Setting aside the misplaced sense of entitlement in that letter, there's this from http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2001/08/07/1/
QUOTE A Retrospective Today, bulletins transmitted by W1AW are received with ease throughout the country. The information transmitted covers a broad range of topics such as propagation, Keplerian elements for satellite tracking, news of interest to all hams, and DX information. On Friday UTC, a DX bulletin replaces the regular bulletins. This news is of such great interest to hams in Europe that the 20 and 40 meter rotatable beams are connected in phase with the fixed beams to assure a strong signal to Europe as well as to the continental US. The bulletins are eagerly received and rebroadcast by other clubs and users. In his book 200 Meters & Down Clinton B. DeSoto relates the story of Hiram Percy Maxim's desire to purchase an Audion tube. Unable to send a message to Springfield, Massachusetts, from Hartford, Connecticut--a distance of 30 miles--despite his 1 kW output, Maxim resorted to relaying the request via a ham in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, about halfway between. That experience prompted Maxim to conclude that a national Amateur Radio organization could coordinate the relaying of messages, and thus greatly improve the distances hams could cover. The name for the new organization reflected this purpose--the American Radio Relay League. In December 1915, each member of the newly formed League received in his mail a 16-page magazine called QST--the "December Radio Relay Bulletin." Its stated object was "to maintain the organization of the American Radio Relay League and to keep the amateur wireless operators of the country in constant touch with each other." Today, W1AW continues to provide the service that was the basis for the ARRL's founding nearly 90 years ago. ENDQUOTE Yeah, rotsa ruck getting that changed! It ain't gonna happen! 73 de W4AGA --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, Rik van Riel <r...@...> wrote: > > Due to an unfortunate coincidence, W1AW's CW broadcasts pretty > much wipe out the 80m psk31 sub-band for a significant fraction > of the time. To try and address this, I have sent the following > open letter to W1AW at the ARRL, and also published it on my web > site: http://surriel.com/radio/w1aw-psk-interference > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: W1AW and 80m psk31 interference > Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:04:58 -0400 > From: Rik van Riel > To: w1aw > > To whom it may concern, > > The W1AW broadcasts are a great tradition and a help to some > amateur radio operators, and do not seem to be in the way on > most of the amateur radio bands. > > However, the W1AW CW broadcast on the 80 meter band, on 3581.5 > kHz, is right in the middle of the psk31 sub band. Needless to > say, a high power CW station pretty much wipes out the nearby > psk31 signals, which are typically transmitted at low power. > > While strictly speaking it is legal to transmit CW anywhere > on the band (I will not go into the legality of broadcasting > on the ham bands), I believe we can agree that putting a strong > signal right in the middle of a band segment dedicated to lower > power operation is not what the ARRL's "Considerate Operator's > Frequency Guide"[1] would call considerate. > > Because putting a high power CW broadcast in the middle of the psk31 > sub band (which sees activity whenever there is propagation) is > guaranteed to cause interference to active operators, I hope you > would consider moving the W1AW CW broadcast to a frequency where > interference is merely a possibility and not a guaranteed issue. > > The interference issue is especially severe due to the fact that > the W1AW transmissions are scheduled on an almost daily basis, > several times a day[2], wiping out the 80m psk31 subband for a > significant fraction of the time. > > Since the W1AW CW broadcast is an automatically controlled > transmission, maybe it would be better in the band segment assigned > to automatically controlled data stations (3585-3590). Another good > choice could be 3579.5 kHz, which would put the W1AW broadcast > 500 Hz below the psk31 segment, just like it is on the 17 and > 15 meter bands. > > kind regards, > > Rik van Riel, AB1KW > > [1] http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/conop.html > [2] http://www.arrl.org/w1aw.html#w1awsked >
