Subj : Re: radio check
To : DaiTengu
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Feb 02 2023 01:22 am
This will be a long reply, but you struck a nerve (hi hi).
Da> Oh, you're one of them gatekeepers. You know, the ones that would
Da> rather see ham radio die a death of attrition rather than let in young
Da> people that could contribute and progress the hobby.
The young people nowadays are more enamored into their tablets and
smartphones, and couldn't give a rats rear end about the history, current
state, or future of ANY hobby. Another hobby I'm in, square dancing, is
the exact same way.
As a side note, there are "dancing hams"...their National Square Dance
Convention (R) (NSDC) usually falls on the same weekend as Field Day every
year. When I was able to attend (from 1986 to 2002...although I wasn't
licensed until August, 1991), I'd run into these fellow hams. We'd pick
a simplex frequency to decide where to square dance (we all liked the same
callers), eat (of course...H.A.M. stands for "Have Another Meal", and you
don't call us "late for dinner" (hi hi)), sightsee, etc. With the out of
band receive on our HT's, we could monitor the weather, in case thunderstorms
were nearing the area (that happened at more than one convention), and alert
folks if severe weather was approaching. Lightning can strike from 20 to
nearly 500 miles from the parent thunderstorm (that has been documented).
At the 1997 NSDC in Orlando, Florida...the last night of the convention,
I was taking the shuttle bus from the Orange County Convention Center back
to the hotel to change clothes for the evening dancing. Just before we got
to my hotel off of International Drive, a tropical thunderstorm broke...and
the driver quipped "looks like they're evacuating the water parks". That
brought raucous laughter from the bus passengers...but, you really don't
need to be in the water with lightning around.
Anyway, we got to my hotel off of International Drive (one of the main
drags down there), and at the entrance to the hotel was a removable sign
that said "STOP! SECURITY CHECK". Now, I can deal with that, as you don't
want non-guests in the hotel. Well, behind the sign in his car was the
security guard, and he wouldn't move his car or the sign. The NSDC starts
on the Wednesday afternoon, and went the next 3 days through the evening
of the 4th Saturday in June...so he should've known the bus was to be let
in.
Yet, the guard wouldn't move his car or the sign, and our bus ended up
getting "boxed in", with that sign at the front, and from the traffic on
International Drive at the back. The driver hit the horn, and the guard
did nothing. When the driver got out to ask the guard to move the sign,
without any warning the guard punched the driver in the face, knocking
him to the ground!! The ladies on the bus started screaming (can you
blame them??).
Another guard pulled the guard who had assaulted the bus driver off
of him. By this time, the driver, bloodied and disoriented, staggered
back to the bus. I stepped off the bus, fired up my HT, found a local
repeater, keyed it up, and said "QST!! QST!! QST!! MAYDAY!! MAYDAY!!
This is N5VLZ (my first callsign), Portable 4. I have Emergency Traffic.
Can anyone copy?? Over".
Static crash from a close lightning strike...nothing. So, I did it
again. On the second time, a ham radio operator in Kissimmee heard me,
and I gave him the info. He called 911, sending the police department
and paramedics to the scene. The driver ended up being taken by ambulance
to an area hospital, and the guard was arrested, based on the reports
given. I did "return the repeater to normal use" after I got finished.
The Good Lord was watching over me for 2 reasons. First, the guard had
a gun, and he could've shot me dead...and second, I had a metal antenna
on the HT, which was a perfect lightning rod. I had already experienced
indirect lightning strikes when I was 3 and 16 in Miami, and I didn't
want the third time to "be the charm". With the nervous system damage,
my hands shake like I have Parkinson's disease, so there's no way I could
operate a keyer properly.
After I got back on the bus, the folks said "You saved his life", and
I said "This is what amateur radio operators prepare for...emergency
communications". I was shaking so bad from the adrenaline rush when I
got back to the Orange County Convention Center, that I couldn't dance;
so I headed back to the hotel to pack up to fly back to Little Rock the
next morning.
