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 ******************************* Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 07:57:57 -0500 From: "Diane & Edward Swynar" <[email protected]> Subject: Topband: T30RH & Pile-Up Decorum To: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <004101cbe247$747b8ac0$660aa8c0@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!> ************************************ _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
