[CQ-Contest] Contest Free Weekend > justification for more contests!

[VR2BrettGraham]

K8MR said:

> Meanwhile, perhaps the word could be passed along to the contest hating
> community to have their own contest-free contest on March 23-24.

Very interesting to watch the start of the first day, the start of the 
second day & the end of ARRL DX SSB from here.  For the past couple of 
years, I've been very QRV as an SWL, first with remote receivers & since 
2013-02 with my own using a homebrew mag loop stuck out the window of 
the YL's flat.  What I look for is over-the-horizon radar.

I say those three days were interesting because usually at the start of 
each GMT day, here in VR we will have been hearing VK's OTHR on 15m for 
2-3 hours already.

On the first & second days of ARRL DX SSB, VK OTHR wasn't seen until 
02-03 GMT - by which time from here in VR the segment of the band the VK 
OTHR seems to like was no longer full of activity from the contest.

At the end of the contest - and all the activity stopped by 0001 - the 
OTHR re-appeared before 0010.

Whatever the contest was on the weekend after ARRL DX SSB, it also 
appeared to have driven Australia's vile electromagnetic weapon of mass 
destruction out of the band.

Instead of contest-free weekends - and worse, the growing trend to 
relegate contest activity to portions of the band - from what I've seen 
it's not normal levels of activity but what happens during major 
contests that can keep these nasty things at bay.

Fantastic justification for MORE contests, EVERY weekend & across the 
WHOLE band.  Use it or loose it!

73, ex-VR2BG/p.