Phil, I definitely hear what you're saying.  I remember being appalled back 
in the late '80s by some of the folks handling emergency traffic out of 
Jamaica.  One guy was just rude to everyone who tried to take his traffic, 
and there were a lot of QRMers on the nets.  Another time I was calling CQ 
on 10 meters as I recall, and some guy from South America came to my 
frequency and rudely told me that he was going to meet some folks to handle 
emergency traffic, and that was more important than what I was doing.  It 
seems like a lot of the hams involved in emergency or public service work 
just think their defecation isn't odiferous if you get my meaning.  It seems 
to me though that things really got worse in the '80s.  I hadn't seen too 
much bad behavior before then, but the behavior took a dive in the '80s as I 
recall.
I must say though that I've had better experiences with small ham clubs as 
opposed to large ones.  That's probably because an individual is just a 
smaller part of the group.  It also has to do with blindness, and probably 
age too.  Back in the '60s, folks were willing to help out a kid, and maybe 
they still are to some extent, but I'm not a kid any more, so it's hard to 
say there.

Oh yeh, and I had a guy back in the late '80s or early '90s tell me that us 
blind guys should put up a repeater so we could be with our own kind.  I'm 
afraid though that we bring some of that on ourselves.  I know of too many 
cases of blind folks over-depending on sighted assistance.  Also, many blind 
folks will go to a gathering, and just sit in one place without trying to 
mix with the group, and then wonder why nobody talks to them.  I'm probably 
speaking to the choir here, and it's unfortunate, but we do have to put 
ourselves out there if we want recognition.
--
Jim, KE5AL
-----Original Message----- 
From: Phil Scovell
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 10:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Ham Radio Ethics In Decline

It is time to speak out in my opinion.

This topic has come up recently and it put me of a mind when I saw the FCC
letting all the unlicensed, that is, expired licenses, rejoin the ham
community.  I wonder how that is going to change the complexion of what used
to be standard ham radio on the air ethics.

First, when I was 14 and got on the air with my brand new Drake TR4 I got
for Christmas in 1966, the bands were red hot and propagation was wonderful
to all points of the planet.  You could work Europe with a 10 meter dipole
in your attic with 10 watts output.  I remember my very first night on 75
meters.  A non ham, sighted friend, helped me get the radio out of the box,
set things up, and he sat for probably four hours reading the manual to me
as we, together, tried to figure things out.  It was late that night when I
finally got fired up.  I tuned across 75 meters and the band was full of 20
over S9 signals.  Every round table I stopped and listened to made me
nervous because I thought they wouldn't want to talk to a kid.  Finally, I
picked out a group of W5 stations in a large group and broke in.  They
answered me right away and welcome the new kid on the block right in.  In
fact, over the years, as I operated on every band, I never once had a group
tell me to get lost.  I hear it all the time now.  Even in our teenage ham
group that met on 3997 at midnight each night during the summer, we never
turned anybody down that broke in.  We were rowdy, joked around, made light
of life in general, and just horsed around like teens do but we all were
polite to breakers regardless of their age.  We weren't rude, we didn't
deliberately try and leave anyone out, and we often told the breaker, "Look,
just talk when you feel like it.  This isn't a round table and we all run
vox so when you want to comment, just jump right in because it isn't that we
are leaving you out on purpose; we just have a lot of guys in the group and
we forget who all is on frequency."

80 and 75  and 15 meters were always my favorite bands back in those days.
At night, I worked 80 meters often till 5 o'clock in the morning.  I often
broke into a group where I knew no one and found myself never rejected.  I
practiced
the same ethics on all bands and broke into hundreds of groups every band I
worked over many years.  As I already stated, that isn't the case any
longer.  Let me tell
you a personal story first and then I'll mention other events I've
recently copied on air to back up my own experiences.

75 meters has loads of round tables day and night.  There is a group in
Colorado, for example, that started way back in the early seventies.  Most
of the guys were older than me by 20, 30, and 40 years; some even more.  I
was 28
years old at the time.  I was living in western Colorado back then for a
couple of years and in
a small town of 800 people.  We had a total of two hams, by the way, for
such a small town.  I worked this Colorado group on 3898 every morning and
every evening and we were spread out all over the state.  Although many of
the guys have passed away, there is still a considerable group of these guys
left, or who have joined the group, since it's inception.  Several are in
their seventies now, a few in their sixties, like me, and some even younger.
I know
a few of the older guys, some locally from 6 meters, and a couple of others
who were hams back in the seventies when we started the group.  They operate
on a lower frequency now because our group got so large in the late
seventies and early eighties, another group was started down the band.

