[RTTY] Band Plan and RTTY contesting

[Don Cassel]

It's really a problem being up on all of the possible beacons you might
interfere with. I don't normally operate in this area of the band but that
happened to be the only clear frequency that I found at the time. I could
not hear any beacon so would have been unaware that I was interfering with
one. I suspect that I wasn't and if I heard a beacon I would have moved.
Also I'm a low power station so it's unlikely I would be splattering my FSK
signal very wide. In fact the "police" was very loud, likely high power and
he would have been more of a problem to beacon hunters than my station.
Anyway it was an interesting experience.

Don VE3XD

-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Flanders [mailto:jeflanders at comcast.net] 
Sent: October-22-07 12:47 PM
To: Jim McDonald; Don Cassel
Cc: rtty at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RTTY] Band Plan and RTTY contesting

That is not actually the beacon frequency, as I recall.

But - how big a "guard band" should we actually allow for something like
this? Do we back off far enough to make it possible to copy the beacon on a
$30 toy-quality pocket shortwave receiver?

Seriously, is there a useful recommendation that those of us who use beacons
as well as contests can actually live with? Or, considering that most
_serious_ beacon users can probably  tolerate a signal 300 Hz away without
interference, do we need a guard band at all - especially when contesters
only need that spectrum space for a few hours per week?

Jerry W4UK

At 12:20 PM 10/22/2007, Jim McDonald wrote:
>That's the frequency of the well known, worldwide NCDXF beacon system:
>
>http://ncdxf.org/beacons.html
>
>I don't think it's asking too much for that one frequency to be spared.
>
>Jim N7US
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>
>
>Please note that I made a typo in my message. The frequency should have 
>been 14.099.7.
>
>Don VE3XD
>
>
> > On Saturday I had to deal with an interfering station on 14.090.7 
> > telling me over and over that I was using a frequency reserved for 
> > beacons. While he may be technically correct he was wrong in causing 
> > excessive interference and also in his interpretation of the band 
> > plan rules. When I finally asked him to identify his station he 
> > refused and then left the frequency.
> >
> > Just to set things straight the ARRL band plan rules state:
> >
> > "Nothing in the rules recognizes a net's, group's or any 
> > individual's special privilege to any specific frequency. Section 
> > 97.101(b) of the Rules states that "Each station licensee and each 
> > control operator must cooperate in selecting transmitting channels 
> > and in making the most effective use of the amateur service 
> > frequencies. No frequency will be assigned for the exclusive use of any
station." No one "owns"
> > a frequency."
> >
> > And since I'm Canadian and operate under Canadian regulations here 
> > is what the RAC band plan states:
> >
> > "GENERAL NOTES:
> > . Where Notes are shown, these activities have priority over other 
> > activities.
> > . During major weekend Contest activities, activity in certain modes 
> > can spill over into other segments."
> >
> > There are some additional notes but they are not relevant to this 
> > situation.
> >
> > So it appears that I was fully within my rights to be operating 
> > where I was.
> > You have to wonder why someone would need to find a beacon during a 
> > contest anyway as there are more than enough signals on the bands to 
> > establish where openings are. We all know that this person was just 
> > being a jerk but I think it helps us all to know that there are 
> > exceptions to the rules.
> >
> > 73, Don VE3XD
>
>
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