[Elecraft] Contest QRM

[Jim Brown]

On 4/30/2014 5:40 PM, AG0N-3055 wrote:
> That's not bad, unless it is the weekend for your favorite mode, OR the other
> mode spills out of its normal area of the band and takes over everything in
> sight.  That happens all the time.  And I don't care what you or anyone else
> says, I know and regularly hear, people just pile into areas of the band where
> there is other activity, regular nets, etc.  Contest organizers should designate
> a portion of the band where they will accept valid contacts, and disallow the
> rest.

Gary,

The thing you seem to be missing is that the big contests attract 
several thousand participants, and propagation drives those participants 
into bands that are open. It is rare that more than three bands are open 
at the same time, and often there are only two. Indeed, during sunspot 
minimums, there's often only 20M during the day. With two bands 
available, that means that there are a thousand or more stations trying 
to fit into each sub-band,in addition to the 50-100 non-contesters who 
are active on that band. The 20M phone band is 200 kHz wide, and a very 
clean rig occupies about 3 kHz. That means there's room on 20M SSB for 
about 70 stations to call CQ, and for 83 on 15M SSB. Things are a lot 
better on CW and RTTY, where clean signals burn 300 Hz and dirty ones 
three times that. That means 500 stations can fit into 20M CW, nearly 
700 into 15 CW.

We all have the same right to use those frequencies, on a first come, 
first served basis. Contesters should not be chasing QSOs off a 
frequency, and those wanting to start a QSO must realize that if 
someone's there first, it's their frequency. But I will not QSY because 
someone 10 kHz down the band from me hears me on his el cheapo rig.

73, Jim K9YC