Suppose you were a member of a village football team that had practised and played on the village green for years. And suppose that one day you turned up for a game and found a new rugby team using your pitch. You'd be pretty annoyed, wouldn't you? Even though the village green is common land and so legally there for all to use, the football team would not expect its use of the football pitch established over many years to be usurped in this way. So it isn't all that surprising that when it is, there's a punch-up.
Turn now to the amateur bands and this is precisely what has happened to users of the Olivia data mode. Someone has turned up with a new game called ROS that requires a much larger pitch and it is interfering with the Olivia users' ability to play Olivia.
OK, you say, but surely no-one could object to the rugby team using the football pitch when the football team isn't using it? It's a fair point, although as the football team uses the pitch off and on throughout the day they wouldn't be happy about it. But here the analogy starts to fall down, because not only do the football team (Olivia) and the rugby team (ROS) not speak the same language, but they are also blind so they can't see each other to ask even if they were able to.
The only way for the two teams to both play on the village green without falling over each other or resorting to fisticuffs is for each of them to have their own, separate pitches. Now could someone please translate this into Spanish and show it to the coach of the rugby team?
9 comments:
Well put Julian. I like the analogy. :-)
Olivia already has calling frequencies according to http://hflink.com/olivia/#freqs which should be helpful. Not that it appears everyone is aware of this, even some Olivia users.
I did notice last night, someone was using Olivia 1000/32 at 3582 KHz, which is in the narrow band (500 Hz) mode region of the band plans.
I think the major flaw in your analogy is you left out the the Rugby coach doesn't care about any other teams.
To totally go off on a tangent this is one of reasons I get so frustrated at field day. You get a zillion people yelling into a mic or yelling into a digital mode. But no one is listening. And to solve the problem they just yell louder. If you ask me (which you didn't) I think they should put a cap on the amount of power you can use on field day. Say 150w.
Now back to the village green. I say it's handled like this. You have a corner of the pitch set aside for new teams that no ones heard of to play around and be tested. If they catch on then they have to submit an application to a governing body that tries to find a part of the green for them to play on.
The bigger problem (jerk Rugby coaches aside), We are running out of pitch to play on as the teams get bigger and more popular. Maybe it's time to expand the pitch into the cheering section?
There's my two cents. Spend them as you see fit.
Jay aka KD8EUR
Thanks. Jay, I like where you're taking the analogy. Of course it isn't just the rugby coach that doesn't care about the football players, it's also the rugby players and supporters. The question is whether this can be sorted out amicably or whether it will develop into an unseemly brawl and the police will have to be called to restore order.
Hi Julian,
I think this problem will solve itself. The rugby coach will ban everyone from playing rugby! This will of course leave the pitch free for football.
73 De Kevin
Hello Julian
I love your Blog - it's the first thing I read when I start my computer for the day. What I especially like is you always have an interesting and well reasoned argument on most issues.
MOST issues... but I think you are taking the ROS thing too much to heart and your arguments are becoming emotional instead of reasoned - it's now almost a personal vendetta on both sides.
Julian - take a step back and then treat us to your usual words of wisdom.
73 de Richard F5VJD
As someone who cares neither for soccer or rugby football I am standing on the sidelines enjoying he brawl. However unlike the the analogy you give there are no Policemen on the band to put an end to the brawl before it spills off the village green and in to the High Street. Lets hope this mess gets sorted out before it brings the hobby in to disrepute.
73 Steve GW7AAV
I read your earlier post and laughed at the silly ultimatum you received from the ROS guy. How can an individual "ban" another amateur from using a particular mode? Is it permitted under ITU regulations or whatever for one ham to "invent" a mode, and then decide who gets to use it and who doesn't? I'm guessing the answer is no, and that by suggesting that he can revoke your "privilege" of using "his" mode, Mr. ROS is treading into dangerous legal territory.
As for band management, I doubt it will ever happen other than by the present voluntary (read: useless and largely ignored) method. There is no law to keep RTTY contesters out of the PSK sub-bands, to keep ragchewers off the DX calling frequencies, to keep QRO operators away from the QRP frequencies. These are all "gentlemen's agreements," and your ROS episode bears witness to the fact that there are so few gentlemen left in the hobby. The only legally binding band plans on the HF bands seem to be the ones that dictate "no phone below xxxx.xx kHz," and the allocations by individual nations according to license class -- all else is a free-for-all. Unless the HF bands are expanded, any attempt to further sub-divide the amateur HF bands to create "digimode only" zones will cause an uproar because someone will ultimately end up the loser, most likely the CW op.
73 de Paul WW2PT
In reply to Richard I would just like to say that I was prompted to write this by an email I received this morning from someone I had previously had an Olivia QSO with, copying out some heated exchanges over use of the frequency 14.106. He also copied me some comments he received from Mr Ros suggesting Ros believed he could decide what frequencies to use. So if I'm taking this to heart I'm far from being the only one.
However I'm getting the feeling that it may all be blowing over as the kids are getting bored with their new toy. It's the weekend, I thought it would be bedlam, but actually I've heard quite a lot of Olivia and no ROS at all.
Mind you, I haven't been to the site today, perhaps he's banned everyone from using it?
I have just had my first ROS QSO on 20M multimode section of band
YAY! - oh whats this ...qsy qsy qsy ROS is not amateur radio he is a professional testing professional software.
Ah well my first and last ROS QSO.
back to olivia
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