I’ve noticed several times - three times just this morning - when someone sends a question mark on an activator’s frequency, usually shortly after he/she has been spotted. This type of thing has been going on for several months and I think it is coming from the western US.
Apparently the station can’t hear the activator and is impatiently trying to see if he/she is there. The result is interference for the stations that can hear the activator.
In my mind this is a very dubious operating practice and needs to stop. IMHO.
It happens here in Europe too. Quite often when I am activating a summit I will get to the end of the pile up and send CQ a few times. When I get no response I might stay on the frequency while I have a cup of tea or a biscuit. If I hear ? I will send CQ SOTA and usually the other station is a chaser and that’s another one in the log. Sometimes it’s someone checking if the frequency is clear and my response causes them to QSY.
So I don’t think a quick ? is a bad thing to see if the activator is still there. If it’s sent repeatedly or perhaps immediately after a spot then it’s not so helpful.
I confess I’ve been guilty of this behaviour when the activator went on working chasers for minutes without identifying themselves.
I don’t like relying only on spots, sometimes I don’t even attempt a chase when I don’t get a positive ID.
I apologise for the disruption I might have caused.
I just heard an activation on 20 meters where I couldn’t hear the activator but could hear the many chasers. After a while there was silence. Soon someone sent a question mark. Then nothing. I think sending a question mark was more appropriate rather than sending, " KE6SRN ARE YOU STILL THERE?" Much quicker.
This happens a lot to me as well after calling CQ. I think people with a waterfall display do this. They notice a signal on the band and are to late tuning to the correct frequency. I find it quite irritating.
If you’re on the QRG of a supposed activation… just listen!
You might not hear the activator… or the chaser either… but maybe the next chaser! Then you know the activation is in progress - but you have no chance of a QSO (at least not on that QRG).
An average QSO in a pileup lasts maybe 20-30 seconds. This means that after about 1 to 2 minutes, you have all the information you need!
If you still don’t hear anything… a “?” or “QRL?” is a possibility. Because maybe the pileup is over and the activator is taking a break and is actually still listening on the QRG.
I don’t mind the occasional “?” on my activating QRG. It usually happens when I’m briefly pausing to drink soup / chat to passers-by / daydream etc. It’s a useful nudge to resume activity and keep my frequency!
Thanks for bringing this up, Randy. I agree it’s a problematic practice, one frustrating to other chasers. The only exception would be if it’s an old spot and the chaser has cautiously listened long enough for one or two QSOs to have taken place and hasn’t heard any transmission from the activator nor the chaser side of a contact.
At least some of the sent-in-the-blind “?” I am hearing are coming from western North America (WNA). And sometimes they are sent on a spot that is less than a minute old (!).
He, or they, often can’t hear spotted activators in Europe, not because the activator is sitting there snacking or day dreaming, but because there isn’t propagation from EU to WNA. Meanwhile, I do hear the EU activator, and it’s happened many times that the “?” covers him up just as I’m trying to hear my call sign and report.
In fact, I know who one of the offenders is, because I’ve heard, on more than one occasion, first a sent-in-the-blind “?”, followed seconds later by the call sign of well-known chaser/activator in WNA, on the same frequency offset and with the same received signal strength.
Not at all Carlo. It’s always a pleasure to get you in the log. As others have mentioned, we might be taking a breather, so the “?” is a good reminder to keep going!
I used to hear “Any SOTA?” in SSB on HF quite regulary. The questioner was a Spanish Chaser, but I haven’t heard this for some considerable time.
Roy G4SSH (SK) used to dislike hearing what he called “Jug Handles” (the shape of a question mark). I also dislike hearing it, but I feel that sending “QRZ IMI” is acceptable operating practice. A Jug Handle is just plain rude as far as I am concerned.
Sending either “?” or “QRZ?” in the blind (i.e., on a recently spotted frequency without having heard the activator), are rude, as either one could be interfering with a QSO in progress. But, if you’re going to do it, the “?”, being shorter, is likely to cause less interference and therefore less rude than “QRZ?”.
Imagine this. You are a chaser who hears the activator calling CQ. I am a chaser who cannot hear the activator because there’s no propagation path between me and him. However, there is a propagation path between you and me.
Activator: CQ SOTA DE DL1DL K
You: G4OBK
Activator with interference from me: G--?--TBK GA 539 539 <BK>
You could reasonably assume that the “?”, which I rudely sent in the blind, covered up the “4” and part of the “O” of your call sign and that he was therefore responding to you.
But what if I had sent “QRZ?” in the blind?
Activator: CQ SOTA DE DL1DL K
You: G4OBK
Activator with interference from me: G--QRZ?--A 539 539 <BK>
The improper transmission on my part covered up enough of your call sign that you can’t be sure the activator was responding to you. Maybe he was responding to another call sign beginning with G. You and the activator and the other chasers now have to waste time sorting out the resulting confusion.
Needless and avoidable confusion caused by my unwillingness to listen a decent amount of time before transmitting. Had I listened maybe 15 - 30 seconds, I would have heard your initial call followed a short time later by your response with the activator’s signal report in the customary format of a SOTA QSO. This would have told me the activator is almost certainly there but I cannot hear him and therefore should not attempt a QSO.
It puzzled me for a long while after taking up SOTA when I heard a Question Mark.
Was this a ‘lazy’ way of asking if the frequency was busy, or simply were they wondering if I (the activator) was still present, correct and alive?
Either way, the result from me worked for both possibilities, as I simply send CW SOTA de M6GYU/P etc., etc.,
If I heard QRZ? on its own, I’d be rather puzzled as the meaning is; ‘Who is calling me?’ So without the addition of the individual’s callsign, I’d be rather puzzled whose he asking as I was not calling any particular operator.
The way I’d sometimes use QRZ, was if I hear someone calling me but could not hear the callsign, I’d send; QRZ? de M6GYU/P K, although in fairness, I could have simply sent ‘?’ or 'DE M6GYU/P
Rugby Union, American Football & Rugby League. All involve people kicking a ball, holding and running with a ball and tackling each other in physical ways. But 3 differenent games. So the same as amateur morse conventions, martime morse conventions, & military morse conventions. They’re all different and similar.
So ignoring all your previous morse experience, for the last 35 years, lots and lots of amateur operation is influence by the availability of spotting clusters. Hams now are used to finding a significant number of their possible QSOs by seeing cluster spots.
So Joe Q. Average Ham sees a spot, tunes to the freq. and listens for, oooh lets says a couple of seconds, hears zilch so sends a ‘?’. This is due to FOMO and they don’t have the patience to listen, listen and listen a bit more to see what is happening on the freq. Because FOMO. See spot, listen for a second or two, hear nothing, send ‘?’.
When I hear a ‘?’ I often send a ‘?’ in reply. Never, ever has the ‘?’ sender sent me their call. Normally if there are no other signals on the frequency I hit the CQ message button so the ‘?’ can see if I’m who they think maybe on the frequency.
I don’t mind someone sending a ? if I have finished working chasers during the first few minutes of onslaught of an activation. Usually I send another CQ SOTA and my callsign instead of getting involved with asking who the ? is. Sometimes just for fun I send ? 5NN. No big deal glad to get another score most times.
Regards all
Ian vk5cz …
