Short Takes #29: Sweeteners and Buzz-Killers

Short Takes #29: Sweeteners and Buzz-Killers - QRZ.com

Link to above discussion.

 

I pre-date social media, and indeed, I pre-date transistors by a few months. ;-) My experience with people is that many are kind, gracious, and helpful. Some are not, being somewhat unhappy, or having not been treated well in life, or a bit autistic. Some rare people are even in need of psychotropic meds.

The incentives for commenting are not equal between the helpful, gracious group and the others. A helpful, gracious response usually requires some effort and perhaps some research. An unhelpful response practically writes itself out of the writer's irritation.

I encourage you to enjoy the good responses, mostly ignore the unhelpful ones, and not expect too much from the kind, helpful people who have to be selective about how many questions they spend the time and effort to respond to.

 

Great addition to the article Marty ….. required reading! Dave W7DGJ

 

80m sounds like a pretty janky band to me now...

 

Hi Max, agree— and 80m is a true classic ham band. Formerly loved by all.

 

The situation is similar here in the UK. Many 2M and 70cm repeaters are almost silent other than their CW identification. I think the comment about there being too much choice is true. In my area there are many different voice and digital repeaters and the digital ones each seem to have their own brand of digital system, meaning finding activity is difficult. I read that supermarkets have started to realise that too much choice makes customers confused about what to buy so they buy nothing instead.

In an attempt to increase the use of 'normal' FM simplex there are two initiatives that have started up in the UK, based on Facebook groups, for 2M (145 Alive!) and 70cm (433 Alive). The idea is that a date and timeslot is selected and people either go out to portable sites, or else stay at home and listen for the portable stations or any other station that they can hear, and make contacts. This focuses activity and means that, unless you really are miles out in the sticks, that there should be someone out there to talk to. The ideal would be that then people will listen on the calling frequencies (In the UK these are 145.500MHz for 2M and 433.500MHz for 70cm) and talk to a few more people outside of these activity periods. The key thing is that they are not contests, there's no "59 001" and off to another contact, people are encouraged to have longer contacts and even discuss their interests in the hobby or other hobbies.

There is, obviously, an interest in seeing how many and how far contacts can be made, but not at the expense of rushing a contact and leaving people feeling that all that it's for is working lots of people to score points.

Some UK clubs also hold nets on various days of the week and weekend, mainly for their club members to talk but they encourage non-members to join in as well of course.

One thing that people start to realise is that the VHF/UHF bands can be useful for longer distances and that investing a bit of time and effort in improving antenna systems and having a reasonably good radio can bring rewards in the number of people who can hear you and talk to you. Just relying on the small antenna and 5W from a cheap handheld will get you started but when people realise that they can do better it encourages them to either go out somewhere higher up or build antennas and improve their feeder systems.

Dave (G0DJA)

 

Thanks Dave. Really interesting comments about the UK, Dave J W7DGJ

 

Dave, your post is well written. Thank you.

Once, when listening to 80m phone, I heard an operator use an extremely derogatory slur against African Americans. This broadcast was gratuitous, so far as the operator was not talking to anyone else. I got a sense from the way the operator said the slur that he thought he was being funny. Slurs are never "funny". Of course, the station did not identify.

Were I a new ham to the hobby, and especially were I Black, I would be very turned off by this behavior.

The majority of 80m phone roundtables aren't malicious. They're rather much like a group of friends sitting on a stoop, talking about nothing in particular. I remember as a kid that locals in my area would use 10m phone in a similar fashion, especially at the bottom of the sunspot cycle. That's usually not malicious. Occasionally, though, HF phone can get quite out of hand.

73, Jordan AB2T

 

Hi Jordan,

thanks for the post. I’ve heard operators like that before … horrible. There’s a famous one on 40m who solicits QSOs but often just talks to himself. Lots of homophobic and racist commentary — he’s from Canada which is unusual. I honestly don’t remember this kind of on-air behavior when I was a young ham. Probably reflects society as a whole? Why can’t local clubs zero in on these characters and get them bounced from the air?

 

The Anytone AT-6666 is a fabulous 10m rig. It can do AM, FM, SSB and is affordable. I have yet to get mine mounted in my truck. But hooked it up on a hunk of wire and listened to some conversations and it was great.
My roots are back in 1961 when I took a CW test for my Scouting Merit Badge. The ham that gave me the test found out that I new Ohms Law and was into technical stuff and recommended that I get a license. I did, and in April of 61 got my license. WV6QVI was my call sign, and I had it for five months before taking the General Class Exam in Los Angeles. I had some great mentors who encouraged me to build my own equipment. Being 14 money was tight. This brought my conversations on the bands to some great times... exchanging ideas on building. See my site http://tenfm.org

 

Inexpensive 10m radios would be a start, 10m is hopping and we need more SSB activity especially to entice all the newbies.
Every time I make contact with a newbie on 10m i send them my QSL card.
10 meters is a fun band and now more than usual is the time to promote newbie activity...
GOTA 10M SSB...

 

Thanks Dave. I wasn't familiar with the radio you mentioned . . . Dave, W7DGJ (PS added later - checked out reviews on Amazon. While only 4% one-star, I read those and it concerns me about build quality and so on. Very consistent comments about oddball behavior of radio. Dave, if you have had good luck, why don't you start an eHam.net review link for the Anytone AT-6666? Right now, it's not visible on eHam at all, and Amazon reviews are mixed.

 

Rick, I've had more fun this year on 10M than any previous year since I became a ham!

 

Yeah, it's a shame that you had that experience but I'm not surprised from the internet. Plus given that so many won't search the web or read manuals for information and only throw out questions on the web because it's "easy" thus frustrating those that are willing to help otherwise.. Most clubs that I'm famililar with (about 5 in my area) would be more than happy to help out with issues that a newbie (and a more advanced, yet inexperienced in a particular realm ham) might have.

 

LOL, what you hear in CT as a derogatory slur isn't neccesarily what the rest of the country hears. And with no proof, it's just heresay.