I am not a real strong supporter of contests, but it seems to appeal to the highly competitive type of people. But then I am not into DXing either which is closely related.
But is there any kind of legal restraint on using the WARC bands for contesting? While most groups have indicated that they won't support such activities, would that really stop others? When I was first licensed in 1963 and joined ARRL to get QST, I did not really comprehend what was going on with contesting. It was not until I was relicensed in 1980 that I started to pay more attention to the various subsets of amateur radio. I was quite stunned to find out that grown adults will literally spend their entire weekend at a fixed operating position. My reaction was, "this can't be true, people would never do such a thing." But I was wrong and they do. I have operated for an hour or two in a few contests as it can help some of your operating skills. And I have a rare prefix, so even DX stations tend to have an interest during the WPX contest:). Field Day finds me helping to set up and even operating an hour or two, but my interest is more in being able to provide emergency communication. (Yes, it is officially an "operating event," but depending upon who participates, it is a contest to them). Now, the comment about QRSS is a good case in point of having some sub specialty interest that most of us don't even know anything about and will likely never even operate. I often will operate digital modes just above the PSK31 watering holes on 80, 40, and 20. And of course keep within the band and emission types permitted by my license. Other than that, how could anyone expect someone using a shared band to know any other special mode location? I have absolutely no idea about any special frequencies for QRSS or any other modes on 30 meters. If you asked me for where ALE soundings were made, I would have no idea, same thing for narrow automated stations who can operate wherever they wish to operate in the text data portions. The one exception is that I do expect all radio amateurs to realize that we have certain spot frequencies for NBEMS and ALE400 that they should always leave clear for the users of those modes;-) The main area that I operate digital modes on 30 meters is typically around 10.135 to 10.145. I know that there are packet stations toward the top of the band and also automated stations in the 10.140 to 10.150 area and I make very sure that I keep well away from the middle of the band due to the non radio amateur digital station and sometimes number stations that have precedence over our activities. Finally, I would have to say that here in the northern midwest part of the U.S., as long as 30 meters is open, there always seems to be stations operating. Generally, a few CW stations, sometimes a dozen or so, and up around 10.140 (like right now at about 1:30 in the afternoon) there is at least one PSK31 station, several Pactor, and some packet up high. 73, Rick, KV9U Sholto Fisher wrote: > Hi Guys, > > What is the actual objection? is it you worry there will be some rule > change in the future to allow WARC band contesting? You know there are > other groups who promote the use of 30m for events too (and have done so > for some time) including the FISTS club "WARC Band Challenge" - they > even use a scoring system for it. > > What about RTTY or CW DX on 30m? there are many times that DX appears > and the whole band is concentrated on working them regardless of the > other users. This may not be a "contest" but it sure sounds like one. > > I don't think a digimode QRP Weekend is going to cause any problems to > anybody as long as we avoid the QRSS segment which is the normal rule > anyway. Realistically we will only be using frequencies from say 10.137 > to 10.142, 5KHz (less the QRSS segment) in total. This is surely not a > problem for anyone. > > As long as there is no required exchange, scoring system, goal of > working as many people as possible I really don't see how you can call > it a contest. If anything it will be a very interesting scientific study > of which digimodes work at these levels and which don't. How can that be > a bad thing? > > 73, Sholto > KE7HPV. > > ------------------------------------ Announce your digital presence via our Interactive Sked Page at http://www.obriensweb.com/sked Check our other Yahoo Groups.... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxlist/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/contesting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
