[UK-CONTEST] CQWW 160 SSB

[Roger G3SXW]

Peter,
Logic: non-contesters complain about contesting QRM only because there are SO MANY contesters! Many thousands cause 'QRM' to a few dozen rag-chewers. Why should that small minority expect QRM-free use of the bands?

>All contesters should know that a majority of radio amateurs are not contesters

I would question that statement these days. However, the issue is not numbers of licensees but band-occupancy. Except for contests and DXpeditions our spectrum is under-utilised. Without them we could lose our frequency allocations.

>contests appear to hog the bands almost every weekend

No, that's a gross exaggeration, a false perception. Only on a few weekends each year are the bands filled with contesters, and that's mostly single-mode.

>Our job is to placate them and make every effort to be reasonable.

Absolutely! But maybe anti-contesters just knee-jerk in fury every time they hear a contester. Contesters are indeed reasonable: leaving WARC bands free of contests; mostly single-mode; often single-band. Are the anti-contesters being 'reasonable'? Live and let live, by all means - but why should 40,000 contesters in CQ contests (for example) give way to a handful of non-contesters? Maybe THEY should 'let live'! Better still, they could join in and enjoy the enormous benefits and fun of contesting!

It could be argued that it is only contesting which keeps the hobby vibrant these days! Things change. Like it or not rag-chewing happens on the internet these days!
73 de Roger/G3SXW.