On 3/21/2013 3:42 PM, Fred Jensen wrote:
Actually, entire bands have been declared "contest-free" by general agreement among hams, worldwide. 30, 17, and 12 meters have been contest-free from their beginnings in 1979.
Yes, and these bands are EXCELLENT for QRP, rag-chewing, digital modes, and back-packing because the QRM level is usually much lower and a lot can be done with simple antennas.
As to contesting -- the reason the bands are full during contests is that a LOT of hams are using them, and are using them very actively. A major contest will attract thousands of participants worldwide, and the more serious operators will often make several thousand contacts in a weekend with about half that many different stations.
By contrast, if you tune around the bands at times when a contest is NOT going on and count the QSOs, you'll find a tiny fraction of that number. I've got pretty good antennas and a fairly quiet location, and I rarely hear more than a handful of signals at any given time on the CW/digital portions of 160 or 80 at night or on 40 during the day, and perhaps twice that number on 40 at night. Likewise, I often call CQ at times when the bands are open and get no responses.
A major reason that the K3 and KX3 are so good is that the demands of contesters drove much of the design!
73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ 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
