Fewer people go through the “apprenticeship” of
listening
for a few years before getting a license. Time was when the newbie
Radio Amateur already knew all about operating etiquette. These days
people jump straight in with their nice new call signs.
So very true, John.
Peter
On the other hand, the M3s are given some training in front of a rig and do some construction, which is more than happened with the G3s and G8s! I had night school for my RAE from September until May but it was all talk in front of a blackboard. Either way could turn out diamonds or duffers, and either way leaves you half paralysed with fright and a mind empty of all you have learned the first time you sit on your own with a mike in your sweaty hand!
There are plenty of really good operators with recent callsigns!
btw CONGRATS Mike/GW0DSP for getting chaser #1 at all. Great to see
you on the top. It will be
hard for no-coders to catch you
Currently it’s an interesting race between the top-scorers.
Keep an eye on the toplist.
Thanks for the congrats Dan, but maybe a little premature. Don G0NES and Graham G4JZF have not uploaded their scores yet, so we will see.
A strange day here, we have had no mains electricity for 7 hours due to gale force winds bringing power lines down, so my chasing today, or most of it, was done with NO Sotawatch and just 5w from my FT-817, running from a 7ah SLAB, good fun actually, but frustrating to miss so many activators in the pile ups with my QRP set up.
To Alain, please carry on with your style, it’s nice to get a simple GD or BJR and as Roy G4SSH says, if thats what you like, that’s what the chasers will reply, it’s your show when you are activating and the same goes for the contest style op, it’s ONLY the chasers who must adopt their style to the activators style.
Hi Mike & others on this thread. It happened - my worse fear, called cq on 7031 from ES-001 and the world dumped on me, not SOTA chasers, I had called cq at the very start of some contest or other. I did not need a baptism of fire so if any callers were SOTA chasers, sorry, I cannot handle 30wpm plus gunfire and as it was cold and windy I just shut down.
Don’t let it put you off, get back in the saddle and give it another bash.
2m-cw is a nice easy place if there is anyone monitoring, you would need an alert for it probably.
On the other hand, the M3s are given some training in front of a rig
and do some construction, which is more than happened with the G3s and
G8s! …]
There are plenty of really good operators with recent callsigns!
Indeed, no argument with that at all. Though by definition, G3s and especially early G8s had to do a lot of construction because, unlike today, there simply weren’t the commercial rigs and station accessories available. And people grumble about the cost of rigs these days but they are dirt cheap compared with the few commercial rigs that were available in the '60s.
There are indeed some excellent operators with recent call signs and, sadly, there are some poor operators who have been on the air for decades and really ought to know better. It doesn’t take many bad ops to spoil it for everyone else.
Hi Mike & others on this thread. It happened - my worse fear,
called cq on 7031 from ES-001 and the world dumped on me…
The All Asia contest. Dead easy exchange: your age! If you won’t play in the contest then why not go to 30m instead? It’s a wonderful band for SOTA and is totally devoid of contests.
All true: I remember the late 60’s with nostalgia as the only time I ran a completely homebrew station (but it took me months to get on the air!), and as a swl converted lots of ex-WD Rx’s before that, but I also have a few Radcoms from the 90’s and the cost of gear was horrendous then, too - in some ways we live in a golden age!
I think the worst operators don’t operate as such, they are the ones that tune up on frequency, make funny noises and play inane music on channel. At least the bad ops are trying to communicate instead of trying to be a pain in the situpon!
It’s not a big problem. Sure it has annoyed me, the two occasions when an alligator tried to bully his way into my logbook, but that was only twice in many CW activations. And I’ve certainly not noticed any slip of standards when working M3s, 2E0s, 2E1s and other old Class B’ers like myself on CW - all seem to be good operators. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone trying to work me with computer read/generated morse.
No, I think the bad practice fades into insignificance against the amount of good practice. Or so it has seemed from my own year or so active on CW.
They are at it again!! All bleep and no ears!! Why did so many stations seem to think that they were GW’s when Jirka OK1DDQ/P called me in a short while back? Please show some respect for the chaser being called or more importantly try and listen for the callsign that the activator is calling. There’s no need for panic, the activator will work everyone in time.
