Topband: T30RH & Pile-Up Decorum

[D. S. Coleman]

Greetings all,

I read VE3CUI's post on T30RH's pile-up this morning and I too want to
comment on this sad phenomenon.  I was listening this morning and also
heard the rotten behavior that has increasingly invaded what at one
time was indeed the Gentleman's Band.  The problem of 'deaf and dumb'
operators :-Q has been a continuing problem in DXing as long as I have
been a radio amateur, but it seems to have gotten a great deal worse
since the advent of the DX clusters and software that facilitates the
click and shoot crowd.  The core of DXing is listening, a fact (and
skill) that seems to be lost on the current generation of clickers.  I
spend a lot of time tuning and listening and hopefully working the DX
before they are spotted on the clusters.

Everybody, at one time or the other, accidentally transmits on the
wrong VFO, but the most offensive calling behaviors are deliberate
and, in my book, skirt dangerously close to malicious interference.  I
do not know what we can collectively do about this, but I have to
believe that education can help those who can be helped and social
pressure may help turn some of the others.  The DX ops have the power
to discourage the behavior in some ways, ranging from "SRI QRM FROM
KI4XXX QRM FROM KI4XXX   KI4XXX PSE WAIT  W2 W2 ONLY KN KN", publicly
embarrasing the offender on the air, listing their calls on websites,
as VK0MM did some years back, or ultimately blacklisting them and
purging them from logs.

I heard an incident during the K5D operation that just delighted me
and, in my view, set a good example on pile-up behavior.  The K5D
operator was working a SSB pile-up by numbers and took several tries
to extract a callsign from the pile-up that should have been 4's,
which as it turned out was an '8' call.  The result was that the K5D
operator said that he would not log the contact, because the call was
out of turn and he asked the operator to call again later with the 8th
call area!  The pile-up seemed to be much better behaved afterwards.

DXing on Topband is difficult enough most of the time, even with a
superb operator such as Jacek on the other end of the path.  Rotten
operating can ruin the Gentlemen's Band for everybody.   Perhaps it's
time to resurrect the Woulf Hong?

73,
Steve
AB4I

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Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 07:57:57 -0500
From: "Diane & Edward Swynar" <deswynar at xplornet.ca>
Subject: Topband: T30RH & Pile-Up Decorum
To: <topband at contesting.com>
Message-ID: <004101cbe247$747b8ac0$660aa8c0 at yourlk4rlmsu41>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

Good Day All,

This morning as I was monitoring the assembled multitude attempting to
contact T30RH, it really struck me as to how folks like Jacek must have the
patience of Job to endure what they do in the mounting of such an effort...

As if the logistics of merely GETTING to some far-flung island country
aren't taxing enough, one must then endure the agony of attempting to
extricate callsigns in the midst of out-of-turn callers and seemingly "deaf"
Hams who continually do little more than sending their callsign over and
over and over again.

This morning was a classic in that regard: poor Jacek REPEATEDLY sent the
broken call of a "K2" station he'd heard, appealing for all others to stand
by---but for all his pleas, he was incessantly deluged by no less than two
other Stateside amateurs (and I use the term amateur both figuratively, AND
literally) who continued honking away with their calls right on top the
2-lander...
<SNIP!>
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