What has happened to Radio Operators Manners??

[KG6OJO]

Hi All:

I have been out of the hobby for over 10 years and apparently a lot has changed. I have recently been listening to a few local repeaters in Southern California lately as I get back into the hobby, and I have been rather shocked at the operations I hear. People are swearing, conducting rather rasist rants, threatening people, jamming people they don't like, etc. What has happened? Did the FCC relax all the rules on swearing, and such? I was really surprised. My wife wanted me to introduce our grandkids to Amateur radio, and after what I have heard, Im not so sure I want to. I am working on getting my HF rigs back on the air, but is it the same there or only on UHF / VHF? What happened? Wasn't like this at all the last time I was active.

[NL7W]

Unfortunately, this is the reality of today. Standards of behavior across the Nation have lessened considerably over the last two or so generations.

I feel for what my kids will have to endure; I'm shielding them from many harsh realities living in what is still somewhat sane Alaska. It can only protect them for so long.

What to do?


BTW, HF operations haven't changed too much. That's good. 75M can still be a rathole at times, so watch that band. It's for grown-ups... mostly.

[AF6LJ]

sounds like you ran across 147.435 The Nut (W6NUT)

[KA9MOT]

Don't condemn Amateur Radio because a bunch scofflaws have taken over that repeater in LA.
All is still well in the rest of the country, and things are well on HF with very few exceptions.

[KG6OJO]

Oh, I am not condeming it at all. I am looking forward to jumping back in. I was just surprised when I started listening to W6NUT in LA. Wow, that came as a surprise. The other night, someone in another state was using the Ecolink connection and stated something someone didn't like, and there was a liberal "bashing" that went on. People called his house after doing some google research, sent him pizzas, found out who his landlord was and threatened to send nasty letters. They even had others from foreign countries Ecolink in and bash the poor guy. What a show. Seams like every night is like that. Glad to hear this might just be a isolated repeater. It is reasuring as I re-assemble my shack.

[K5FH]

Hams were complaining about this when I first was licensed 40 years ago.

A search of QST correspondence and editorials will show that we were complaining about this as far back as the 1920s. Nothing new here.

The only difference is that there seems to be more of it today. We can (and probably will, at least until this thread gets locked) debate the reasons for this but two come to mind: the general coarsening of society, and an unofficial policy of benign neglect on the part of the FCC.

[KG6OJO]

This is just a current observation that I hoped was not the new norm. Glad to hear for the most part, all is well. I first got my Novice ticket back in the early 80s and my General before the 90s and don't remember the harsh commentary and racial discussions being there.

[K5FH]

This is just a current observation that I hoped was not the new norm. Glad to hear for the most part, all is well.

Before I was a ham (late 1960s) I used to listen to 75M on my Hallicrafters SX-130. Frequently I would tune across discussions that, even by today's rather lax standards, would have been incendiary.

However, my receiver had two big knobs on it that could make all of that go away. They were "main tuning" and "bandspread." Modern rigs have a single big knob but the function is the same.

I first got my Novice ticket back in the early 80s and my General before the 90s and don't remember the harsh commentary and racial discussions being there.

They were there but you usually had to look for them. In the 1980s 2M and 440 repeaters were a lot more tame than they are today (with certain exceptions, some of which are still around) but it still happened.

In 1976 - 1977 I was involved in a huge foxhunt for a jammer (referred to as the "turkey") who terrorized local 2M repeaters almost every night for a year with an electronically distorted voice spewing vile obscenities, playing music and sound effects and sometimes just plain old dead carrier. This guy was smart - he operated mobile only and varied his output power frequently to thwart even our most determined direction-finding efforts. After numerous complaints to the FCC they sent down one of their famed "white vans" and caught them (there were two guys working together) within minutes of arriving in town. Both ended up in jail.

And that was, I think, the last time the FCC ever made any real effort to close down a repeater jammer. These days, the most the FCC seems to do is send notices of violation which are routinely ignored.

There is an old saying: crime largely ignored is crime largely legalized. This goes a long way toward explaining the problem.

[KK6RF]

... I was just surprised when I started listening to W6NUT in LA. Wow, that came as a surprise. ...

Your surprise is the exact same experience I had when I decided to get back into ham radio a little more than a year ago. I turned on my HT for the first time in ages and the first repeater it landed on was 147.435. I thought, "What the heck is this?!?!". Someone was dropping n-bombs and suggesting that people should take up arms and kill the president. No matter what your political views, it was beyond disgraceful and probably illegal.

No offense to anyone but... To be honest, I can't stand open VHF/UHF repeaters in my area. (Orange Country, CA) The conversations are so boring I want to shoot myself in the head. After a couple of weeks, the only conversation I heard that had any significance was someone whose wife had just passed away. Although depressing, it was great to hear so many hams give this person support.

For myself, there's no "magic" to VHF/UHF. It took me a while to figure out where I wanted to go with ham radio. I ended up buying a FT-817ND and love it. There's lots of magic with QRP and I find it very fun. I don't think I ever felt the "excitement" of ham radio until I was sitting on the beach and got picked out of a massive pile-up. I was operating from Newport Beach, CA and the guy running the pile-up was on Prince Edward Island. If you haven't already done so, check out the YouTube videos from Goathiker, F5LKW and KJ6BBS or search YouTube for QRP. You may like it...

[N8CPA]

Your surprise is the exact same experience I had when I decided to get back into ham radio a little more than a year ago. I turned on my HT for the first time in ages and the first repeater it landed on was 147.435. I thought, "What the heck is this?!?!". Someone was dropping n-bombs and suggesting that people should take up arms and kill the president. No matter what your political views, it was beyond disgraceful and probably illegal.

No offense to anyone but... To be honest, I can't stand open VHF/UHF repeaters in my area. (Orange Country, CA) The conversations are so boring I want to shoot myself in the head. After a couple of weeks, the only conversation I heard that had any significance was someone whose wife had just passed away. Although depressing, it was great to hear so many hams give this person support.

For myself, there's no "magic" to VHF/UHF. It took me a while to figure out where I wanted to go with ham radio. I ended up buying a FT-817ND and love it. There's lots of magic with QRP and I find it very fun. I don't think I ever felt the "excitement" of ham radio until I was sitting on the beach and got picked out of a massive pile-up. I was operating from Newport Beach, CA and the guy running the pile-up was on Prince Edward Island. If you haven't already done so, check out the YouTube videos from Goathiker, F5LKW and KJ6BBS or search YouTube for QRP. You may like it...

You mean Rooster and Peanut?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZOehMEUBS4