Actually Dan, I do want to go there. But before I do that... I can see that I didn't make myself clear enough. That's no one's fault but mine, as I was just jotting off a few quick thoughts while taking a break from something else, and in the process, shortchanged myself.
Now, to get on my soapbox (long commentary follows!): I should have been clearer that the lowering of licensing requirements is ONE, but not the ONLY, reason that this nonsense goes on. One of many. Yes, some of these bozos have been doing this for 10, 15, 20, 30 years. I can still recall the day I sat at my college club station, on 20 SSB around 0430 Z, working a mini-pileup of people who wanted to work us (mainly west coast) and getting jammed by some of these same lids. That was in 1976. So it's nothing new. I can still remember the Saturday when a station from Mozambique popped up, on schedule, back on the old 15 meter Snooky's Net [please, no lectures on DX nets, I've long since learned my lesson] back in the days when they were just getting back on the air and on very limited operating permission. The word had gotten out ahead of time, though, and as soon as the C9 gave his call, total bedlam occurred. By the time the dust had settled, it was about a half hour later, the net for the day was destroyed, and the C9 was long gone -- a half hour of blind calling & calling & calling and no listening. That was back in the mid-1980's, as I recall -- I know I was still married to the first wife at the time. But it has gotten worse. Much worse. Now some of these guys have been licensed for a long time. Some, however, are new or returning DX'ers. Some just don't care. Some have adapted the "me first and the heck with you" attitude -- I won't bore you with personal examples of those. And I agree -- they should have no excuse with that much license time behind them. But are they experienced? Yes, many ops from the last 10-15-20 + years have come into Amateur Radio from the CB ranks. I know quite a few (I wasn't, never had any interest in CB, I ran into the ARS first). Contrary to some popular belief, I don't think that background is a detriment, and most of the ex-CB'ers I know, including quite a few operators in my club, well, if you didn't know, you wouldn't know. Still... I will maintain that a significant portion of poor operating -- I won't say the vast majority, I won't say most, I won't even say more than half, but a significant portion nonetheless -- comes from inexperienced operators who have not been mentored or Elmered to any degree. And I hasten to add, this is not a code/no-code issue, as this predates the inital no-code VHF Tech licenses in the US. My observation of both local hams and hams I've talked to on the air is that there has been a general trend in that many (not most, not all, but many) have not had any significant contact with their local hams or amateur radio club, outside perhaps of a hamfest visit or two, until they've shown up with for their VE test. Often clutching the Gordon West or "Now You're Talking" or similar book, and little else. What's worse is that many of these guys (and gals for that matter) show little interest, after passing their test, in joining up with a local club or non-club group. Many of them show up on the local repeater (once they've figured out the PL tones, at least) and show no sense of etiquette. I've had newcommers break into an existing conversation to inquire about our whereabouts, or where we were going, and so forth -- not only not paying attention to the existing conversation, but in one case I was involved in, for example, being so wrapped up in the "hey, listen to me!" syndrome, they neglected to notice that the conversation was giving directions to a funeral home for the viewing of a ham's XYL. Sounds funny when you read it, but it wasn't at the time. Try and tell these folks anything, and they get rude, and you get branded snotty. On the air, many of this gang want it all -- now. They hear the DX, they want to work the DX. They don't know how to work split, or how to listen, or what "EU ONLY" or "Listening for 4's Only" etc. mean. They don't care. They just want it now. They don't get it now, they get mad, and then things get worse. That many of these induhviduals have been licensed a long time doesn't mean much. Some of them are new upgrades, taking advantage of the more relaxed licensing requirements. Of course, as I said before, some are jerks who've been around for years, including some characters that have given certain parts of 75 and 20 meters a bad name. And again, some of these guys are venturing into new territory, and haven't bothered to take the time to listen and listen and hear how it's done. (And sometimes these are recycled calls, and we still think of the OT A1 type op who used to hold the call, and not realize that this is now someone else) Now anyone on this list can cite a specific example of an induhvidual who is an "exception" to the descriptions I've just mentioned. So can I, for that matter. I am