View Single Post
  #17   Report Post  
Old March 16th 07, 10:34 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated
Dave Platt Dave Platt is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 464
Default Public service and ham radio

In article ,
Ivor Jones wrote:

Sorry, but I'm one of those. I *don't* have time, I have a full time job
and I volunteer for an animal rescue charity at the weekends, plus all the
normal family/household things that most people do. Besides, what training
is necessary to pass radio messages..? Don't we already know how to do
that..?


Some do. Some do not. It does not come naturally.

Chatting with someone on the radio, or making HF QSOs, is not
necessarily going to prepare you for passing formal or semi-formal
message traffic *efficiently* on a busy net, when you and everyone
else are under stress in an emergency.

Things like "listen before you transmit", "don't read the message
faster than you can write it", "pause and drop carrier after every N
words", "don't editorialize", "think of what you're going to say
before you press PTT", and so forth don't come automatically,
and it's disturbingly easy to forget them when under pressure. I
believe that's just as true for "quarter century" hams as it is for
the newly licensed.

A message-net (formal or otherwise) with well-practiced operators can
be a joy to observe. Just one or two untrained or out-of-practice ops
can slow things to a crawl.

My own experience, after five years as a ham and after dozens of
training sessions and drills, is simply this: training and regular
practice makes a huge difference.

I remember reading a comment by Vladimir Horowitz, some years ago,
about his piano practice. He said something to the effect of "If I
skip my scales practice for a day, I can tell the difference in how
well I play. If I skip it for two days, my wife can tell. If I skip
it for three days, everybody can tell."

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!