[Elecraft] Annoying contests

[Erik Basilier]

Contests can be great fun (when one has time for them).

However, if I want a regular qso, I usually find even the high end of the cw
bands to be too crowded in the case of major contests.

I have to argue against letting contests take over the entire non-WARC
bands, for one reason only: Emergency communications.

Although 30m is often good for low power operation, that is not always the
case, and not every portable rig covers it.

Quite often in portable operation only a single band works well enough that
you can make a contact with low power and a mediocre antenna; that band is
very often not a WARC band.

Here is an idea: Carve out a section of each non-WARC band, for a given
contest, where contest operation is not allowed. It would have to be a
section where most licensees are allowed to operate, in most countries. If
the contest organizer receives multiple reports saying that a contest
participant operated in the non-contest window, that participant would be
penalized.

There could be multiple windows carved out in a given contest, to satisfy
different license classes and countries. The contests would be more crowded?
Yes, but the non-contest windows could be small, and crowding in contests
seems to drive great improvements in equipment to compensate. 

WARC bands deserve more use, and it would truly make sense to conduct some
nets there.

Flame away!

 

73,

Erik K7TV

 

>snip

>The high end of the CW portion of the bands aren't that crowded.

>And there's the WARC bands sitting there doing almost nothing!!!

>snip

> 

>Larry/K2GN - http://k2gn.com