GM/SS-289

Several chasers heard on my frequencies today - both SSB and CW - having a phantom QSO. I never called them or gave them a report yet they thanked me for the contact and said 73. Another calling blindly on my frequency asking if I had any copy on him! He obviously couldn’t hear anything but that doesn’t mean it’s an empty frequency, and not for the first time he caused me lots of QRM. There was a deliberate QRMer too, but I find them very easy to deal with. It’s the over-eager chasers with questionable operating procedure that get me. Anyway, they will find they are not in my log - if they bother to look.

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I couldn’t hear you Tom, so I didn’t call. Would have needed lower bands to hear you and get into 100-200 mile skip zone, but I’m not complaining, the activator is King!

Is this problem getting worse? It sounds like it…

73 Phil

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I think it may be, I heard an example yesterday. I don’t get it, if they want to fake a contact they don’t need to transmit at all, so perhaps they are just being over eager and uncritical victims of wishful thinking.

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The key issue is over-calling. We should all send our callsigns just once when calling an activator. Multiple calls just waste everyone’s time. Many times when the activator starts to reply to a chaser, there are several stations still calling. Some chasers decide they have been successful in getting through and so the phantom contact is created.

I had an interesting experience on SSB recently when I called an activator. There were still chasers calling when the activator started his response and when he passed it back to the chaser he was working there was absolute silence. Someone chipped in with, “who are you working?” and I was really surprised to find it was me. No way could I have heard my callsign through the melee of callers.

Patience is a virtue… unfortunately it seems to have left the planet along with common sense… about 1998 I’d say. :thinking:

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I had a chaser a few weeks ago who quite clearly called me “S2S”. Naturally I prioritised him and noted down the summit ref he gave me. I then completed working the pile up.

It was only when entering my log that I discovered that the SOTA ref doesn’t exist. I checked the callsign and he has never entered an activation or chase! Amazing the lengths some people go to jump a queue.

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I like your style Tom. It makes a change to hear someone who doesn’t take any nonsense. I was surprised I could hear you Tom as I haven’t heard anything for days So a big Thanks for the contact.
Stay safe and best 73.

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Haha - you must have been listening when I said “I’ve asked that stations call once only, anyone heard calling twice goes to the back of the queue”!

It seemed to work :wink:

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Ever generous Tom - they could have been ejected from the queue by you and not just put to the back!

73 and hope you liked it on White Hill

Phil

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I told a station who was ignoring my directed calls on CW today to QRX. He was sending and sending over the top of everything. Then I specifically gave his call and QRX. I knew that would make him think he was being worked and lo, there he was sending me a report. I sent <HISCALL> NIL <HISCALL> NIL <HISCALL> NIL <HISCALL> NIL <HISCALL> NIL and that’s when he gave up disrupting me. I’m fairly sure there was a PU/PY station underneath his DQRM but not when I finally got him to go elsewhere.

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