[UK-CONTEST] CQWW

[Colin G3PSM]

Food for thought perhaps in this day and age ?

73

Colin, G3PSM

----- Original Message -----
From: Bobby Graves - KB5HAV <kb5hav at hwn.org>
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 5:03 PM
Subject: The Hurricane Watch Net Secures for Hurricane Beta


> Anyone who loves history or not, 2005 will definitely go into the history
> books.  In fact, many of you will be able to tell your grandchildren about
> the Tropical Weather Season of 2005.
>
> At this time, we have had 23 named storms, 9 of which have been major
> Hurricanes, Category 3 or higher, 12 landfalls of hurricanes, and 10
> landfalls of storm of Tropical Storm strength, and the season still has
> month to go.
>
> The Hurricane Watch Net secured operations for Hurricane Beta Sunday
> afternoon at 2:00 p.m. EST - 1500 UTC.  The net logged a total of nearly
300
> man-hours during this event.
>
> Beta made landfall near La Barra, Nicaragua at about 7:00 a.m. EST Sunday
> morning.  Maximum sustained winds at the time of landfall were estimated
to
> be near 105 mph, making Beta a Category 2 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson
> hurricane scale.
>
> Although this past weekend was the CQ World Wide DX Contest, we managed,
be
> it a very hard a trying time, get information into and out of the area.
> Unfortunately, there were lots of other reports that were not able to be
> received due to the contest.
>
> Our thanks go out to all of those who realized our presence and what we do
> who steered clear or tried to help us maintain a clear frequency.
> Unfortunately, many of those in foreign countries do not speak English but
> just enough to work a contest.  After trying, begging, and pleading for
them
> to give us a clear frequency, all that happened was when finished
explaining
> why we needed them to move, they said, "QRZ de {callsign], CQ Contest, CQ
> Contest".
>
> I for one, yes a contester myself, would like to go on record to ask that
> the sponsoring bodies of these contests to please create a Contest Free
> Zone.  You are the ones who set the rules and guidelines for operations.
> You schedule the event.  You cannot however schedule a land falling
> hurricane, earthquake, emergency at sea, or any other type of emergency
that
> requires the assistance of Amateur Radio.  It would be a crime to have
> someone lose there their life, or multiple lives, because the help of
> Amateur Radio, their only possible means of help, because they could not
be
> heard or get all the information needed to help, all because of a contest
> that could have been structured with an area of the band, not just 20
meters
> but all HF bands, had a Contest Free Zone.  Who knows, the life that is
> saved, or that of a loved one, just might be YOURS!!!
>
> As for Beta, she caused considerable damage on the island of Providencia.
> Emily, HK0LED, reported that the island has had no electricity since 2:00
> p.m. Saturday.  There were lots of trees down, many homes without roofs,
the
> main telecommunications tower had been blown down, and that their was no
> vehicle access to the island.
>
> As a reminder to all, you can get the latest information on Tropical
> Activity at our website of www.hwn.org.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Bobby
> KB5HAV
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Bobby Graves, KB5HAV
> 1676 Ravenwood Lane
> Home: (601) 932-5301
> Cell: (601) 278-7304
> Pearl, MS 39208
> Email: kb5hav at hwn.org
>
> Assistant Net Manager
> Hurricane Watch Net
> 14.325.00 MHz
> Webmaster: www.hwn.org