"Amateur Radio operators of Planet Earth, Attention! -- QOD1 ? -- QOD1?--Search your pathetic Internet system -- Comply or you will be destroyed. Saucers, OUT"
Maybe this is where people get the idea to call things one word nowadays. First two hits At least they're not capitalized
The Aliens are pissed off... They're looking in their Q-code books they've built-up over 80 years of intercepts and say to each other, "W-T-F does 'Is that a I am acknowledging receipt ' mean?" Then, the High-Frequency Disrupter Rays get un-safetied and you know it's not gonna end well. They've got their own version of QRZ.com on the Hydrogen-Alpha wavelength, but there's no 'Swapmeet' nonsense; crap from alien cellars is banned on the air.
The shave and a haircut thing was pretty widespread among USA novices, at least in 1970, when was a novice. Oh, you'd hear that a lot! Not so much on the Extra cw subbands, though. Some of the old grouches would complain that it was technically "unidentified transmissions," but those guys were no fun anyway. I think the "HAM" thing gets no love because it's usually accompanied by OTHER n00b silliness. If it were just "HAM" and nothing else, people would probably leave it alone. I have to confess that "HAM" grinds my gears too. Guilty. Completely with you on that! CQ now and forever! I never fully got behind opening the mic on 2 meters and saying "W3SY listening," mainly because at that time I am, point of fact, transmitting. Would I be too much of a rebel if I got on the local repeater and called a lengthy, 75 meter AM style CQ, and closed by saying, "And now W3SY... Whiskey the figure THREE Sierra Yokohama calling CQ 2 meter phone and tuning the band!"
If you do this, please video it and upload to youtube. It would be funny to see it happen and the reaction of people on the repeater. HAHAHAHA. When i got on DMR for the first time, I channeled my inner Robin Williams, I keyed up and yelled: "GOOOOOD MORNING DMR, this is not a test, i am not listening, i am CQ from the delta to the DMZ. This is VK4HAT, CQ CQ this is me VK4HAT." No one thought i was as funny as i thought i was HAHAHAHA I should have video'd it for posterity.
Disclaimer: This post is meant to be funny. It may be offensive to the humor deficient. Reader discretion is advised. Communicating via Amateur Radio for Dummies: 1. Set your HF rig tuning step to 1 Khz to prevent transmitting off frequency 2. Don't worry about operating within your license class suggested frequencies 3. Order a dipole antenna from an on-line equipment dealer because because 468/F in MHz is too complicated. Order a dipole for 10 meters because antennas for other HF bands are too big. 4. When the antenna arrives measure the resistance across the center and shield of the coax with an ohm meter to make sure it reads 50 ohms. If it doesn't, send it back as the antenna is defective. 5. After several attempts to receive a non-defective antenna, just give up and put up the defective antenna and use your tuner to fix the problem. 6. Since 10 meters is not open due to a shortage of skip molecules in the clouds, use 40 meters. 7. To maximize Talk Power, use your tuner to adjust the Swer down from 9:1 to about 5:1 8. Do a coin toss, Heads = upper side band, Tails = lower side band 9. After picking a frequency, announce CONTACT! at least 5 times. Then wait for a response. 10. If you receive a response of, "Go ahead contact" then transmit your Personal, Working Condition, and the responding stations signal strength in Pounds. Then announce your location as follows: QRZ city and state. 11. Upon completion of your Go Ahead, send it back to the other station by transmitting, "QSL?" and say your callsign. 12. If you don't get a Come Back to your CONTACT call, then repeat the CONTACT call up to three times. 13. After the 3rd CONTACT call you do not get a Come Back, then go on-line to QRZ.com discussion forms and post a notice about the dead band conditions as a courtesy to other hams so they won't waste their time with their own CONTACT calls.
I see that you passed your Tech exam last month. Welcome aboard! If you haven’t been on HF, I can understand your confusion. I’ve had a license for a little less than two years and I’ve run into a couple of Techs on 40 M CW and a few on 10 M SSB early in the summer when 10 M was open. So I’m guessing most Techs are not on HF. CQ is definitely in common use. Unless you have scheduled a contact or are checking into a net, how else do you make a contact? Best practice that I have found is use a 3x2 CQ - CQ three times followed by your call sign twice, then something like “standing by and listening”. And then stop transmitting and listen for 5-10 seconds. The replying signal may be weak or off frequency. On SSB, just replying with your call seems to be ok although using both calls is even better. On CW, I agree that hearing your call come back first gives you assurance that the other op hears you. I am always reluctant to respond to a call that doesn’t include my call sign because I am never sure that I am the one being replied to. Practice varies for contests, SOTA/POTA, etc. You can learn a lot by listening! Hope this helps.
