It is all over now - but only for ten days!
Have been listening to TO0R over the past 5 days. They always had an
outstanding signal into EU (s6...s9 on the beverage) and congrats to
all who worked them from outside EU.
But consider the following situation:
They were sitting on 1826.5, 9X4WW was on several times as well
sitting on 1827.5 kHz at the same time as TO0R. JA-sunrise close.
TO0R was QSX 1...2 up, later 5 up , then 5...8 up, while 9X4WW was
trying to work JA or listening 5 up. Also EU was calling/working JA
at the very same time transmitting between 1824...1833 kHz. Guess what
happened. TO0R was handing out RST to stations who were strong enough
to make it through their s9+20 QRN but among those were quite a few
who did not listen for TO0R and were working JA instead !!! Too bad
if you have a situation like that !!! I don't blame the TO0R-operator
for that. He was really doing his best digging (deep) into the mud
and trying to get not only fractions of a callsign.
Operating habits on the *GENTLEMEN's BAND* have definitely become
worse! During the past 3 days I have counted the number of terms
like *IDIOT*, *LID*, *POLICE* that were transmitted on the frequency
of TO0R (maybe caused by the situation described above).
Totals are:
IDIOT = 14 (sometimes followed by callsign!),
LID = 23 (sometimes followed by callsign!),
POLICE = 8 (followed twice by callsign ON4UN).
THIS IS AWFUL! We can expect more of this to happen shortly !
Gentlemen, is this what has been known as *topband - the Gentlemen's
band*? I think I have to apologize for all what happens in EU on
behalf of the ones who don't care and behave so badly! I was forced
off 1829 kHz (working a qrp DL-station) when the pileup for TO0R
began. Nobody seemed to care about traffic on this frequency!
I QRTed but felt seduced to qsy to 1826 and carry on with the QSO
on that (clean) frequency..... However, I am still (!) a gentleman
and I don't want to become something else...
Please no replies to this mail. I know exactly how everyone feels!
Peter, DJ8WL (topbander since over 25 years).
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