[TowerTalk] Fwd: MFJ QRT on May 17, 2024

[Mike Ryan]

Steve, Be honest. If you were on SSB with your note pad and pencil, with every intent on asking Yang Siyu whether he lived in an apartment, or what  the weather was like at his qth, or what brand of shaving crème he liked, you would never be able to hear the answer. At least 1,000 guys would take you off their Christmas card list to begin with and the rest would be walking all over you and Yang trying to make their contact with him. All of them would simply say 'you're 5 and 9 and many have no idea even what that means and that report may not even be true. It is the world we live in and you know it. I would compare my county count with about anybody's with many contacts on FT8. But many on SSB and CW as well. You do what you can when you are 'fishing'. If the fish are biting on FT8 you go that way. Take it from a pescatologist. Perhaps some extraordinary assumptions were made by John based on what he assumed he could glean from a QRZ page. But FT8, FT4, FT whatever area here to stay. And as a famous NFL quarterback once said, "..you'd better adjust or rust".  Flame on.   - Mike, K4CVL


-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Steve Harrison
Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2024 9:40 AM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fwd: MFJ QRT on May 17, 2024

On 4/28/2024 6:13 AM, John Webster NN1SS wrote:
> WSJTx and its derivatives have created a growing world-wide market for
> small, simple and software-driven. One no longer needs a backyard, a
> tribander and all the "accoutrements" that MFJ sells for global HF
> communications.
>
> Last week I worked BH7HQT on 20m FT8. You can see his apartment "station"
> on QRZ - small, simple, software driven.  The HF bands are now accessible
> to apartment dwellers living in the largest of the world's population
> centers.

Really??

Did he tell you his name?

His QTH, that he lived in an apartment, and on what floor??

What was the weather like there?

What rig was he using, and his antenna? How long has he been a ham? How
many in his family, and is he the breadwinner or a younger guy still
living with his parents?

For that matter, how did you even know whether he was a he, and not a
she, until you looked him up on the internet??

If you know any of that information, did you get any of it over the air,
or did you merely copy it from his qrz.com page?

If the latter, you didn't really have a QSO with him: you merely
exchanged signal reports, and even that very precariously.

Folks who claim they had a "QSO" on FT8 or any other such digital mode
are just fooling themselves... like the emperor without clothes. All you
really do is exchange signal reports, the same as those of us who chase
and work DXpeditions on CW or voice (except we can actually stop for a
moment and say "HI!!").  8-D

Steve, K0XP


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