Doug,
Was the radio on the ship crystal controlled?
If so, there was a problem. If the radio actually had a VFO, did you ever
consider tuning around (i.e. higher in the band) to find a clear frequency,
and ask the ship to QSY to that clear frequency?
If your communication had been interrupted by a broadcast station firing up
on frequency (as might be common on 40 meters), would you have given up?
Last weekend were the two busiest days of the year on the HF CW bands,
which is why you ran into so much CW activity in that part of the band. Had
DD4B moved off the frequency, you likely in a few minutes would have had
another of the thousands of hams taking part in the CQWW DX contest show up on
frequency, unaware of the situation, and you would have had to go though the
same process to get him to move. And then again and again.
I appreciate that you at least had a real issue at hand, unlike other nets
on 20 SSB that think it necessary to tie up a frequency for hours just in
case something might happen. But it sounds as if some flexibility on your
part would have let you maintain communication with the vessel in distress,
irrespective on the contest activity on the band that day.
73 - Jim K8MR
In a message dated 11/30/2010 4:23:19 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
weatherdeck@persona.ca writes:
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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