USA Competition Rules Changes Proposed for 2013

Gone are the days when 123.3 was used pretty much by gliders alone. A couple of years ago, the frequency was also allocated here in Arizona to a local commercial operator for ground to air operations. When they first came on the air, they started yelling at gliders to "get off their frequency". Even now, when they are not overpowering us with their high-power transmitters, we get users from nearby Mexico stepping all over us. Now, many of us don't use 123.3 - sticking with either our airport frequency (122.9) or 123.5.

Finding frequencies for glider/glider communications in the aircraft band is going to be a challenge.

Mike

Snip... ...A
couple of years ago, the frequency was also allocated here in Arizona to a
local commercial operator for ground to air operations.

For the record...and making no claim to be an FAR/CFR anal wizard, my
understanding (from my instructor and eventually from reading material over
the years) has always been 123.3 has NEVER been "a glider only" frequency in
the U.S. I *think* 123.5 similarly was allocated for multiple - if specific -
users. Feel free to look it up.

In any event, flight school use has been a written-into part of 123.3
allocation since at least 1972, I believe.

Mostly, it's been ignorant glider pilots who (mistakenly) have thought of
those two U.S. frequencies as "exclusively for glider pilots". I'll wager a
good beer the Arizona commercial operator somehow or other selectively
read/heard what he wanted to regarding others' legal right to be on 123.3! Why
should glider nuts be the only misguided souls on the planet?

Bob - yeah it's still winter in the northern hemisphere - W.

Yes indeed, all the frequencies have always had multiple users, but in nearly thirty years of flying in the USA, I've experienced that 123.3 has only recently become so congested with high-power commercial users.

There is now no way that it could be used in southern Arizona for the official contest frequency because of all this congestion.

Mike