[Mldxcc] OO Report

[Jim Venneman]

Greetings,

Imagine my surprise to receive an Official Observers report in the mail today for alledgedly causing interference to a net on 14300 during the ARRL DX Phone contest a few weeks ago, while answering a CQ Contest call made by HE8AUS on 14302. No - this was not another case of an obnoxious contester calling CQ Contest and willfully ignoring all other operations nearby. Instead, my log shows I was operating in Search and Pounce mode at the time, working my way down the band. One minute before this, I was on 14308 working HG7T and a minute later  - on 14297 working DL2AA, and so on. I spent maybe 20-30 seconds working the HE8 before moving on, but was nabbed for a supposed violation of FCC regulations.

I found this to be a bit over the top and drafted a mild complaint to the Field Organizanization Manager at ARRL HQ (with a cc: to KX9X) in case this OO was parked on 14302 and is sending out a multitude of OO Notices to anyone that worked HE8AUS. Does anyone else beside me find this to be unacceptable? Anyone else receive an OO letter from K5RIC in the mail?

Just for the record - I am very supportive of the OO Program and believe that these volunteers do a fine job most of the time. I have received an OO Notice a time or two in the past - once for being too close to the band edge on 20 ssb and once for forgetting that I wasn't in "Split" and transmitted in the 40 meter DX Phone band by mistake. I obviously deserved these. 

Oh well - life goes on. See y'all this weekend in the WPX Phone contest. Just be careful around 14300, I guess.

Jim  -WX6V-