[NLRS] HF Contesting
S. Earl Jarosh
earl at jarosh.org
Thu Nov 1 12:39:35 EDT 2012
It does seem that as soon as a contest starts on HF that everyone becomes
stupid and forgets that this is a service hobby with a significant valuable
set of frequencies entrusted to us for real-time on the spot emergency setup
when needed. Have we forgot that this was to create a valuable pool of
trained operators to be called upon for times of emergency, to further the
electronic arts, and create INTERNATIONAL good will by living and breathing
our art every day with fewer restrictions to the air and our building art.
All things that we do advance that cause including field day and contests,
but contests need to respect boundaries. The underlying theme is still
EMERGENCY SERVICE. We are suppose to be grown-ups here; we could loose this
privilege in a heart beat. We all know the communication failures of FEMA,
do you suppose they could do better with our frequencies? Every Ham needs
to back and read 97.1 in the FCC rules. I will be the first one to be a
patriot, USA number 1, and damn the rest of the world for many number of
reasons. I am not the biggest supporter of the UN in it current form and
care less about what the ITU says. This is just plain common sense and
should not require another rule or law. It does seem that the rest of the
world needed this rule due to lack of common courtesy but we as US amateurs
are better than that and should recognized that 14.300 is an important
maritime communication frequency as most of the world is covered by water
and a lot of our US citizens are on that water in any given time. Sat
phones are expensive, MM commercial rigs are expensive and just because you
own a sailboat doesn't mean you can afford the Sat phone and subscription.
Even a 14.300 backup system needs to be tested on an ongoing basis to be
sure it will work in a emergency (i.e. daily net). I also like the idea
that if I was doing another bike ride through Canada where there are areas
of no communication or backpacking in the mountains, I could go to 14.300
and have a chance of contacting someone with my FT817 that goes with me.
Even CB with only 40 channels has an emergency channel and it continually
confuses me way we have such a problem as adults with all the spectrum that
we have designating 14.300 as respected MM "go to" Net and ER frequency.
To deal with an emergency you have to have someone monitoring. You can't
monitor the entire amateur spectrum. That is why you need a "go to" non-QRM
frequency where there is likely to be someone listening anytime. Why is
this such a hard concept or have US HF contesters become that selfish?
I guess a contest rule maybe only way to possibly fix this.
S. Earl Jarosh, N0HZ
V.P. of Information Technology
Money Centers of America, Inc. - I.T. Dept
1432 Quebec Ave N
Golden Valley, MN 55427
Cell: 612.868.1313
Off: 763.545.3275
Fax: 763.546.7897
earl at moneycenters.com
www.moneycenters.com
-----Original Message-----
From: nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of tom ring
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 9:14 PM
To: Nlrs at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [NLRS] HF Contesting
I found this as the first entry in my search. It seems pretty clear it's
been assigned as a worldwide emergency frequency. Yes US operators can
ignore it.
And also that it's clear that any sociopath will ignore it.
http://forums.qrz.com/archive/index.php/t-339946.html
And regarding your comment on other means of communication, sometimes things
fail or elements of the system are out of range when you need them. And
some people only have amateur radio. Failbacks are a good thing. Hope you
never need one.
tom
K0TAR
On 31 Oct 2012 at 17:48, Ray J wrote:
>
>
> Why should the Maritime Mobile net be solely entitled to that frequency?
> That is what this is about, isn't it? FCC has said again and again no
> groups or organizations are entitled to operate on any one set frequency..
> If you are in a ocean going vessel you should have sat phone or a
> real marine radio.. The The Maritime Mobile Service Network has been
> trying to ram rod this down peoples throat for years that 14.300 is
> entirely there's, now they have the ITU and radio manufactures
> joining in with them..
>
> A search on Google didn't find any official government statement
> that 14.300 is a emergency frequency.. the ITU is not a usa
> governmental unit.. it's United Nations organization.. In the USA..
> We answer to the FCC, who say nothing about 14.300 as a off limits
> emergency frequency.. Until that changes, this problem is going to
> continue
>
> But yes... NO.. people should Ever be interfering with "real"
> emergency traffic..
>
> W9Ray
>
>
> On 10/30/2012 8:35 PM, tom ring wrote:
> >
> >
> > The first thing I have to say is that I have taken a couple days to
> > calm down from how I felt this weekend. Because if I hadn't you all
> > would likely have stopped reading by now.
> >
> > There are a number of members that are serious HF contesters as well
> > as the normal, for here, VHF and up. I'm asking maybe for advice or
> > solutions or maybe something else.
> >
> > This weekend while Sandy was hitting the east coast there were also
> > a lot of ships out there that depend on the Maritime Mobile Service
> > Net and it's associated nets for weather reports and a place to call for
help.
> >
> > There was a contest this weekend. I have no idea who ran it, nor
> > does it matter. Except for the fact that contestants in all
> > contests repeatedly transmit on top of or within 2.5 KHz of the net.
> > Many refuse to leave or ignored repeated calls to leave from
> > stations that I am absolutely sure they can hear. These operators
> > who are idiots, lids, sociopaths and especially not amateur radio
> > operators as described in the part of the rules where we are described
as a service, were endangering peoples lives. And didn't care a bit.
> > Even when told they were doing it. I am much less upset now than
> > I was then, but I am still very very upset. Obviously. (I edited
> > out quite a few things after reviewing the previous paragraph.)
> >
> > I am asking for those of you with connections to use them to stop this.
> >
> > First 14.300 is an ITU internationally designated emergency
> > frequency. That means to me that you aren't supposed to contest
> > there. It may not exactly state that, but it seems to be in the spirit
of the designation.
> >
> > If the contest organizers would state something like "No contestant
> > shall transmit with a carrier point frequency within 3 KHz of any
> > designated emergency frequency which shall include 14.300, xx.xxx,
> > etc. The penalty for the first offense will be banning from the
> > current contest results and a second offense ....". Or whatever is
> > appropriate but it had better be harsh as the people doing this don't
seem to give a rat rear for anyone but themselves.
> >
> > I would love to hear thoughts and other solutions.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > tom
> > K0TAR
> >
> > -----------------------------------------
> > Tom Ring K0TAR, ex-WA2PHW EN34hx
> > taring at taring.org
> >
> > What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from
> > realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common
> > laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad.
> > - Dave Barry
> > -----------------------------------------
> >
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-----------------------------------------
Tom Ring K0TAR, ex-WA2PHW EN34hx
taring at taring.org
What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from realistic
simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can
assume it will be pretty bad.
- Dave Barry
-----------------------------------------
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