Time To Change The Contest Rules

Wait until the flood gates open with the "new" HF-ers with no contest experience, no HF experience attempt to wade through the turbolent waters! What chaos!

Go to CW you say?
If there isn't any CW testing required, the only ones on CW will be those already there!

Go to WARC? One WARC band is CW, same argument again.
Other WARC Bands? 12 meters is useless many hours of the day. 17 is usefull, but that won't work if everyone goes there!

Personally, I do contest, but not to the extent some do. Limiting bandwidth won't harm anyone. Sure, it will be crowded, but then again, that is what contests do to start with! ARRL hasn't changed any contest rules or limitations for years. It is about time they do start looking at it instead of looking for methods to increase "growth" (membership) by sliding individuals into higher license classes and taking away CW spectrum from those that use it.

Another method would be to spread out the contests over wider periods of time. How about combining them? You have the ARRL SSB contest, why not combine with CW WW? Do we need two nearly identical contests?

I think that many of the recommendations will fall onto deaf ears however, just like the comments against eliminating CW testing, new entry level (had that before), etc.

 

As a contestman I'll also say "go to WARC",or if the contest is on SSB,why don't you try CW or other modes?
73,de LZ4UU

As a former contester, I feel both ashamed and embarrassed to admit that I ever had participitated. I run a rig that is set up as a 24/7 sstv station that I post the received pictures as I recieve them here in Phoenix. The QRM and contesters transmitting directly on or very near the reserved frequency (by the ITU and in a gentleman's agreement) that I had to shut down the receiver and stop posting new pictures. Forget sending...........and I run a 600 watt amp. Heaven forbid I would like to chat with a friend or get a picture from a station that isn't running power.

Would you like me to QSY to another frequency? I will.........but you should know that SSTV carries about twice as far as voice.......imagine if all of the SSTV stations were to QSY to our own frequencys. No communications would work. SSTV OR VOICE!!!

When I have confronted a station, and mentioned to them that the frequency they were on was used for SSTV, many times I have got responses like..."I had the freq first! or you were not using the frequency! This problem needs to be put to a halt.

I know this much, I will not be renewing to the ARRL, and will not resubscribe to CQ mag. Contesting has gone way too far and I will not be part of any institutuion that furthers or promotes contests. Hit 'em in the wallet guys.

I can't think of a weekend in the past few months that I have not had a contester interfere with a QSO.

Contesters, I understand the problems with band congestion ( I had it too), BUT this does not give you the right to interfere. Period! Please stay clear of 14.230 by NOT transmitting within the range of 14.225 thru 14.238. 14.233 is used for digital SSTV.

Just because you don't know what the sound that is that is on or near that frequency is, WE ARE NOT BEING RUDE OR SENDING SOUND EFFECTS, WE ARE USING THE FREQUENCY.

If you have never seen a SSTV photograph that has been sent or received, you can check out my website at the link posted here.

I am sure that my E-mail will fill up, but I would like to remind everyone to Please keep your comments respectfull as I have tried to do for you.

Please be as kind to your fellow ham as you would to your family. That's all we ask. We all need to stick together, or we may all lose the frequencys that we all love.

Richard Bough
N7QH
Phoenix, AZ.
N7QH's LIVE SSTV CAM AND LINKS

 

WOW! The new QRZ.com IS WORKING! I was about ready to through up my hands and write one line "Give me a brake" but Tom, that was well thought out and well said. I do have to disagree just a bit though as a contester. You say that 95% of the hams have to vacate for the 5% of non-contesters. I got into contesting becouse the bands are much more active on contest weekends. If it were only 5%, how could they affect the normal 95%. That just does not make sense. Lets face it, there just is A LOT of contesters.

Other than that, I am all for give and take and some compromise if it is well thought out. But just take into consideration also that this is only a "REAL" problem during the "BIG ONES". Most small contests normally hover around "ONE" Freq and rarely do you do well moving from that location. So its sort of a compromise already in that its not "EVERY" weekend that the QRM is bad enough to make an issue out of it. The irony of it all is that the guys that tend to be a problem do it becouse they too get QRM'ed and kicked from freq to freq every contest and get a bit too emotional. I never had that problem with my small vertical and 100 watts. HIHI I just get kicked around anyways and it makes it a challange. HIHI.

