No Flex Net Today

Dudley-WA5QPZ

No Flex Net due to contest!    And next weekend is start of Daylight savings,   remember that the Flex Net meets or tries to meet every weekend at 2 PM Eastern,  1 PM Central ,(that's 11 AM for you left coasters)   local times not GMT (but that will be 1800Z)   on 14.329 MHz .     But you can also see the podcast  on     http://original.livestream.com/wa5qpz  
Listen and checking via EchoLink,   Node 79336 or WA5QPZ
and also on  CQ100 via  http://qsonet.com/   at 14.329   also

KF4HR

I would like to see contesting activities limited to a portion of each contesting band, so other activities could [also] take place. 

Wayne

Just move nets to non contest bands its simple.

KS0CW

shift to non contesting band during contents seems like a solution thats  
within reach...

Dudley-WA5QPZ

Problem is there is not suppose to be nets there either..  

Bob N0IS

Dudley,

Seems like your the only guy here that knows the rules.

Bob, N0IS

Ria

Had fun in the contest. SOAB Unlimited LP. Flex has my PGXL for upgrades as noted in the last update from Gerald so I ran as LP. Hopefully I'll see y'all on the net next week.

Mark K1LSB

..unless other bands are dead..

KF4HR

Each to their own, but HF Contesting bores me to tears, so yes, I do shift to the non-contest bands during contests, but many times they're dead at night.

I'd like to see all contesting moved to 50mhz and above (Terrestrial, MS, EME, etc).  Create real challenges and more activity on the higher frequencies.
 

Ria

Contesting is a multifaceted game. There are many events above 50MHz. In fact, ARRL alone has three major VHF contests per year. 

Bob N0IS

Ralph P.,

The contest was a SSB contest.  And the problem with you using the other portion of the bands was what?  CW?  Phase Shift Keying? ATV? Many Joe Taylor Digital modes. AM. RTTY.  Seems to me that there was a lot of unused low band amateur frequencies available over the weekend.

Bob, N0IS  

Larry Williamson

I tried to get on the digital modes (20 meters)--- there was contesters above me, below me, under me and on top of me. I shut the rig off, when outside and played with the cows and sheep for the rest of the weekend.
 

Larry Williamson

There is a OMISS worked all states net on
17m 1900z ---> 18.158 MHz (+/- 7 kHz)Sat & Sun *

KF4HR

"The contest was a SSB contest.  And the problem with you using the other portion of the bands was what?"

Bob, please note the title of this post.  Not to mention every other Net and other on-the-air activity that becomes cancelled (or is interfered with), due to contesting.  As popular as Contesting is, it's still the minority of hams who engage in this activity, while the majority have to deal with the chaos.

While I don't like HF contesting, I'm not against it.  But I do think the activity could be better managed by limiting contesting to certain band segments, so other on-the-air activities need not be cancelled.  Limiting contest frequencies would also provide more of a challenge to those that enjoy engaging in Contesting.

Ria

Limiting contesting to band segments has been tried, but what happens is that you have nets who MUST be on a certain frequency fire up and QRM and then complain about contesting. So it doesn't work all that well. That said, some like WAE do have contest preferred segments, but they are less loaded than the major contests.

Major phone contests are:
CQWW 
ARRL DX
Russian DX contest
CQWW WPX contest

So as we see here the really major contests are only a few times per year, so they are really a minor inconvenience when taken overall. The rest of the year the HF bands are less occupied. 

  As popular as Contesting is, it's still the minority of hams who engage in this activity

If that was true, then the bands would not be crowded during a contest. Don't count licensees. Count HF users. HF users who contest outnumber HF users who run nets, by a great margin. HF contesters are on only a few times per year. Nets are on every week, every day or even a few times per day. More unique callsigns are active during contest weekends than other times. They vastly outnumber nets and rag chews by a huge margin.

Contesting is very good for the hobby. It encourages people to get on, show activity, activate different places, and generally have a good time. It encourages advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art. And apart from 24-48 hours a few weekends per year we largely leave the HF bands alone. 

BTW in DX contests the following phone segments of the bands are still largely unoccupied:

All of 40 meters during US daytime and 7200-7300 at night
All of 80 meters during US daytime and 3800-4000 at night
All WARC bands (yes, no nets there but ragchews and round tables can still happen)
Much of 160 meters, especially above 1900

Only 20 meters seems to be fully saturated. But 20 seems to be awful for domestic nets. Even the flex net gives me difficulty because I can't hear half of the participants.

I help run a weekly net as a NCS and relay. Sometimes our net gets canceled - because of propagation and other things. Even due to contesting, sometimes because our net participants prefer to work the contest instead. No big deal. It's not like it's emergency or priority traffic or anything. 

Dudley-WA5QPZ

Ria is correct, there is always another day for the nets, or move off frequency..  Just have to be flexible, the nets will live on to another day ..  

Ria

Paul - in Europe it is indeed different. The flex net seems US centric though. But as I said, European contests have been following contest preferred segments for some time now. 

N6OIL

I'll say this if your not a contester but love to chase DXCC what a great way to grab some fills. Yes, you might have to fight a pileup, but if it were easy everyone would do it. I made a whopping 6 contacts this last weekend to grab some countries that I didn't have in my logs plus my weekend was super busy so no time to play. 

Ria

Here is the R1 band plan:

http://iaru-r1.org/images/Vienna/IARU_REGION_1_HF_BAND_PLAN__2016_v2.pdf

You can clearly see the contest preferred segments in there. Many European contests are following them now. 

There are also segments where US operators simply cannot operate due to FCC rules - SSB from 7000-7125, 14000-14150, 21000-21200, etc etc. These are pretty clear during even the big international DX contests. So there is potential room for European ops to operate. 

Ria

Contest sponsors are now disqualifying entries that do that. So the contest preferred segments have to be adhered to. DARC is enforcing it for the WAE contest I know.

See also the rules for UKEI DX contest - 

http://www.ukeicc.com/which-contest/uk-ei-dx-contest-rules

Contest-preferred segments must be observed - on 80m and 20m these are  :  CW   3510-3560 kHz, 14000-14060 kHz                                                                                                                                     SSB   3600-3650 kHz, 3700-3800 kHz, 14125-14300 kHz.

So UKEI, IRTS and RSGB are also enforcing it. This may be a recent thing, but I have seen it. In the WAE SSB contest (which I won) I looked at my waterfall and saw nothing outside the preferred segments. 

k0eoo

maybe N1MM+ can include those band segments in their band map display and not show DX not in those segments?

Ria

I think it's a good compromise for smaller contests. For the majors, I don't think it can be done, but those are only a few weekends per year anyway.