WOW! This weekend was the NAQP RTTY contest and I experienced something that I MUST share...
As much as I DESPISE and consider it a POOR OPERATING PRACTICE to say, "PLEASE COPY" before the contest exchange..... GOD this is terrible...
I actually ran across a GOON on RTTY mind you, including this is HIS EXCHANGE to me!!!
OMFG!!! Really... YES! He was from Kentucky... but I digress....
It went like this:
CQ NAQP N4BAA N4BAA TEST
N4BAA N4BAA DE XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX K
XXXXX 599 IN N4BAA
N4BAA N4BAA DE XXXXX XXXXX RRR RRR PLEASE COPY 599 KY 599 KY 599 KY N4BAA N4BAA DE XXXXX XXXXX KKK
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.... Really?
So...what did I do? I did not log it! NO FREAKING WAY...
AND....
I looked this guy up on QRZ.com and sent him an email to "COACH" him appropriately on his very wrong doing... He obviously migrated from CB or doesn't CARE enough to use good practices to operate in a contest.
How did he take it? TERRIBLY... This guy typed me the riot act told me stay in my lane and leave him the hell alone...
SO....
I looked him up and called him on the phone.. OH YES I DID!!!!
I attempted to take the high road and explain to this "dolt" the reasons WHY you keep things short etc... in his EXCHAGE... he still was adamant about being right.. Tried to tell me he has been contesting for 5 years and no one has EVER had the balls to call him out on his practices.... As many contests as I get into, I have never heard this guy before ...and looking at the call history file....neither has anyone else... and I let him know this... but he still disagreed.. .LMAO ...this guy is PROOF that there are "A-HOLES" who you cannot tell the "RIGHT THING" to and change their steel clad brain fart way of thinking.
Moral of this story?
Some operators do not care a damn bit and this is a shame! As much as I know the value of having a good MENTOR or ELMER, if someone is unwilling to take good advice, then I won't waste my time. After all, I KNOW what my time is worth.
Ham radio contesting operators are going to the crapper... and it all began when our licensing structure only required you "MEMORIZE" questions and "theory questions" all for the sake of growing the number of ham radio license holders...
Having an EXTRA class license means ZERO...freaking NADA, if ALL YOU DID is memorize questions.. DAMN Shame! So...."THEY" have succeeded in growing our numbers somewhat, but at the detriment of some negatively impacting operating practices on the air.
Too bad we can't TAKE licenses away from those who do not operate correctly, or are running 10KW...or or or..... AHHHHHHHH
There is ZERO excuse for operators NOT taking it upon themselves to LEARN MORE about what we do.... How amplifiers work, how to put on a PL259 connector, wire your shack, using logging software, how to not POLLUTE the airwaves with over driven signals, understand propagation etc....
Just hitting the PTT switch and spewing your signal doesn't make you a good operator.....it only means you can put out a signal.....
My Inter-galactially-stellar coaching is this:
Learn how to operate correctly and do not deviate! Teach others to do the same. To do nothing and say nothing is to condone it...and that is just as bad.....
Stay safe!
73 and God Bless,
Jose
N4BAA
Ham Radio Sensei