As a side note, the previous September, I was flying to Dallas for a
square dance weekend, but there were tornadoes in Arkansas during that
afternoon and evening (Skywarn was what got me into ham radio in 1991,
and I've been doing traffic nets ever since). Well, the flight got
delayed, and I finally got down to Dallas, but my bags were still on
the ground in Little Rock. Southwest Airlines delivered the luggage
the next morning. On Sunday, on the way back, they got into an oversell
situation (more tickets had been sold than there were seats available).
Figuring I could get another flight out, as there were several between
Dallas and Little Rock, I chose to get "bumped". But, the next flight
was much smaller, and I ended up spending the night in Dallas, at the
airlines expense. But, the travel voucher I got made the roundtrip
fare to Orlando only $17!! Now, that's how to be a frugal cheapskate
(hi hi).
Back to the incident, it ended up going to a jury trial, and the
state of Florida flew me back there on Easter Weekend (it was NOT my
idea of a Florida vacation). I mentioned my work with amateur radio
and emergency communications, and my last statement to the attorneys
was that "I was siding with the bus driver...because we had no trouble
the first 3 days of the convention...and I saw no reason why I should
change my stance now". From what I understand, the guard was convicted
of aggravated assault, and there was also a civil suit against the
hotel and security company, but I didn't hear of the outcome.
Yet, having the memory of saving someone's life with amateur radio,
you never forget that.
Da> I'm one of them "dumbed-down no-code" licensees. Anyone who came to
Da> this hobby in the last 16 years was not required to learn a lick of
Da> morse code, but quite a few of them eventually did.
I am one of them as well...and originally planned on staying with the
Technician Class license. Five months after my wife died in April, 2007,
for grins (or gits and shiggles (hi hi)), I decided to try and upgrade
with HamTestOnline. I studied 2 hours a day for 2 weeks, and passed it.
The Volunteer Examiners asked if I wanted to upgrade to Extra, and I
said "Yes, but not today". Back to HamTestOnline for 2 hours a day, and
13 days later, I *barely* passed the Amateur Extra exam...but "a win by
1 is as good as a win by 10". I did try a 5 WPM CW exam before that
requirement was ended, but failed the test. Had I filled in the blanks,
I might have passed it, but it's a moot point now. HamTestOnline was
the best money I ever spent in ham radio.
Shortly thereafter, I became a Volunteer Examiner with ARRL/VEC, and
have been a VE Team Liaison for 15 years. It has been the most rewarding
thing I've ever done in the hobby. While I had to become an Amateur Extra
to be a VE Team Liaison, when I'm on the air for nets, I operate in the
Technician privileges, as I enjoy them.
Da> I've done a lot of listening on 75m, and all I've heard is old men
Da> talking about their colonoscopies, spreading conspiracy theories, and
Da> bitching about "those damn kids" that are on "their lawns".
I've heard of the same thing...and that's not what ham radio is about.
As Linus Van Pelt of "Peanuts" noted, "I don't discuss religion, politics,
or The Great Pumpkin". The last time I operated HF was on Memorial Day
Weekend 2009, aboard the Arkansas And Missouri Railroad Troop Train, with
a 20 meter hamstick, and an Icom 718, from a restored 1927 Harlan and
Hollingsworth passenger car, from a very cramped conductor's cabin. There
is a hyperlink in my ham radio bio, off of the first hyperlink on my QRZ
profile...where you can see me operating 20 meter HF railroad mobile.
With medical conditions now (congestive heart failure), and the high
occurrence of lightning here during thunderstorms, I operate "internet
radio" (no RF gear), but when I noted this at a hamfest forum I did back
in 2020 (details below), I said "at least my license isn't just a piece
of paper", and I got an ovation for it!! I've known several hams who
spent the time and money to study and get their license, but they don't
do a thing in the hobby. To me, that's a waste of time.
Now, one of the local area TV meteorlogists is also a ham radio operator,
but he and his wife work, and they have 2 young boys. He puts church,
family, and job, first...and I can NOT fault him for that at all. Plus,
the Warnings Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service
in North Little Rock is also a ham radio operator.
Da> Code proficency has nothing to do with how well or how poorly you
Da> operate a radio. Every person in the US passed the same basic test or
Da> set of tests. They haven't changed that much in the last 20+years.
