Re: Topband: gentlemen's band
Right on Mike, About two or three years ago there was a distinct deterioration of operational courtesy on what had been known as the Gentleman's Band. This was noted by an number of posts to this reflector. Again, there was an obvious explanation, although I don't recall it being mentioned. The reason for the bad behavior was caused by the immigration of frustrated HF'ers to 160, which was then in great shape for DX. The improvement over the next couple of years coincided with the (anemic) return of sunspots, which encouraged these migrants to return to their home bands. However, there are still occasions of poor behavior. In many cases this is purely accidental , such as this morning when, still half asleep, I sent my call two or three times on the frequency of 9M4SLL. This was answered by a single gentlemanly up, whereupon I 'silently stole away', feeling like a fool. My embarassment was lessened a few minutes later by a much more prominent top-bander making the same mistake with the same courteous result. No cacophony of up lid, idiot, cops QSY, etc. etc. Bert, VE3QAA On 10/03/2013 2:19 PM, Mike Armstrong wrote: Guys, I think the explanation for why 160 (and the dx crowd on 80, too... not necessarily the 75 meter throw a wire in the air rag chew crowd) are more gentlemanly (and ladies, of course) is very simple. It is REALLY simple to explain: To put a decent signal out on those bands takes some very real effort. Generally speaking you cannot buy your way to a great signal on those bands It takes thought and effort to be successful there. Only the most dedicated of hams will even attempt it and those dedicated hams are gentlemen everywhere they operate. Their dedication to the hobby being the thing. The non-dedicated (lazy, if you will) hams don't even try to put a signal there. Thus, those who don't appreciate the hobby (and what it is for or what it can do) are automatically excluded. Those are usually the people whose manners are less than savory. I can hear the cries and gnashing of teeth already starting, so before it does: I AM NOT SAYING that those who only operate the higher bands aren't dedicated or gentlemen! There are numerous reasons for why an individual ham can or simply desires to operate the higher bands exclusively. One being property limitations, obviously! Inability to get sufficient free time, at night, to operate those bands for DX would be another rather obvious reason. Thus, the 160 crowd seems to be a somewhat older group of people (read that: retired). What I AM SAYING IS that those who make the attempt to put good signals on the low bands must be pretty dedicated because it does take such a terrific effort as compared to the higher bands. A natural follow-on conclusion is that the lousy operators are generally lazy, don't appreciate the hobby to begin with and won't put out the effort involved in low band operation. So, as I said above, they are almost always automatically excluded from the low band DX world. It is like a natural filter. But, like I said, that doesn't mean that ALL high band ops aren't gentlemen. It just means that most, if not all, non-gentlemen will almost surely be high band only operators. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions, not the rule. I guess the correlation is that Gentlemen Hams = Dedicated Hams no matter where they operate Same holds true the other way around in that Dedicated Hams = Gentlemen Hams. At least that has been MY experience over the last 50+ years of my personal ham operation. Show me someone who isn't dedicated to this hobby and I can almost invariably count on the fact that they will be the ones who misbehave or don't care about whether they learn proper operating procedures. They just don't care. Again, you CANNOT be a don't care ham AND put out a worthy signal on 160/80 I just don't think it is possible. Well, maybe, but still you know what I mean. When you add in the difficulties involved in just plain DXing on those two bands, the reasons for gentlemanly behavior become critical. Contact throughput is pretty slow on those bands under the best of conditions Deep fades, high noise, you name it.. If you add misbehavior or rudeness to the mix, it is almost impossible to have successful DX contacts there, right? So those who are simply selfish have a reason to display gentlemanly behavior there. If for no other reason. LOL. Lots of words And I said it was simple to explain LOL Sorry about that :) Take care and great DXing, Mike AB7ZU (who ALWAYS aspires to be a gentleman on any band) Kuhi no ka lima, hele no ka maka On Mar 9, 2013, at 19:26, Mark Lunday mlun...@nc.rr.com wrote: Wonderful. It restores my faith in the hobby when I hear this courteous and professional behavior. Mark Lunday, WD4ELG -Original Message- From: Topband
Re: Topband: gentlemen's band
On Sun, 2013-03-10 at 11:19 -0700, Mike Armstrong wrote: Guys, I think the explanation for why 160 (and the dx crowd on 80, too... not necessarily the 75 meter throw a wire in the air rag chew crowd) are more gentlemanly (and ladies, of course) is very simple. It is REALLY simple to explain: --snipped - see original post for all of the text--- Take care and great DXing, Mike AB7ZU (who ALWAYS aspires to be a gentleman on any band) Hi Mike, I took a couple sips of coffee and opened the pressure relief valve for a few minutes - playing with unsavory adjectives in my head (evil grin). Maybe your doctoral thesis is a bit of an oversimplification but is probably a good, partial diagnosis (grin). I've been a ham only a little over 30 years and I have noticed that Lids have always existed. No band or mode is really an exception. We are not allowed to toss them into a dungeon, burn them at the stake, or anything so we just have to work our way around them the best we can. The only thing that will have any effect and only on a few of them is shunning. That's not very effective among religious sects and probably is futile in ham radio too. Just we don't have to associate with those Lids. Mostly when I encounter those hams I feel more sympathy than rage (yes some irritation, too). They truly have no clue about life itself and being a ham Lid is the least of their problems. It may help your stomach erosion the next time you encounter those *!*#'s to take a breath and say aloud to yourself there but for the grace of God go I. See you on the bands. 73, Bill KU8H _ Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: gentlemen's band
