It's contest season again and the 20 meter band will heat up most
weekends with one contest or another. Regular participants in the
nets on 14,300 khz are especially welcome during these contest
weekends to act as relays and help us keep the frequency relatively
clear for traffic.

Some folks such as myself are accused of being anti contesting.
Quite the contrary is true. I may have written published articles
about contesters and public service nets and their uneasy
coexistence, but I actually enjoy some contesting. In fact, there
are many ways in which the contesting community can benefit from
our net. First of course is the ability to check out your
equipment before the big weekend.

Put that contesting superstation to work! Listen on frequency and
help us with relays. If you're a serious contester with a good
antenna and lots of power we could sure use your assistance for
relay work on frequency. Lots of the stations who utilize our nets
are operating with compromise antennas and low power just because
of necessity. That missionary encampment in the jungle isn't going
to have a Hy Gain tri-bander up 60 feet and a legal limit
amplifier. Chances are they're limited to a wire between a couple
of trees and 100 watts or less. The same is true for the maritime
mobiles who use our net.
While helping out with our net you can get a pretty good
reading on how your antenna system is performing and gage
the effectiveness of changes you make before the big weekend arrives.

There are many good operators on frequency that will help you with
more than just a signal check. Some of us listen critically and
will give an honest report as to signal clarity and audio
characteristics, as important as a strong signal for getting those
contest contacts in the log efficiently.
As you can see we're hoping you'll utilize our net to make contact
with a buddy and move him off for a chat or use us for propagation
and equipment checks. The more ears that there are on frequency
the better chance we have of coming to the aid of somebody needing
assistance. By using our net occasionally you can be sure that
station is ready to provide you with a fun filled contest weekend.

Finally, and most important, we ask you to be aware of our
net when the big contest weekend arrives. Please remember
that often we are trying to assist maritime mobiles;
deployed military personnel; and missionaries both medicaland religious. Though it may not all be emergency traffic
these folks appreciate being able to utilize ham radio to
get a message to friends or loved ones in the U.S. Also
be aware that an emergency can appear at any time on frequency and
we will have it much easier when trying to render appropriate
assistance if we have a reasonably clear frequency.

Heres's an example of an incident that occurred during a
major contest weekend a couple of years ago. A station
in Honduras came on frequency looking for a phone patch to
an orthopedic specialist in Chicago. He was a doctor
practicing medicine in the boonies down there who had been
consulting this specialist about a case via phone patch
on a regular basis over the previous week or so. The
problem was that nobody could hear him well enough to run
his traffic, even on frequency.

Please make others aware of the work we do on 14.300
and spread the word. We're about providing aid and comfort
to our fellow man as well as saving lives. Some of us even
enjoy the thrill of the chase on contest weekends.

Richard Webb,
NF5B,
Eads Tn.

Richard Webb, NF5B, is a long time ham with many years experience in traffic handling and emergency communications. Most recently, Richard was recognized for his assistance at Charity Hospital in New Orleans during and the days following Hurricane Katrina. You can email Richard here.