Things heard on the repeaters John Gianotti W9WY Since our repeaters have been upgraded I have noticed an increase of use. This is GOOD. What I have also noticed is an increase in ‘unusual’ operating procedures. For instance Someone will make a call such as “W9XYZ listening”. This is the normal way of announcement that you would like a contact from anyone on the repeater; so far so good. THEN, after a few seconds the station will say something like “W9XYZ negative contact”. Why? It is obvious that the calling party did not make contact with anyone so why bring it up again?? A similar situation occurs when after making a call and no one responds the calling party says “W9XYZ clear”. Why? XYZ has made a legal transmission when he made the call (i.e. he has identified his station with the first transmission). There is no need to tell anyone listening that he/she is clear. So why, if I heard these things did I not respond to the calling station? Well, I may have been pulling into the garage and getting ready to shut down the radio and did not want to become involved in a long conversation. I may have been getting into the shower (how is that for a mental picture!) or been on the phone or any number of other reasons for not responding to the calling party. Some hams don’t feel comfortable talking with strangers (perhaps they got into the hobby for tech reasons rather than social ones). When I hear a call on the repeater, and have a few minutes, I always respond. I think most of our repeater users would also. Another grip is when someone says “W9XYHZ FOR ID”. Why in the heck would you announce your call if it were not for identification? I mean if you just want to transmit something why not say “this is W9XYZ for the purpose of identifying my transmission to comply with current published FCC requirements as it pertains to the amateur radio service?” Heck that takes even longer and really would mark someone as a person of intelligence – NOT! What is a comeback? As in “thanks for the comeback”. I have never seen a comeback. If the transmitting station meant thanks for the call, then why not say thanks for the call? And then again there is the ever present use of Q signals on the repeater. Plus what is a QSO” Do we say Bee Tea Double U (BTW if you hadnt already get it) when we mean By the Way? We do if we are texting or sending CW but not when we are on phone!!! So am I being picky? Perhaps, but we are all judged, rightly or wrongly, on our actions and our speech. Remember a number of people are listening to our repeaters who are not hams. During our Parish festival a number of the committee volunteers were listening to our 1 47.000 machine for weather warnings. How we present ourselves to non-hams as well as our fellow hams is important. End of rant from a grouchy old ham. (BTW the last line was redundant and in the same category as saying “negative contact”). ._.. _._. ._ ._. _._. ... .... _ _ _ ._. _ ... _._ .
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 01:19:50 +0000
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