My practice is to listen, listen, listen and listen again before I attempt to join an established QSO. In that way, I am familiar with the subject being discussed and can add meaningful material to the discussion. I learned this established practice back in the 60's when I first became interested in Ham Radio but could only get a cheap Regen SW General Coverage receiver so I was limited to hamming vicariously. When I was able to get my first CB Transceiver, I emulated my learned HF operating procedures as much as possible, staying away from the silliness that developed there over the years.
If an aspiring or newly minted ham wants to "get his act together" without the benefit of an elmer's guidance, there are two documents that one might read to develop a "responsible" and "mature" on air personna. These being "Lose your Novice Accent" and the ARRL Operating Manual. Reading these should lead anyone to appear knowledgeable, polite and how to use proper etiquette on the airwaves. Bill-WF1L --- On Fri, 10/30/09, Todd, KA1KAQ <[email protected]> wrote: From: Todd, KA1KAQ <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Open vs Closed -expanded To: "Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service" <[email protected]> Date: Friday, October 30, 2009, 11:16 AM On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 3:07 AM, D. Chester <[email protected]> wrote: > Same here. I have been hearing that a lot lately but it sounds awfully > phoney to me. Is this a carry-over from CB, like saying "personal" instead > of "name"? But since CB is a carry over from ham radio and was used pretty much by hams for local communications (like the 2 meter band was initially) even after it became CB, doesn't a lot of that really just carry back to the amateur community? CBers used a lot of ham terms - Q signals, 73, 88 and so on, no doubt from that time. 'Contact' is certainly a ham term, coming from those wonderful 'nets'. For years CB and Incentive Licensing got the brunt of the blame for all things bad in amateur radio by those wanting to make themselves somehow look superior to others, until the no code techs came along. Then the CW requirement was abolished and the codeless license became the whipping post, at the expense of alienating new hams who had no choice in what test they took. Lately it's the vanity call sign program. It makes you wonder how these people can possibly enjoy amateur radio if it makes them so miserable. > I don't even like to use "break". I just wait till I catch a pause between > carriers and give my callsign. And I've heard old timers rant on the air about how rude, stupid, etc that is too. You don't just drop your callsign, that's rude! I also remember old timers saying that you should never call CQ on the 75/80m bands. It just wasn't 'proper'. Fortunately it was only a few, and most folks seem to have not paid much attention to their rants. Newbie or Old Timer, I suspect the idiot ratio remains fairly constant regardless of age or time licensed. Guess it's a good thing we get to decide for ourselves and don't have to follow someone else's opinion of what's best and why. Amateur radio is in enough trouble without having to weed out the 'unworthy' who don't do things the way some think they should. Reminds me of the masses railing against AM because they were better and smarter than anyone using AM. ~ Todd, KA1KAQ/4 ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: [email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Post: [email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [email protected] with the word unsubscribe in the message body. This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
