There are times when I am proud to be a radio amateur, such as when I see the selfless effort of disaster relief efforts or the bright shinning faces of scouts and guides around the microphone at JOTA. I see the the generosity of amateurs spending their own time and money to help novices get their licences and offering them equipment free of charge to get them started. It feels good to be part of such a community.
Several times today I was not so proud. I was listening to a large net this morning on 40m when an OK station started tuning on the band and then launched into "CQ contest" mode. He apparently could not hear at least 12 stations who told him the frequency was in use even when some of them cranked up their power to the full legal limit. I added his call to my blacklist of stations who I will not give points to in the future. Tuning through the band I heard nets on 80m having the same problems. Down on the CW sections of most bands there were SSB contest stations and I heard someone say that when the CW contest is on the CW guys don't stay out of the SSB section so why should he care? Decorum gentlemen! Then no doubt because the bands were chaoticly full two stations came on to 60m and proceeded to send some data, which I later found was some slowscan pictures. A conversation followed that included the phrase "We will have to find out how we get an NoV (notice of variation) for this band." So who were these pirates? I will not name and shame them here but the call signs were a G6 (1981 - 1983) and a G2 (1920 - 1939 reissued 1946 and probably an inherited call sign) who have been licenced long enough to know better. A little later I heard what was obviously a revenge attack, using that favorite of todays contesters, a voice keyer sending CQ CQ CQ without a break on top of a well know contest station.
It was not all bad though I did have a great laugh at the expense of a certain 2E0 station and his calling CQ contest in a fake American accent. What a hambarassment! What an idiot!
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