[CW] A modest proposal

[David J. Ring, Jr.]

Jim,

This was true one upon a time!  Commercial stations operate on Amateur
frequencies (one station still does, so I can't use the past tense.)

Also before amateurs were given 200 meters and down, they operated on longer
wavelengths which had commercial stations on them.

In the mid-1980s I came on the air using my amateur callsign and told a W4
to QRT because I was trying to copy a message from Kingston (Jamaica) Radio
which used a 3518 kHz (I believe) frequency as its MF assigned frequency.  I
could copy him.  I told him that the other station had traffic for me.

I guess Kingston Radio should have gotten a receiver on their transmitter
frequency and said QRT QRT.

In the middle 90s there was a few uses of the calling frequency for
diplomatic use that is on the 75 meter band.  I heard St. Pierre answer our
State Department there several times.  I would suspect this is gone.

73

DR
----- Original Message -----
You will sometimes here tha counterargument that the requirement was so that
hams could understand other services telling them to move or shut down. But
 that argument is specious.