough noise to maintain
> ownership of the frequency" perspective.  It's only when someone decides
> this "nonsense" and
> goes out of their way to express their opinion in the heat of battle where
> I see this would be an
> issue.
>
> Again - if things has been working normally - I believe K3KU would have
> been in my log without
> any of this emotion coming to light.  This delay could have happened
> regardless of whether or
> not I was making a QSO on the second radio.  K3KU didn't respond to my
> attempt to make a
> real QSO - or seemed interested in hearing my explanation on the air - so 
> I
> don't even have a
> record of when this occurred - just my memory.
>
> I did find one comment that was made a little strange.  When someone says
> "I don't call 911",
> I think that means that they take care of situations on their own.  I
> believe this is a term
> typically used by gun owners?  I hope it was intended differently than I
> had assumed.
> Sometimes, we jump to wrong assumptions about things and get a little
> carried away.
>
> 73 Tree N6TR
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