[UK-CONTEST] CQWW 2004

[Ray Goff]

>
> Again I stress the reason for raising this topic was to point out the
> dangers of the Society being blamed for the actions of those stations using
> Contest Calls.   There are plenty of people waiting to point the finger.
>

I have to say that I barely operated on SSB during the weekend, but I did tune
around partly to see what shape the bands were in. I did try a CW QSO or two on
40, but it was clearly full of contesters and so I QSY'ed to the WARC bands.

However, before I left I did notice some behaviour which I think is far less
acceptable than overstepping the voluntary band plans and that is deliberate
interference. There was one station at the low end of 40 on Saturday evening
sending strings of dots or dot-dashes from an electronic keyer at around 25-30
WPM. The station seemed to identify an SSB station and sit on it for a few
minutes and then QSY to sit on top of another station. I have no idea where or
who the station was, but it was S9+ with me.

The whole issue of band plans and contests also reared its ugly head during the
80 metre Club Championships. During the SSB legs of the contests, European
stations would come up on frequency announcing that the band plan did not permit
contesting on that frequency, despite that fact that the RSGB had set a range of
frequencies for the contests.

However, the crowning glory was during one of the Data segments when a DL
station who came back to me in RTTY on 3.596 to tell me that I was interfering
with his SSB QSO. I have to admit that with a 500Hz filter in, I didn't hear his
QSO, but then I was in the data segment!

Then there is the 'Slow Scan TV' brigade, who feel that they must defend 'their
frequency' against all comers by deliberately sending slow scan signals over the
top of SSB stations.

Unfortunately, the live and let live philosophy does not seem to exist for some
people, but now matter how you view contests, it is certainly wonderful to hear
the bands full of signals, as Don mentioned in a previous post.

I hope to see you all in the CW leg at the end of the month.

73

Ray, G4FON