ARRL

Quote by N9HTZ

Quote by W1RFIAdmin

In my experience, contests have a mix of unintentional, irresponsible and intentional QRM. There are many a time when I have been in a ragchew on a contest weekend and suddenly, some contester jumps on frequency and starts calling CQ contest. Probably irresponsible, as if I work him just to find out if he hears me, he generally hears me just fine. He may have heard me just fine, but figured that I was not very strong, so he could just take over.

That's the dark side of contesting.

On the twilight side, in most cases, the contests start long before the Whoop and Holler Gang usually gathers at night, so if the contesters are there first, it is the contester, not the Whooper, that has a "right" to the frequency.

And in a contest, there are a LOT of people trying to operate at the same time, and they will crowd each other quite a bit. When my local park has a special event, the normal solitude and quiet I enjoy, with a few peoole using the park, is changed. I either accept that and participate in the event, or go to a different park with no event, or decide that this is not a good weekend for a park.

On the positive side, contests are an excellent way to make new contacts for awards, or just for the accomplishment. For the CW 'tests, they are a great way to increase your code speed.

And, of course, by design, most major contests do not operate on 30m, 17m or 12m, so there are almost always bands that you can go do that do not have people contesting.

73.
Ed Hare, W1RFI
ARRL Lab

I would like to know if the ARRL plans to give out awards to the LIDS on 17M that parked on top of the today's OMISS net that was in progress and kept right on going even after they were told that the frequency was in use?

Contestors like these are no different than intentional QRMers.

Quote by W1OBJ

There are many CW operators that just don't do contests and are not able to get on the radio unless they either use a WARC band or try to squeeze inbetween the QRM.....Perhaps 10 Khz on each band should be left clear for those who simply enjoy rag chewing with thier friends.....lets face it......contesting has almost a week end activity because of the countless contests that are being held.
Contesting has become a mania.

Quote by W1OBJ

Quote by W1RFIAdmin

So on July 4th, a fellow drove to his local town park to take his usual evening stroll. He was dismayed that the parking lot was full and he couldn't find a place to park his car. He finally found a spot on a side street and walked to his favorite part of the park.

He was dismayed again to find a lot of other people there. Everywhere he tried to walk, there were people walking in front of him and sitting down in the places he usually wanted to stroll. Once in a while, one of the people actually jostled hm a bit as they tried to walk around him. After a bit, one of the people told him that everyone was there to see the fireworks.

He hadn't come to the park to see the fireworks, and he just wanted to walk in the places that he usually walked.

That day, it didn't work out very well and he walked off to a part of the park that was just as pleasant, but that seemed to have a lot fewer people.

None of this justifies the "take over any frequency" approach that some in contesting use, but it also drives home a point that in a common resource, there will be times when a lot of people want to use the resource at once to do something different from what we may want to do.

I look at contests the same way that I see the 4th of July fireworks. If I don't want to watch the fireworks, I stay home and clean my shack.
,
Ed, W1RFI

Ed, they don't have fireworks every week end either.. W1OBJ Jim