One of the regulars just turned 70 years of age.  A little over 5 years ago,
this guy, of course, would have been just about 65.  The very first thing he
said to me when running across me on 6 meters was this:  "Phil, if you ever
need any help with antennas or any other ham stuff, let me know.  I'll be
glad to come over and help out."  I explained I was blind and did need help
because I couldn't climb even my 38 foot tower any more due to my spinal
problems and that I had a 40 meter rotatable dipole I wanted to put
up, along with a 3 element 6 meter beam, as well as hanging a G5RV.  By the
way, he asked me what 6 meter antenna I was using now.  I said, "I really
don't want to tell you."  He laughed and said why?"  I said, "Well, I'm
using my R7 vertical at 20 feet on the roof and on a tripod but it isn't
made for 6 meters but I have a
1.4 to 1 SWR anyway and 40 watts output."  This guy laughed again and said
he knew several guys doing the same thing with good results.  That season,
by the way, I worked 36 states and one guy in the Caribbean.  Anyhow, this
guy, quite nice and very friendly, said he had a 70 foot tower and he still
climbs it all the time so he'd be happy to help out.  A friend of his broke
in and we all rag chewed for about 30 minutes like we'd known each other for
years.  You know how real hams are; it's natural to chat about everything.
These two guys are regulars on the Colorado morning and evening group on
3868 that used to be on 3898 in the late seventies I mentioned.

Well, when I talked to these guys on 6 meters just mentioned, it was about 6
months following my purchase of the Icom 7000 with the LDG 1000 Pro auto
tuner, and the AL600 solid state amp by Ameritrone.  I actually had the
equipment, still in their boxes from H R O here in Denver, for several weeks
because I got the Equipment November 7th, 2008 and less than 2 months later,
I came close to being paralyzed from the neck down.  My surgery was in
January of 2009.  I was home from the neck surgery for 2 weeks before I even
had enough strength to stumble out to my office/ham shack, to play around
with my new gear.  Prior to this, I was unable to unpack everything by
myself and lift it so my daughter, she was 30 years old at the time, helped
me arrange everything on a floor-to-ceiling wide bookshelves where I operate
from now.  The only thing which doesn't fit on the bookshelf due to its size
is the AL600 power supply which sits next to the bookshelves on a small
table.  I ran across multiple local hams both on HF and 6 meters and 2
meters running the Icom 7000 so I thought I'd get a lot of help from various
sources of whom I could ask questions.  That never seemed to happen but at
least I figured out enough from trying to read the manual, and my youngest
son, he was 25 at the time, read portions from the manual which I'd already
located in the text version and could tell him the pages I wanted him to
read.  In short, I made
a lot of progress but I'm thinking now of getting the software and using a
netbook to access the functions of the radio, if Jaws works with it, that
is.  Perhaps I can learn more.  I tried using Ham Radio Deluxe but it didn't
work well at all with Jaws.  At any rate, I was pretty much on my own and
still am all these years later.  Nobody can tell me ham radio hasn't
changed.  So,
now back to my story.

I broke in one day on the 3868 Colorado group when I heard a couple of the
guys I'd worked on 6 meters.  I had not yet learned how, on my own, to set
the width of the side band signal.  Before getting on the air, I was told my
audio was fine; don't change a thing, they said on 6 meters.  So I figured I
was safe.  Apparently it wasn't set to wide SSB 100 to 2900 KHz when I broke
in on the HF frequency band.  By the way, I ship the microphone off and had
it modified the first couple of weeks I had it because Icom had been getting
bad reports of narrow audio no matter where you set the width.  I talked
only for about 5 minutes because I
wasn't running much power
but when I signed out, one of the old timers, nearly 80 years of age, whom
I've known from the seventies, and who drinks like a fish, came on and
commented to the group that what he just heard was the worst audio he'd ever
heard.  When he was told I mostly worked CW and probably hadn't gotten used
to adjusting to the settings of a
new radio yet on side band, the guy asked what I was running.  One other
operator said,
"The same as you; an Icom 7000."  He said, "Well, he doesn't know what he is
doing then."  For background, this guy lost his ham call for a year because
he was, back in the late seventies, modifying big amplifiers for CB
operators to use on 11 meters.  He
can't get his old K0 3-letter call back and has a 2 by 2 call now since
those days 40
years ago.  He's also a drunk or what most would call an alcoholic.  He
didn't know me because I had a different call back in the late seventies.
Well, in his state of mind, he probably wouldn't know me regardless of my
call, if you get my meaning.

The guy who offered to help with tower climbing wasn't there so I emailed
him, explained the situation, asking for his help as offered.  I
explained the situation with the drunk in the group down south of Denver.
The guy offered to help all over again and said he'd help get the side band
audio thing adjusted, too, so I could do it on my own.  He never did to this
day.  In the mean time, I figured most of it out myself except for putting
all the pieces of equipment together so I can run a complete station.  I
currently have had back surgery again, 4 times in 3 months, and have some
loss of feeling in my left foot and leg.  I am going tomorrow to be tested
for hearing aids due to the hearing loss that has been creeping up on me in
recent months.  Additionally, I have a vocal cord problem that doesn't let
me speak normally all the time so thank God I'm a CW op and not so much on
side band, haha.  After the big surgery in 09, it took 3 years for the
feeling to return to normal in my numb hands so even typing the code for
awhile was limited.