In reply to GW0DSP:
Yes I heard it all too Mike - the worst culprit was a PA0 who went back 3 times to a request from Jirka for GW IMI and then the PA0 made his QSO before you did…you can make a mistake once but not 3 times. Glad you made the QSO Mike in the face of adversity. Jirka was a good signal today, as he usually is, one of the stronger OK/S5 stations we hear on 7032.
Some folk ought to cool it - this is SOTA yet some people are so desperate to make a QSO. It’s as if the SOTA contact were their last DXCC Country for Honour Roll!
It gets beyond belief sometimes Phil, such bad operating practices. If the station in question heard Jirka ask GW? why did he feel the need to dive in 3 times and wipe everything out, jump the que and steal my QSO slot? If he didn’t hear Jirka, then why was he calling anyway. He wasn’t the only one either, it was like a typical DXpedition zoo! Surely they know that with the exception of a very few rare cases, the activator will do his utmost to work all chasers eventually.
I have bitten my tongue for long enough now and have reached the point where, if such behaviour continues, then I will have no problem naming and shaming them on this reflector!
In reply to GW0DSP:
Yes Mike I agree. It wouldn’t surprise me if the more prolific activators start to keep a blacklist of callsigns in their memory and either work them at the end of their session or even don’t work them at all. As well as being frustrating for the chaser who has been called its not right that the guy who has done all the work getting to the summit has his QSO rate slowed up by someone who hasn’t the decency to standby when asked to do so.
I will be activating myself on HF CW in G/WB area next week (if it stops raining) and will be on the lookout for this bad behaviour.
I agree Phil, having been on both sides of a pile up. Oddly enough, I find that most of the alligators have never climbed a summit and been the target of a 7.032 pile up, maybe if they had they would begin to understang my annoyance at their behaviour. Luckily, most connected with SOTA behave like gentlemen, it’s just a very small minority who let the side down.
As you read in my report in respect of the 7MHz CW session from Craig yr Allt on Tuesday, I had some problems - unusually it was an HB9 in this instance. When I did eventually work him he gave me 339, so it was a case of him (or her) not hearing who I was working and giving it shot just in case it was him (or her). I can tolerate this behaviour for so long, then I tend to go for the off switch - I prefer the peaceful life!
One thing that I would ask chasers who are not activators to understand is what it is like being on the end of a pile up on CW with most signals of a similar strength and well netted… all you get is a warbling tone and it can take some time for a callsign to be read. Please bear with the activator. Might I suggest calling every other “QRZ”, that way there will be lower density of dots and dashes and hopefully calls will be deciphered more quickly.
Have to jump in. Had a very good example when trying to work HB9CMI. A DL2 gave me a hard time picking up something “usefull” after HB9. Yes, that DL2 was louder, but I don’t feel bad at all to ignore that guy (hint blacklist hint) when I try to work someone else.
Why can’t we all just send our callsigns once and let the strongest signal
win instead of repeatedly pushing callsigns causing huge QRM?
Yep, there’s a been a very prominent F2 on Saturday doing exactly what you described. That kind of behaviour is an exact mirror of our society.
One thing that I would ask chasers who are not activators to understand is
what it is like being on the end of a pile up on CW with most signals of a
similar strength and well netted… all you get is a warbling tone and it
can take some time for a callsign to be read.
I side this. Those small radios don’t have the same good receivers than armchair receivers and so, during the first rush, there’s nothing “good” to hear unless someone is really strong or not zero beat.
This is getting really tiresome now!! On 2 occasions today 2 different stations called me in and I had to request my RST 2 or 3 times because of ignorant people keying when the activator had already called me in. On one occasion after the activator called QRZ I timed it at 36 seconds before the alligators stopped sending their calls in, this is ridiculous!!
Please, if you have no respect for me or any other chasers, please show some respect for the poor man who has climbed a mountain for you and let his activation flow!!!
In reply to GW0DSP and others. Having read the last few posts, as a o/m tempted to try CW, my key will now stay firmly on the practice desk. The thought of an unruly pile-up in what is to me a foreign language I have to write down has frightened me off. I prefer a relatively quiet life and I’ll stick to ssb. It’s no skin off my nose - if I don’t qualify the summit then so what when I’ve had a quiet walk in the hills. I’m almost always happy to try to work everyone who calls - I’m not a hit and run merchant.