And, there's nothing in the Question Pools about things like On The Air
Etiquette. I prepared a PowerPoint Presentation, called "You're Licensed:
Now What??", and did that at an area hamfest 3 years ago, before Covid-19
shut everything down. I recently updated the file, and converted the
PowerPoint Presentation to PDF format. It's available at the first
hyperlink off of my QRZ bio, along with Excel Spreadsheets of selected
D-Star, Echolink, and D-Rats Nets...plus PDF files related to ham radio.
Folks can use the info, as long as I'm given credit for it.
Da> Today it makes no difference if the code you know is CW, or Python.
Da> And there is no reason for it. If you want to learn, great!
Da> fantastic! If not, there's tons of other things to do on the radio.
Plus, the nets cover several subjects besides amateur radio. The QuadNet
Array (
https://openquad.net) has several nets during the week...some of
them include nets for the Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA),
the Young Operators Digital Voice Net (run by a 14 year old young lady,
whose parents are also licensed...she passed her Technician, General, and
Amateur Extra (no-code) within 3 months at only 9 years of age), plus nets
on RV's and Camping, Trains And Railroading, Astronomy, Food, plus the
Multimode Digital Voice Net, and the HotSpot Raspberry Pi, Single Board
Computer (SBC) and ZumSpot Net, among others. I don't know much about a
Raspberry Pi...but a pineapple upside down cheesecake sounds awfully good
right now (hi hi).
During the week, I personally run 3 nets for the QCWA...their CQ100
VoIP Net, their Sunflower Net (sponsored by QCWA Chapter 79 in Wichita,
Kansas), and their Digital Net. I also do the HotSpot Raspberry Pi
SBC and ZumSpot Net, the Trains Net, and the once a month Food Net.
You have plenty of ham radio operators that check into nets, but it's
like pulling teeth to get them to volunteer to be Net Control, a club
officer, or a hamfest worker. When folks complained about the way I
did things, I asked if they wanted to do the work. They immediately
backpedaled, saying "No Way"...so I said "It's Put Up Or Shut Up".
Plus, I'm not holding a gun to anyone's head to make them checkin
to my nets. I want them to do it, because they WANT to, and NOT because
they have to...and the same thing applies to CW. Within 2 weeks either
side of when the FCC dropped the 5 WPM CW exam in late February, 2007
(the 13 and 20 WPM CW exams were dropped in April, 2000; with only the
5 WPM CW exam remaining), VibroPlex (who makes CW keyers) had their
phones "ringing off the wall". Folks are finding out that CW IS FUN,
and they are learning it because they WANT to, and NOT because they
HAVE to. When the CW requirement was in place, I knew several hams
who did CW long enough to pass the exam. Afterwards, they never used
a keyer again.
There is something in amateur radio for everybody...and things that
you may love in the hobby, others couldn't care less about. For me,
contesting was never my cup of tea. My niches are doing traffic nets,
ragchewing, license exams, and doing forum presentations for new hams.
Plus, I don't spend every waking moment with my hobbies (ham radio,
square dancing, or the BBS). I do the very minimum required, then quit
for the day, as burnout can become a real threat in a hurry.
The one thing that burns me up are these "Net Hoppers", who I refer
to as "Hi, Bye, and QSY". It's "Net Control, please checkin [callsign],
[name], [location], no traffic, short time"...and NOT a minute later,
they are doing the SAME THING on another net. In those Excel Net List
spreadsheets noted earlier, one night of the week has 6 nets meeting
at the same time!! Another ham radio operator, who's involved in CERT
(Community Emergency Response Team) wondered "Do they even have a life
outside ham radio??". Hams need to face the fact that "the world, ham
radio, and nets, don't revolve around anyone...you, me, or anyone else."
There is no prize, bonus, award, certificate, etc., for seeing how many
nets you can check into, in a day or evening. To me, hams who are doing
this are in the hobby for their ego.
Lastly, another file I have on that hyperlink off of my QRZ bio, is
a lengthy file on ham radio humor. If you can't laugh, after reading
the items in that file, then as the late Jerry Clower noted, "You need
to go home and look in the mirror, and see what everyone else has been
laughing at all these years".
Daryl, WX4QZ
... Do NOT try to cure this ham. - DE WX4QZ
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