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Re: [CQ-Contest] From VO1DD re Interference with emergency traffic

To: DK Card <weatherdeck@persona.ca>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] From VO1DD re Interference with emergency traffic
From: Steve Lott <lottsphoto@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:20:29 -0600
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
Hmmmm

Sorry you have no respect for all contesters
I am sure there are at least a few contesters that have zero repect for you

However the majority of both groups respect others
and I would hope you will not stereo type all contesters that want to play
two or three times a year in their favorite contest

Many of us do not have leasure time 14/7 365 dyas a year and therefore we
pick a contest or two to play hard in
does that make us bad in your mind ????

By the way should a marintime vessel really rely only on amateur
communications ???

cheers!

Steve
KG5VK


On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 2:12 PM, DK Card <weatherdeck@persona.ca> wrote:

> Good afternoon,
>
> My name is Doug Card, callsign VO1DD.  During the contest period ,
> specifically Sunday on or about 1235Z , our maritime mobile net was
> involved
> with a vessel who had declared an emergency on a frequency of 14.122.50.
> This is a frequency used by the Mississauga maritime mobile net which is on
> 24/7 @ 1245Z.   This vessel had been having difficulty for a few days.
> Conditions continued to deteriorate for this vessel. We were working the
> vessel and taking important information from the captain at the time.  All
> was well until a station involved in the contest came on to the frequency
> and started to call CQ contest.
>
>
>
> I am primarily a CW op and was able to clearly copy the callsign, DD4B ,
> which apparently is a contest station in Bonn , Germany.  I asked on SSB
> for
> him to please respect the situation and to please give us a clear frequency
> to operate.  I asked several times as he continued to call CQ test. His
> signal here was very strong. I switched to CW and still got no response and
> the interference continued.  He continued and started to draw other contest
> stations to the frequency which of course caused even more interference.
>  If
> he heard me and still blatantly ignored the situation he is not a true ham
> operator as far as I'm concerned.  Ham radio exists because of its public
> service element and when a contest interferes with the ability of hams to
> do
> that service , I have serious problems with ham radio being used as a
> contest medium especially if they only "come out to play" for contests as
> apparently many operators do.  I have no problem with that as long as they
> are aware that there are a lot of us out there who spend considerable
> operating time in public service and deserve to be respected as well
>
>
>
> That far up in the band is not primarily a CW portion of 20 mtrs although I
> am well aware that CW is legal anywhere in the ham bands.  Again I am
> primarily a CW op and as such am very careful when operating on CW in the
> phone portion of the band (which does not happen often).  I can appreciate
> that the station likely had his filtering narrowed right down and could not
> read my sideband signal clearly.  However he was technically in the phone
> portion of the band and should have been more aware of the possibility that
> emergency traffic might exist.  Hopefully he was not using a code reader.
>
> I was running 650 watts to the antenna and I am sure he would have been
> able
> to hear me if not so focused on scoring points!.  I am well aware that CW
> contesting is not the way it used to be with keyboards/computers used for
> sending as well as decoding.
>
>
>
> The situation was very serious and could have turned out very badly ending
> in a possible loss of a vessel at sea. For this reason as far as I'm
> concerned , during contests stations should be limited to the CW sub-bands
> so that the possibility of another incident like this occurring is
> minimized
> as most vessels on the high seas use SSB communications.
>
>
>
> This incident has certainly done nothing to enhance my feelings about
> contesting.  I'm always told that contesting makes better operators.  If
> this incident is an example of that , that reasoning holds no credence.
>
>
>
> 73
>
> Doug Card  VO1DD
>
> Hearts Delight ,Newfoundland
>
>
>
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