Saturday, September 20, 2008

Courtesy - the lack of it ..... (Part Deux)

I hate to rant on and on about this; but the lack of courtesy reared its ugly head again this past week. In fact, it was Wednesday night during the NAQCC Sprint.

A bunch of us NAQCCers had moved over to 80 Meters on and about 3.560 MHz. While we weren't exactly wall-to-wall; there were enough of us spread out over a few kHz so that ANYONE could tell there was something going on.

Anyone that was listening FIRST, of course. Because out of nowhere and without warning, in the middle of this bunch of QRPers came a loud, earsplitting PacTOR "CQ" signal. I've done enough digital back in my day to know what a digital CQ sounds like. This idiot, whomever he was, was at least 10 over 9 and he tore the band up. Fortunately, he gave up after about two attempts at a QSO, as no one came back to him.

So the question is .... just how hard is it to listen for a bit before you fire up the transmitter? Is this rocket science; or is it more like, "I just don't give a damn to whatever else might be going on ..... this is what I want to do?"

I can understand accidental interference. It happens to all of us sometimes. But to just blindly turn on the TX without so much as a few seconds worth of listening is just so alien to me. It definitely makes me shake my head.

73 de Larry W2LJ

2 comments:

  1. Having a lowly 1.5 hours on 40m, I'm not one to speak, but how far of an assumption is it that propagation is bidirectional? Is it possible that someone with that powerful of a rig wouldn't be able to hear you at all, if not only due to a squelch snafu or receiver insensitivity, or is my VHF experience making me look like the 3 month old ham I am?

    Kenneth - W6KWF

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  2. Ken, if it was just me and another station in QSO with each other, I'd agree with you 100%. There's a good chance he might not have heard either of us. But there was bunch of stations, from different parts of the country sending each other contest exchanges. I'm pretty sure said radio op would have heard SOMEONE if he/she had bothered to listen.

    73 de Larry W2LJ

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