While I truly admire the accomplishments of our friends to the north and
their contributions to our sport, I strongly disagree with some of the
comments. Sitting down on a frequency that is clearly being used by someone,
with the intent of bullying them out of it, is clearly wrong in my mind and
outside the bounds of good sportsmanship. Every sport, including those that
permit full contact, have some limit on what can be done in the name of
safety, sportsmanship, and enjoyment of the sport.
I will grant you that at times we've all had battles with someone
adjacent to us but I view that a little differently. For example, this past
weekend myself and one of the top SOAB guys starting rubbing elbows on 20
meters. I had been there for awhile and he might have been as well. He tried
a number of things to make my existence miserable and to persuade me to
leave. However, my rate was good and even started to increase at one point
so I put up with it and I think he finally qsy'd. To me that's part of the
game. On the flip side, several years ago at the start of CQWW CW on 40
meters at W3LPL, one of the other multi-multi's dropped dead on the
frequency I had started on, began calling CQ, and would not leave. As far
as I was concerned, it was rotten thing to do and it really
displayed a lack of operating skill and sportsmanship.
Finally, this multiplier frequency hopping is not limited to SO2R by any
means. It's done with a single radio, M/S, M/2, and M/M. At W3LPL's, which
is where I now spend ARRL CW weekends, we have two radios per band fed into
a single amp. One is typically used for running stations and the other to
pick up new Q's and work multipliers. I can't tell you how many times while
manning the run station, I've told the guy next to me hurry or we're going
to lose our run frequency. In my mind if we're up the band chasing a
multiplier and someone hops on the run frequency while I'm locked out
because the other transmitter is on the air, then we stand a good chance of
losing that frequency and we'll have to move. In most cases, we'll come back
to the multiplier or new QSO later rather than lose the frequency. The hard
cores types out there may think I'm too soft with that approach but my
response would be to look at the results, this years ARRL CW for example,
and I think you'll see there's still room for a little civility while
remaining highly competitive.
73
Ken K4ZW
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