I wasn't hearing too much on 15 Meters and everyone on 17 Meters seemed to be involved in a ragchew, so I proceeded down to the good ol' standby - the 20 Meter QRP Watering Hole. It was there that I heard a station calling CQ rather slowly. I set the KX3's keyer for about 13 WPM and waited for him to sign. I am guessing that this person is a relatively new Ham because of the slower code speed and because he had a 2X3 callsign and the prefix was KK. I think in the #2 call district we're still at KD as a newly issued prefix.
I sent his call twice followed by mine, three times. He had a decent 579 signal, and he gave me a 549. OK, not the strongest, but in my book, a 549 signal is decent enough to have a ragchew with. After the preliminaries, I thought we were going to get into the heart of a nice chat. That's when I got, "BANDS SEEM TO BE UNSTABLE. YOU ARE UP AND DOWN. 73 DE KKXXXX". Just like that, he was gone.
OK .... wait a second ..... what just happened?
It seems to me that one of the attributes of short wave communications is QSB, i.e. fading. It's a rare conversation where it doesn't occur, even mildly. It's something you learn to adapt to and overcome in all but the severest cases, as you build up your skills. I feel bad for this guy, because if you're going to limit yourself to only 599 signals, you're going to miss out on a lot of fun. And you're not going to develop yourself as an experienced operator, either.
The antennas are unplugged tonight. As a result of the hot weather and a cool (not cold) front moving through, we are getting some hellacious thunderstorms. No hail, but the downpours have been heavy and even though the rains have stopped for now, it's still lightning. A lot.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
In KK's defense, speaking as a ham who is just feeling his way along with CW, a rag chew can seem pretty intimidating to me. I can picture this op just wanting to politely excuse himself rather than feel embarrassed that he couldn't keep up. I've had qsos where I copied very little because it was just a hair too fast, but probably sent just fine. I get flustered easily!
ReplyDeleteOwen,
ReplyDeleteI hear what you are saying. But the better route would have been to send a QRS as an indication that he wanted me to slow down even more, or even just send "PSE SLOW DWN?" There's no shame in the need to ask someone to slow down. Better that than leave someone hanging, scratching their head.
72 de Larry W2LJ
I'm betting Owen is right. The poor guy was nervous and overwhelmed. H bailed.
ReplyDelete