not saying that the group I'm talking about is exclusively the only ones. And I'm not saying that all new or newer or newly upgraded ops are fall into this category of lids. Actually, most don't. But enough do. The problem, as we all know, is that propagation is such that it only takes 1 or 2 or 5 or 10 lids to disrupt operations. Because some disruptors generator more, and generate well-meaning frequency cops to shoo them off, and on and on. So it doesn't take many to do major disruption. But -- I maintain that there are more doing the disrupting than ever before. And we've all seen examples of it. Not just on the air -- look over some of the cluster comments, for one. I'm running into this same type of attitude on some of the other reflectors and similar message boards out on the Internet. I've actually been told that I have no business telling these guys anything -- they just steamroll ahead and keep repeating the same attitudes, over and over. (Don't believe me? Just use the phrase "winlink" in a message thread on a particular popular set of forums, and see what happens -- it will be like throwing raw meat into a cage of hungry velociraptors. And we won't even go into the mindset of certain "win at all costs"/"if it's not prohibited, it's allowed" contesters -- and yes, I know that they're not all new ops either!) What scares me to some degree about this is that this small, vocal, and frankly obnoxious group, could be the future of amateur radio. Anyone who knows anything about the history of the Amateur Radio Service, both in the US and worldwide (and what I'm talking about here is not confined just to North America) knows that it has changed and evolved over the past not-quite-100 years. There certainly has been a major change from a primarily highly technical hobby (yes, I know, the ARS is a service, not a hobby, but we are involved with the service personally as a hobby) and service into a much less technical communications service. There are many factors involved in that, which is not germane to the point... suffice to say that it is happening. And a side effect of that change is that the testing becomes less technical (did you draw a schematic for your Extra? I didn't, but the test I took ~25 years ago would be a deal-breaker for many today), it becomes easier. As it becomes easier to take and pass, it becomes easier to learn. As it becomes easier to learn, there is less of a need for a mentor, an Elmer, to help absorb the knowledge. Problem is that a good Elmer passes along not just the information to pass the test, but provides an example of how to operate, how to act, on the air. So with less Elmering, there is less practical information on how others have done it before. Thus many of the new amateurs have failed to learn how it is done, and as such, fail to operate in what we experienced ops consider to be an acceptable manner. And since they're not used to mentoring, they not only fail to realize that they (and their fellows) are operating in a poor manner, but they take offense at suggestions that they are doing so, which means that the chaos continues. Thus, a gradual slide in the licensing requirements has a direct correlation in how many (not most, not all, but enough) new operators operate poorly on the bands. Which along with other poor operators from other walks and for other reasons contribute to general chaos on the bands in general and specifically to the DX pileups that we are referring to. In My Humble Opinion. Your Mileage May Vary. Void Where Prohibited By Law (Sorry Tennessee). 73, ron w3wn -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Dan Zimmerman N3OX Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 2:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [DX-CHAT] Ungrateful >What we're seeing is another side-effect of the lower of license >requirements. Ron, don't even go there. I don't want to name-and-shame as G0OIL says, but of the two worst ones I was hearing yesterday one was licensed in '86 and the other I know has been a ham for quite a long time (not sure exactly how long) as well and is someone I respect for his work in ham radio, and have only ever heard him being a very good operator otherwise. I don't doubt that there are a good number of brash, lawless new ops out there. I've heard some of them too, but if the older more experienced ops set a good example and are the successful ones in doing so, we'll be better off. I hear a lot of stuff about new ops coming from the CB bands and so forth... but honestly, if you're a new operator and come from the CB hobby where transmitting is the whole point, you actually *have an excuse* to be a bad, continuous caller until you learn better by listening to the way things are supposed to go. Guys who have 22 years in the hobby do NOT have an excuse. Dan Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, [email protected] This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, [email protected] This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