Wonderful. It restores my faith in the hobby when I hear this courteous and professional behavior. Mark Lunday, WD4ELG -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of N7DF Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 6:31 AM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Topband: gentlemen's band The TX5K SSB operation last night on 160 was a joy to listen to everyone stood by for the station being called and paid attention to the DX operator's instructions quite a contrast to some of the higher bands _ Topband Reflector _ Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: gentlemen's band
Guys, I think the explanation for why 160 (and the dx crowd on 80, too... not necessarily the 75 meter throw a wire in the air rag chew crowd) are more gentlemanly (and ladies, of course) is very simple. It is REALLY simple to explain: To put a decent signal out on those bands takes some very real effort. Generally speaking you cannot buy your way to a great signal on those bands It takes thought and effort to be successful there. Only the most dedicated of hams will even attempt it and those dedicated hams are gentlemen everywhere they operate. Their dedication to the hobby being the thing. The non-dedicated (lazy, if you will) hams don't even try to put a signal there. Thus, those who don't appreciate the hobby (and what it is for or what it can do) are automatically excluded. Those are usually the people whose manners are less than savory. I can hear the cries and gnashing of teeth already starting, so before it does: I AM NOT SAYING that those who only operate the higher bands aren't dedicated or gentlemen! There are numerous reasons for why an individual ham can or simply desires to operate the higher bands exclusively. One being property limitations, obviously! Inability to get sufficient free time, at night, to operate those bands for DX would be another rather obvious reason. Thus, the 160 crowd seems to be a somewhat older group of people (read that: retired). What I AM SAYING IS that those who make the attempt to put good signals on the low bands must be pretty dedicated because it does take such a terrific effort as compared to the higher bands. A natural follow-on conclusion is that the lousy operators are generally lazy, don't appreciate the hobby to begin with and won't put out the effort involved in low band operation. So, as I said above, they are almost always automatically excluded from the low band DX world. It is like a natural filter. But, like I said, that doesn't mean that ALL high band ops aren't gentlemen. It just means that most, if not all, non-gentlemen will almost surely be high band only operators. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions, not the rule. I guess the correlation is that Gentlemen Hams = Dedicated Hams no matter where they operate Same holds true the other way around in that Dedicated Hams = Gentlemen Hams. At least that has been MY experience over the last 50+ years of my personal ham operation. Show me someone who isn't dedicated to this hobby and I can almost invariably count on the fact that they will be the ones who misbehave or don't care about whether they learn proper operating procedures. They just don't care. Again, you CANNOT be a don't care ham AND put out a worthy signal on 160/80 I just don't think it is possible. Well, maybe, but still you know what I mean. When you add in the difficulties involved in just plain DXing on those two bands, the reasons for gentlemanly behavior become critical. Contact throughput is pretty slow on those bands under the best of conditions Deep fades, high noise, you name it.. If you add misbehavior or rudeness to the mix, it is almost impossible to have successful DX contacts there, right? So those who are simply selfish have a reason to display gentlemanly behavior there. If for no other reason. LOL. Lots of words And I said it was simple to explain LOL Sorry about that :) Take care and great DXing, Mike AB7ZU (who ALWAYS aspires to be a gentleman on any band) Kuhi no ka lima, hele no ka maka On Mar 9, 2013, at 19:26, Mark Lunday mlun...@nc.rr.com wrote: Wonderful. It restores my faith in the hobby when I hear this courteous and professional behavior. Mark Lunday, WD4ELG -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of N7DF Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 6:31 AM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Topband: gentlemen's band The TX5K SSB operation last night on 160 was a joy to listen toeveryone stood by for the station being called and paid attention to the DX operator's instructions quite a contrast to some of the higher bands _ Topband Reflector _ Topband Reflector _ Topband Reflector
Re: Topband: gentlemen's band
This is really good! Let us try to keep it that way by example. Raoul ZS1REC From: Mark Lunday mlun...@nc.rr.com To: 'N7DF' n...@yahoo.com; topband@contesting.com Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2013 4:26 AM Subject: Re: Topband: gentlemen's band Wonderful. It restores my faith in the hobby when I hear this courteous and professional behavior. Mark Lunday, WD4ELG -Original Message- From: Topband [mailto:topband-boun...@contesting.com] On Behalf Of N7DF Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 6:31 AM To: topband@contesting.com Subject: Topband: gentlemen's band The TX5K SSB operation last night on 160 was a joy to listen to everyone stood by for the station being called and paid attention to the DX operator's instructions quite a contrast to some of the higher bands _ Topband Reflector _ Topband Reflector _ Topband Reflector