Now to a couple of more recent stories that show how ham ethics are going
down hill these days.

As I said, I love CW and work it way more than phone and always have.  One
nice thing about CW operating is that you don't hear this exclusionary
characteristic, unethical jamming, and rule and regulation violation going
on
as much in the CW bands.  80 and 20 meters have dozens of nets and round
table bull
sessions day and night.  I sort of get a kick out of listening to various
groups on different bands so let me tell you of a couple to prove my point.

Morning and Evening, there is a group on 14.208 that sound like a bunch of
nice guys.  Over the last couple of years, listening off and on, I've heard
guys trying to break in to join the conversation.  Once in a blue moon,
they are nice but normally the comment on how lousy the guys audio is and
sometimes they literally tell the guy they are busy talking to friends and
to leave them alone, is their normal response.  I've heard them do this many
times so it wasn't just a one time deal.  They go out of their way to ignore
all breakers 99 percent of the time and if one does get through, he is never
talked to again so the guy leaves, of course.  This same behavior is common
on 75 meters.  You will find it most commonly practiced between 3800 and
3870 by big signal stations.  Yes, I've literally heard weaker station break
in and told by the group, this frequency is in use so go away and if you
come back, buy an amplifier first.

The one like this I heard just last night on June 10 on 14.200 which is a
commonly  use frequency by a group of guys around the country later in the
evening hours.  Most run big towers, big amplifiers, big antennas and enjoy
big DX.  So do I and that's why I enjoy listening to these guys.  They often
meet with 9K2GS from Kuwait and visit with other DX stations that come and
go.

Last night, as I started saying, I heard a guy with super bad audio.  I
mean, he sounded like he was talking through sand paper as he talked into
the microphone.  He wasn't as loud as most of the signals on frequency and
doubled a couple of times but I figured he tuned across the band, found a
loud bunch of guys, and wanted a signal report.  He certainly needed some
friendly advice about his modulation and side band quality; that's for sure.
After several tries, he finally got through during a low of transmissions.
N0UN here in the Denver area, answered him and immediately told him he had a
rotten signal and that he was busy trying to talk to his friends.  So, he
invited this poor guy to get a signal and clean it up and go away and leave
him to his conversation with his friends.  I thought, I knew it!  The FCC
must have started having licensed to hams to have their own frequencies and
you should not be bothering them when they are talking to their buddies.
Sad to see ham radio come to this.

One last parting story.  I have never owned a tower above 65 feet.  I've
never had an amp bigger than the SB220 and my two largest antennas were a 4
element 20 and a 2 element 40.  On 80 and 160 I have used wires and shunt
fed the tower.  I still have 316 countries and most of that came with wire
antennas or smaller beams made for low power.  I have 138 countries on 80
meters.

I was invited once to the Mile High DX Club get together.  We had a cook out
over at a guy's QTH who helped me with my first tower and my 40 meter beam
so I went out of respect to him for his friendship and all his radio help.
Sure, I knew some of Colorado's biggest DX contesters personally; some I
knew personally and talked to, not just on the air, but on the phone and
they had been in my home over the years.  People like W0UA, considered by
some to be the best DX contester on the planet, is a jerk but a talented
jerk and a super operator.  Every time I work him, say in WPX, he doubles
his speed because, you see, for years, the DX contesters in Denver knew me
as a high speed QRQ CW operator.  I knew going to the DX Club cook out would
be another lonely get together as far as I was concerned because, #1 I'm
blind, #2 I have a mediocre station, and #3, the guy who picked me up was a
Yellow Cab Driver who did so well, he own his own cab and hired a day
driver.  K0VVV had a big signal; as big as anyone in Denver with a TH6DXX at
132 feet and a 2 element 40 above the tribander at 136 feet.  But, poor old
bob, passed away now apparently, wasn't well liked among the contesters
because he was a common working stiff.  As I said, we took his cab to the
club cook out.  I ended up, after an hour of standing around doing nothing,
sitting down with a couple of real hams, drunk, but real hams and we had a
blast telling ham stories and discussing antennas.  Absolutely no one else
but W0UA, George the contester, said hello to me and he had two because I
was standing with two other guys and George walked up, talked to them, not
me, to them for a few minutes, and then those two walked away.  George said
hello to me, nice meeting you, and disappeared.  The only DX contester I
have met in Denver who wasn't like I describe was W0ZS but he hadn't come to
the party that afternoon so I never met Bill in person but we talked often
on 2 FM we used for a DX notification frequency. K0CL and K0UK and a few
other contesters with big stations have been close friends for years since,
at one time, we all lived in western Colorado.

So, that's my story of how ham radio has changed.  I still enjoy CW and
bless my heart, I copied a 16 year old ham on 20 CW the other day using a
bug so the hobby ain't dead yet.  In another message, I'll tell you what I
am doing to change this form of degrading ham ethics.

Phil.
K0NX