Hi,
At the risk of defending the indefensible, and with respect to the
Boston marathon example, a few thoughts:
1. Is it wrong for a hockey player to take the puck from an opponent? No.
2. How does one steal a frequency? By wilful interference, prohibited by
most countries' laws and therefore inherently contrary to contest rules.
3. How often is a frequency truly, wilfully stolen? I would think
that the majority of "stolen" frequencies are the result of:
Propagation changes that result in stations who couldn't previously
hear each other suddenly aware of each other's existence and
suspicious of predatory behaviour.
Differing opinions on required bandwidth. The op with the HW-101 is
going to feel a whole lot more threatened by interlopers than the
guy with an IC756 PRO. In this case, I think the guy with the HW-101
just has to recognize the limitations of his receiver and live with it.
OOOOPS! I was once running in the ARRL 10 when all of a sudden, a
K6 accuses me of trying to steal his frequency. I toughed it out
and he went away. It wasn't until later I realized I had bumped
the tuning knob. F-LOCK is my friend now.
"Hey, I was calling CQ here a minute ago. Go away!" Sorry, part of the
deal of running is you must defend your frequency. Give it up for
the slightest amount of time and your right to call it your
frequency is toast.
So what does this all mean? To me, it means this: Contesting is by its
nature competition and the guys who find CQ frequencies will
generally do better than those who don't. Stealing a frequency by
capitalizing on another's inattentiveness is just plain good operating.
Stealing a frequency by deliberately interfering with its rightful
owner until he goes away is unlawful. Period.
My hope would be that the latter is, if not rare, at least not
prevalent. Cut the guy some slack. Ask yourself, are my filters
narrow enough? Is it HIS fault if they aren't? Did prop change?
How productive is this frequency anyway? If it's not very, this
may be a good incentive to find a more productive one.
73, kelly
ve4xt
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