I won't get into the debate about contests. One thing to consider, though,
is that when the licensing authorities are thinking about making band
allocation changes, they tend to monitor the allocated bands and band
segments for levels of activity. Have you listened to the CW sub-bands on
a weekday day or night, recently? Were it not for DXpeditions (I'm not a
DXer) and popular contests (I am a contester), these band segments would
sound very, very underutilized. And, that means, subject to allocation
revisions. Remember when CW in the US had 3.5 to 3.8 MHz? Do we have it
anymore?
Now, should ham radio ever return to the days of crowded CW sub-bands on a
more continuous basis, it's nice to know that rigs like the K3 will allow
those stations to be a lot closer together without making their presence
known to the other guy. If the bands were crowded with users this weekend
(forget about what they were doing for a second), consider it a blessing.
Would you prefer they be full of ragchew QSOs, instead? Then get on the
air and make some QSOs. If at 0000Z last Saturday, the 20 m CW sub-bands
were full of ragchewers spaced a couple of hundred Hertz apart, from 14.0
to 14.050, then the ARRL DX contesters would have been forced to start on
14.051 and up.
When I'm ragchewing (which is often), I'm at much greater risk of being
QRM'd by a DX-chaser working split than I am by any contester. But, you
know what, I'm glad they're making the band sound used.
Rob K6RB
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