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 ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
