[Elecraft] OT: Band congestion

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

-----Original Message-----
Sandy said:
We CW "casual QSO" people do have trouble with RTTY people all over the
place.

Huh?  CW is allowed on all HF frequencies (except 60).  If RY (or
contesting or whatever) is "in the way," just move up the band.

de Doug KR2Q

------------------------

Easily said, but hard in practice when the relatively few non-contest
stations are scattered in tiny pockets over hundreds of KHz of wall-to-wall
contesting that is constantly moving about in waves without regard to the
common frequencies within the bands used daily by nets and other activities.


Of course we need room for contesters. Contesting is popular, but it's only
one Ham activity. 

It's not practical for contesters to make sure they never QRM someone else
when they transmit. It's also not practical to try to use the Ham bands for
normal QSOs and nets, leaving plenty of spectrum around us, when contesters
are roaming the same frequencies, frequently using specialized,
state-of-the-art equipment. 

Contesting itself is being threatened by its own popularity. The more it
gets in the way of other activities the closer we are to more rules limiting
contest activity. Such rules could be demanded by courts representing Hams
who object to being denied their normal use of the bands, or by government
agencies who consider trained Amateur Radio volunteers and our frequency
allocations one of their important resources. 

The Elecraft reflector isn't the place to explore the options, but it is an
issue I hope we handle ourselves through our national Amateur Radio
organizations rather than waiting for someone else to do it for us. 

Ron AC7AC