Jim,
Early on, the general agreement was that the ARRL would not sponsor
contests on the WARC bands, and for the most part all other sponsors
have abided by that agreement as well. As a (former) die-hard
contester I've often wished we could have some small and/or short
contests on those bands.
There seems to be plenty of bands/frequencies, for all modes, available
on HF. If, for example, on 1 Saturday night per year, a 5 or 6 hour
contest were held on the 30 meter band, a number of fellows would build
antennas, test them out before hand, develop an interest in that band
for general usage, and the like. Overall then, there would be MORE
OPERATING during the 99.9% of the time there were no contests. (Say
6 hours out of 8760 hours/year is less that 1/10 of 1% of the total
time available in a given year).
Thus, why wouldn't the non-contest crowd SUPPORT generating some
additional QSO possibilities....during the time when there were no
contests on the band....on 30 meters by working ANY OTHER HF BAND
during that 6 hour period?? Even a 24 hour contest would represent
less that 0.3% of the annual available time.
I understand how the non-contesters feel about contests....I don't
like SSTV, and I don't like nets, and I don't like BSers in the globally
recognized DX frequencies, and I don't like Spanish Speaking SSB on the
bottom of 40 meters in the early mornings local time, and I don't like
SSB from non-hams in the 10 meter CW band, and I don't like fishing
sono-buoys on ham frequencies (I DO like to fish, though), etc. Those
activities may contribute so SOMEONE's activity, but not mine.
That said though, there must be some room for a small amount of activity
that isn't completely compatible with those who like to operate the
WARC bands when they have hamming time available.
I do not mean this question to be a smart-alec question, but can you
tell us how many hours you operate 30 meters per year, out of the
8760 yearly hours available. If, for example, you operated on 30
meters a total of 8 hours per week, that would represent less than
5% of the available time.
The point is....we must 'live & let live' on those bands so far as I
am concerned.
73
Dale K5MM
At 11:34 AM 1/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
>With all due respect to those who wish contesting activities to raid our
>cherished warc bands, I for one hope that we can keep the warc bands
>free from the qrm of contesting. Surely we non-contestors should have a
>small refuge from contesting.
>
>This message is not to be viewed as anti-contesting, just a statement
>that there are many of us who cherish the warc bands and hope to keep
>them as they are...
>
>73 and gud dx and contesting to all in 1998 !!!!!!!!
>
>de Jim K4PYT
>
>
>
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