N2EY wrote:
Mike Coslo wrote in message ...

N2EY wrote:


In article , (Steve
Robeson K4CAP) writes:



I wrote a very benign letter to Rich, W2VU at CQ
magazine to try and locate the article that I remembered reading.

Here's why it looks familiar:

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...ews.com&output
=gplain

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...1.deja.com&out
put=gplain

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...1.deja.com&out
put=gplain

I don't read CQ with any regularity so I don't know if it's in there or not.

73 de Jim, N2EY

"My name is Jim and despite being lectured to by numerous 'radio cops' and
'newsgroup cops', I'm still a radio amateur and still online"

It is a good point you make, Jim.


TNX


First time I ever used an autopatch,
a local Ham came on afterward, and let me know about some mistakes I was
making. I thanked him, and we went on our merry ways. Even now, last
weekend, when I was operating in a contest, another Ham came on and
asked if I could move "upwind a bit". I asked him if he had a pref of
how far, he told me, and I moved. We both went on our merry ways.


I've had similar encounters on the air.


Later in the same contest on 20 meters, a Ham (presumably, since he
didn't ID) broke in on a QSO to chastize me for using speech compression
- which I do if I need to.


I asked him if he wanted to make a QSO with
me, and he said "Hell NO, you stupid asshole!"


What's *his* problem? As long as you're not splattering, speech
compression in a contest is a good idea, isn't it? (If you're
splattering, it's a bad idea, period).


I thanked him and noted
that it was good to see there were still gentlemen on the air, and we
both went our merry ways.


bwaahaahaa


Point is that its a big world with all types, and if you are going to
allow one early experience to convince you to call it quits, then you
must have had some interest issues going on.


Maybe.


Lessee, a person studies the writtens, takes the time to learn Morse
code to 13wpm, takes the time and trouble and expense to take the tests.
Then in his first QSO is chastized for using "my first personal is"
instead of "My name is", so they quit?


The person in Hans' story was on a repeater, using an HT. While it's
not stated explicitly, the implication is that the newbie was a
brand-new Tech.

I can only assume Hans is telling the truth, as he seems a pretty
straight shooter to me. I draw a different conclusion tho'. Mr Newbie
Ham was waaaayyy too sensitive, either from embarrassment or ego.


Of course it was a made-up story, as Hans has written.

Well I was originally tinking that, then I read in the googled up
thread you provided where Hans noted that he was a 13wpm general, and
had applied for a job where Hans worked.

Got Me! multi layered leg pulling!


My take on it is somewhat different.

First off, nobody with any sense says "first personal" in normal
conversation. That's cb slang, pure and simple, and it has no place in
amateur radio. Period. If somebody wants to talk like that, 27 MHz is
the place, not 2 meters. Q signals on voice aren't as bad, but they're
usually not good operating practice.

I use QSL in voice contesting simply because everyone eles is doing it,
but in normal QSO's on HF, I use plain english, except when saying
things like QSL card, which is what it's name is. I do use some of the Q
signals when I type tho'. But my skin crawls when I hear somone say HI HI!


But on-air lectures aren't the way to stop those things. Better to
simply set an example and ignore the newbie's mistakes unless they are
rules violations. I've had folks tell me their "first personal here is
Bob" and I simply reply "my name is Jim" and on with the conversation.
Pretty soon they get the idea that a one-syllable word that everyone
recognizes is better than four syllables in two words, without any
lectures. Even if they don't pick up on the example, it's not illegal,
just silly.

The second thing about the story that I find odd is that 'Jim" didn't
appear to listen to how hams talk on the air before jumping in. Most
newcomers I've come across at least do that for a short time, getting
the feel for the form of a contact and other practices before talking.
They tend to imitate what they hear, too.

The third thing is that even though the lecturer took great pains to
be nice, 'Jim' was still driven off.

The moral of Hans' story seems to be "Don't ever tell anybody how to
operate, no matter how nicely, because they might be driven off." The
implication seems to be that we should accept any sort of behavior
on-air, rather than risk offending anybody. The paradox is that the
story has the tone of a lecture!

When I started out way back in 1967, ARRL sent me an article called
"Your Novice Accent" that explained in clear terms how-to and
how-not-to. Of course it was aimed at the typical crystal-controlled
CW-using Novice of those days, but the concept was sound.


We cannot control how others talk. The simple attempt to control teh
behavior often reinforces the behavior.


Yep. But that does not mean "anything goes". Which will happen if we
keep *too* quiet.


73 de Jim, N2EY

...who does not say "destinated" either......


No one should misunderestimate your strategery, eh?


OT story: Some time back, a telephone conversation with some service
desk or other resulted in the person on the other end asking for my
"social". I had no idea what she meant, asked her to repeat it a few
times, etc. She actually started to get impatient, as if I were
playing games with here or just being a bit dim.

Finally she said she just needed the last four digits. Finally dawned
on me that what she wanted was my social security number! (It was an
appropriate request for the call). I'd never heard that one before. I
must be getting old....

Same thing happened to me. I was purchasing a fitness loft pass at the
University, and the nice young lady asked for my "soch". Fortunately,
she saw that I was an OF, and said "Oh, that means your Social Security
number".

- mike KB3EIA -