On Sat, 06 Aug 2005 20:21:36 +1000, Peter Berrett wrote:

Hi

What is or was 14.313 for those of us down here in Australia like myself
who have never heard of it?


It was a sort of real life soap opera, that ran every evening for years on
14.313.

I think it started because of the complaints of one operator about the way
a maritime net was being run on that frequency.

It degenerated, as these things usually do, into personal attacks, and
settled into a sort of trench warfare, with a group of regulars on each
side, and a chorus of hecklers, drunks, and people having psychotic
episodes.

As sometimes happens with soap operas, once you got to know the cast and
the general plot, you were hooked; it was by far the best long-running
entertainment I have come across.

The participants probably didn't find it so entertaining: there was a lot
of nastiness, not confined to verbal stuff; but if you were just an
observer, it was great fun.

I think it also resulted in a crackdown by the American regulatory
authorities on amateur radio.

If enough tape-recordings exist, there's probably a goldmine of material
for an aspiring PhD in psychology or sociology.

I'd be happy to convert tapes to mp3 format and put them on my website. If
you have any and care to loan them to me, let me know.