Topband: What IS troubling about this report

[Gary Smith]

What is sad to me is all of the bad things that have been mentioned 
are seen affecting every DXpedetion or unusual DX working today. It's 
not just the common experience of dealing with these LIDS, it is the 
unrelenting, continuous experience of it. I'm sure there isn't one 
example of stupidity in operation I can comment on that isn't 
familiar to each of us.

I was listening to a pileup from the E3 and some lid East NE from my 
oceanside QTH kept calling; NA NA NA only NA NA NA ad nauseum. Then 
came OBAMA OBAMA NA NA NA. It's obvious the guy is mentally disturbed 
but that's tough to keep listening to when you're trying to hear a 
faint DX signal through him. It sure would have been helpful if the 
E3 would have shifted Tx freq a bit. Somebody sent something back to 
the lid about his mother and amazingly the QRM stopped with that but 
moments later so did the E3. The LID got his wish.

As many have mentioned, the incessant calling when the the DX is not 
calling to them is pervasive and also seemingly eternal, crosses 
international sources and is by no means confined to new hams who 
don't know the code. I was curious to listen to the people calling 
the DX, as if I were the DX, and listened with the main & sub on the 
K3, the DX in the left ear & the pileup in the right.

It was incredible to hear so many older calls were completely 
ignoring who the DX was trying to pull out; The DX calls AA2? and 
W1..., KP4..., W5.. not to mention myriads of EU and SA are calling 
in the pileup, calls that long predate any no-code licensing period. 
These guys know exactly what they are doing and it is intentional QRM 
of a different sort. I do feel rankled when people blame this on the 
no-code licensees. I got my Extra back 35 years ago so I have no dog 
in this no-code = bad CW operators in the pileups hunt. Seems to me 
the vast majority of offenders are long term hams who have lost their 
upbringing.

One more thing I lament tremendously (non-pileup related), is the 
lack of interest in name, real signal report & QTH with a QSO 
now-a-days. I understand computer logging makes so much irrelevant 
like name/QTH and that a signal report is sort of useless anyway as 
someone with an indoor dipole in the basement won't give or get the 
same report as a triband would give at the same QTH, but it is 
tradition. For sure, only rarely with todays radios worldwide do I 
hear bad signals. But... I feel badly when I make a non-DXpedetion Q 
and I send 579   name is Gary   QTH CT and get a TU CQ CQ CQ DE XYZ 
in return.

When I hear a bad signal on the air, I now-a-days send them an email 
telling them date time freq & what their signal sounds like, I would 
want to know if my signal was defective. Amazing how very few replies 
I get back from those comments. Makes me wonder if they like that 
situation as it makes their signal stand out over the clean ones.

I heard JA1NUT CQing on 15M CW & remembered his QSL card from 
ragchews long ago, gave him a call & had a45 minute ragchew with him, 
the first CW ragchew I've had in years it seems. Our first QSO was in 
87, had a couple more till 97 and hadn't heard him till this this one 
in 2014. During the QSO we both lamented the loss of CW ragchews and 
the vogue contest-like/minimalist-style QSOs of today. I really 
appreciated that QSO with him.

One of the things I like about this and its brother-"contesting" 
forums is what seems to be a common bond of interest in maintaining 
dignity in Ham Radio, and achieving a station that hears well and 
transmits well. I always look to see what new email comes into this 
folder for I know that among us are the people that make Ham Radio 
fun and something to share with newcomers to the hobby.

These other people who don't listen or think when they transmit are 
beyond my 
comprehension.

73,

Gary
KA1J

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