Apologies to anybody looking for me on 5MHz from GM/NS-135 today. I self-spotted but got no contacts. When I also got no response on 7MHz, I suspected a radio malfunction, and so it turned out to be. I was not actually transmitting at all.
I borrowed Caroline’s radio to run on 7MHz without problems. Later on while Caroline was operating on 14MHz I did a few more experiments with different modes and concluded that the problem lay with the microphone. A quick swap with Caroline’s microphone proved it.
We actually had a spare microphone back in the car so I was able to pick that up between activations and had no problems on GM/NS-138.
During the time that I was talking to myself, a few people called me “blind”. I see nothing wrong with occasional blind calling, but it is really helpful if those who do it make it clear that that is what they are doing and that they haven’t actually heard me. One of the blind calls came immediately after I had made a CQ call and I naturally assumed it was a response.
Thanks to everybody for all of the contacts over our week in northern Scotland. That’s it now until the Lake District in September.
It is worth noting down the callsigns of those you believe to be calling blind. I do this, then when I get home look up their chaser logs. I often find that a chaser contact with me has been logged! Of course I then email the chaser concerned and explain that we didn’t actually have a QSO.
I’ll also bet good money that your blind callers are from the same list of 3 or 4 that try this silly game with me! Glad to read that you had a workaround and were not required to “leave emptyhanded”.
I’ll also bet good money that your blind callers are from the same
list of 3 or 4 that try this silly game with me!
In this case I don’t actually think so. Blind calling when the activator is obviously running a pile-up is a real pain, but that wasn’t the case here. An occasional call when there is silence on the channel is no bad thing. I often pause for a while to eat sandwiches/take photographs/rest my voice and have quite often picked up extra contacts when people have speculatively called me. I don’t mind that at all.
I get you. Yeah, that’s OK, picked up a few like that recently myself. Just watch for the ones that continue by giving you a report, thanking you for the report you didn’t give them, thanking you for the summit and saying 73 - and logging the “contact” in the Database!
In reply to M1MAJ:
“During the time that I was talking to myself, a few people called me “blind”. I see nothing wrong with occasional blind calling, but it is really helpful if those who do it make it clear that that is what they are doing and that they haven’t actually heard me. One of the blind calls came immediately after I had made a CQ call and I naturally assumed it was a response.”
I usually call & say I am listening if conditions are not good to let anybody know I am there