Good luck to your proposal Tom and thanks for keeping it well thought even though I disagree a bit. I too think it may fall upon deaf ears.


Aloha,
Thomas
KH6OO
http://kh6oo.uberstorm.net

 

And I just noticed your post Rich. Aloha, long time no hear. I was just setting up for SSTV again. Hope to see you on soon.

P.S. Got the CD and loved it.

KH6OO
Thomas

 

A lot of the problem is LIDs running "over" the legal limit in power with their mic gain and proc amps cranked up so as to splatter in hopes that other stations will hear them. Limit operating bandwidth to 2 khz would go a long ways to solving some of the problems during contesting.

Me, well, I just shut down.

George

 

I don't do contests--I just don't enjoy sitting in my shack for hours on end to see how many contacts I can make.  Seems like work to me.  Anyway, often times, on the weekends, I do get annoyed with so many contests.  I do enjoy certain "Special Event" stations to contact from time-to-time.  My interest lies in CW & even there it's very, very crowded on contest weekends.
I can, however, go to 30 or 17 meters to have some quiet QSOs with non contesters.  
Yes, there are propbably too many contests but I can't in good faith claim to have all the answers.  I must, however, quote that wise American sage, who some years ago said this:  "Why can't we all just get along?" ------- Rodney King.
As my first grade Sunday School teacher told me: "Ya'll have a good time & play nice with one another!"
73,  Ken - KG4LLQ

 

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wa6bar @ Mar. 28 2004,15:51)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">A lot of the problem is LIDs running "over" the legal limit in power with their mic gain and proc amps cranked up so as to splatter in hopes that other stations will hear them. Limit operating bandwidth to 2 khz would go a long ways to solving some of the problems during contesting.

Me, well, I just shut down.

George [/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>


I work a few hours for some contests.  I agree with the above statement that cleaning up some signals would help.  The one side is that at least the amateur community is active on the frequencies during a contest.  To eliminate them would reduce the use of the bands and possibily lose space to other services.  

On the other side, if only people would listen before yelling CQ on any frequency at anytime.  I'm amazed at even during non contest times how much people are overzealous to jump on a frequencyand call while others are close by or on freq.

However, if we can't self-police, then maybe the contest organizers may have to make the rules tighter.

73
Greg

 

N7QH's LIVE SSTV CAM AND LINKS

SORRY GUYS.......HAD A TYPO IN LINK POSTED EARLIER.

 

Greetings again, All,

Tom brings up a number of very valid points.  I'm just a "dabbler" in contests, and work them mostly to chase the rare DX that is often hidden there.

It would certainly be nice if contest sponsors would at least make an effort to reign in some of the bandwidth for these marathons on some of the major bands.  This would allow the non-contest folks to have a bit of (quiet) operating room to continue their routines (nets, etc.) during contest weekends.  

After all, most municipalities don't allow drag racing on city streets, so why should contesters be encouraged to "race" on the public airwaves wherever and whenever they choose?  

That said, it seems to me that what contesters really need is a "racetrack" of sorts that they can call their own.  However, building the "racetrack" by asking for yet more rules from the FCC isn't the answer, either. The solution, I'm afraid, must come from within Amateur Radio.  That's us, folks!

I also like the idea of combining some of the contests.  If you look at the "winners" in these things, it seems to be the same people doing it over and over again.  However, those operators who have an urgent need to have their egos constantly stroked by winning contest after contest (you know, the "mine is bigger than yours" crowd) may not much like this idea, either.

The bottom line is that it all comes back to good operating practice.  Maybe if Mr. Hollingsworth were to pay a bit more attention during contest weekends and issue a few more stiff fines for clearly boorish (if not outright illegal) operating behavior, the word just might start getting around....

73,

Keith
VA3KSF/KB1SF

 

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wa6bar @ Mar. 28 2004,13:51)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">A lot of the problem is LIDs running "over" the legal limit in power with their mic gain and proc amps cranked up so as to splatter in hopes that other stations will hear them. Limit operating bandwidth to 2 khz would go a long ways to solving some of the problems during contesting.

