Pretty good summary, Ron. A couple comments below ...
On Sun, 10 Feb 2008, Ron Notarius W3WN wrote:
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, and I have to wonder why too. All the DXers I know who I knew as
DXers 40 years ago operate the same way they did back then. Most are
superb ops who don't operate this way.
So I really don't think it's the guys who have been in the game for
decades who are behaving this way unless they were jerks even way back
when or have accidentally gotten themselves into the hands of
psychiatrists.
:-)
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.
I really don't feel bad if someone waits for the DX to say "QRX 5" and
then singles out the calls of some of the jerks (who either didn't hear or
couldn't comprehend "QRX 5") and works a few of them for the DX on the DX
frequency for a minute or two. At least it might get a FEW of them out of
the pileup if we're lucky.
In My Humble Opinion. Your Mileage May Vary. Void Where Prohibited By Law
(Sorry Tennessee).
You left out "Paper covers rock. Rock smashes scissors. Scissors cuts
paper".
:-)
73, ron w3wn
73, Zack W9SZ
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