Me, well, I just shut down.

George [/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
This is one of the best ideas I've heard in a long time

 

I wish the icon could show 2 thumbs up I am not anti contest, but I have always thought that contesting should be somewhat limited.

I LOVE Field Day and often enjoy helping contesters in other contest get a point or two, although since I don't send in a log sheet, I am probably doing them more harm than good.

Limiting the acontest to a certain portion of each band sounds like a good idea, but since we all have our own pet portions of a particular band that would be hard to do.

No..... here is what I would like to see concerning contests. Since contests can spark interest in the hobby and has the potential of being useful if studies of propagation and determining how well your antenna system really works, I think it should go like this...

1. if a contester runs more than 300 watts, each contact counts as 1/4 of a point.

2. The converse is also true. Every contest contact using less that 100 watts counts as 3 or four points

3. If a contester has a log filled with 5/9 signal reports. they are automaticly disqualified. This whole bit of giving a 5/9 (or other such similar standard report) even though the other guy had to repeat his/her call 7 times is just stupid. Signal reports should be true in order to truely gage the conditions of the bands and let the contesters know just how well their rigs are really doing.

4. Every conplaint filed against an individual contester for "deliberately" causing interfearence with an pre-existing, non contest, qso results in a minus 300 points.


In short... contesting should stress ABOVE ALL, good operating procedures and good hammenship. If this were done... contest organizers and contesters alike, would go a long way in greating goodwill with their fellow hams who are not enthusiastic about contesting.

I am mostly a CW op now because of what I see as way too much poor hamming on the phone bands. I feel that contests as they are now set up, only encourage bad hamming practices.

As a code op, I have often thought that I would like to work a cw contest but they are all very high speed. For fun, I would like to see some CW contests set up that encourage lower speeds. Just a thought

73 Minton n0nwo

 

I remember Ann Landers running arguments on whether toilet seats should be left up or down. I think Amateur Radio on contest weekends has the same problem. During the week there is sufficient band space to permit many kinds of operation and conflicts are rare except for those intentionally created. Those who enjoy "radio sport" show up on the weekend for whatever the event may be. As long as they don't conflict with emergency traffic, they have as much right to the band as anyone. The are usually restricted by band or mode. The suggestion that others use available alternatives is a reasonable suggestion. Who should move to accomidate the higher demand for the bands? The answer is all of us. We are not fixed channel and have many knobs on our radios. High demand weekends should encourage us to use our frequency/mode flexibility.

To think that our operation or preferred way of enjoying the hobby is more important than others is vanity.
73,

 

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ve3ii @ Mar. 27 2004,12:05)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Let’s face it; the amateur bands are very crowded these days. The present structure of the major contests is antiquated and was conceived years ago when the bands were not so crowded. The rules need to be reviewed and updated to present standards.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
You noticed?

Yet it seems there is this push to recruit the entire world into ham radio, and make it easier and easier for even those with minimal interest to become Extra (expert) class hams! Which is it? Too many? Or too few? Jammed bands? Or empty space? Unused HF? Or too crowded to be useful?

Yeah, more hams, please. Make it faster, easier, simpler and get 'em on the air and adding to the (non-existent?) problem.

Enjoy

 

To me it seems like just about anyone or their cousin can start up a contest without any rules to follow. Maybe there should be a method to the madness.. but then again, the only contesting I do is Skywarn Recog. Day and sometimes I rack up 10-20 contacts on various other contests as well. I try not to be a "professional" amateur.

Amazingly enough, I have less trouble with contests than I do the bastard ragchewers who tend to claim that they "own" the frequency. All in all, what needs to be done is the thing that is least likely to happen; and that is the need for more benevolent operators that know how to share the limited space we are priviledged to have. I learned how to share when I was in kindergarten...and I haven't forgotten since.

"Is the frequency in use?" "I say again, is the frequency in use..."

See how easy that is?

 

I've listened in on contests; never understood why anyone would do that. Although field day and some special events are kind of fun.
But mostly, is seems like the time when I have a few moments to enjoy the hobby there is a contest, the bands are jammed with babble and I just shut the rig down and forget about it. There is certainly room for impovement.

KD5PSH