I think I discovered a new ham's creed listening to a big group of W5 stations this week that I wanted to run by you just for fun.  From Colorado, I copy no fewer than a dozen, normally quite large, with big signals, of W5 stations from 36 30 up to almost 4.0 MHz any given night of the week.  Few of them are less than S9 and most are 20 over S9 and occasionally, some are 40 over S9 but that doesn't happen often on my S meter even with local Denver Stations.  I always enjoy listening to these open round tables because often, during the joking and reminiscing, I learn a lot about DX activity, amplifiers, and especially antennas.  Before I tell you what I learned must be a new ham creed, let me give you an example.  I was told by my Elmer 46 years ago, or longer, that when working CW, if you called CQ at 30 WPM, or regardless of how fast, if the calling station is running even 5 words per minute, you drop your speed to match his.  For example, I was just below 3600 the other night and I called CQ at about 25 WPM.  A W7 3 letter call, which normally would mean someone older than I and more experienced, called me at not much more than 5 Words Per Minute.  So, as I have for decades, I dropped to his speed and replied.  We talked for about 45 minutes at that speed.  come to find out, he was in his sixties and retired and had just gotten his first ticket 3 years ago.  He was trying to get his speed up.  thus the slow 5 WPM.  Once he upgraded, he applied for this 1 by 3 callsign and got it.  Yes, I enjoy CW even at 5 WPM and sometimes lower if the guy is really green.  After my brother in law, for example, passed his novice, I moved to western Colorado to be an assistant pastor in a small town church.  the town was about 800 people in population and the church had about 60 people.  I had weekly schedules with my brother in law and until he got his phone license, we each had a list a mile long from our wives, who are sisters, for which they wanted questions answered.  Once he got his phone license, we began weekly sideband schedules but guess who did all the talking?  Yep, the two sisters.  Anyhow, Bob, my brother in law, was so nervous in a crowded 40 meter novice band that I had to literally send 2 and 3 WPM for him to get everything I was saying.  In the clear, of course, he probably could have done better than 5 WPM because he'd passed the test, but I didn't mind sending 2 words per minute.  After all, I'd done it for others and dozens of times over the years.  So, I'm just explaining that this was how I was taught.  furthermore, if you heard someone splattering up and down the band on sideband, you politely broke in, told him about it, and generally the man thanked you for letting him know and made adjustments to fix the problem.  Don't ever do that now in today's ham world unless you know the person as well as your own kin.  I'm not joking.  So, now to the new ham's creed.

I was listening to a group, I believe this was on 3930 but I listen to so many round tables when tuning the bands, some on a nightly bases, it could have been elsewhere on the band.  Anyhow, a half a dozen guys were 20 to 30 over.  big signals on my gage because on 80 meters, I have a steady S9 line noise so anything under 5 over S9, I can't copy well.  these boys were loud, in other words, and often such stations are running pretty big amplifiers which put out a lot more than the legal limit, if you get my meaning, than the 1500 watts we are allowed.  If a signal is clean, I could care less how much power he is running but I'm funny about that than , no, I have never run more than about 1.2 KW output with the modified SB220 I had years ago.  For my first 300 DX CC countries, I had an amp that only put out 700 watts.  Now I run 500 watts.  So, as I was saying, or suggesting, these W5 big round tables, everybody normally running vox so that's why I call them open round tables, are generally pretty friendly to new comers but you have to be loud or they forget you are there and this brings me to what I heard one of the big signals say just this week to another ham on his frequency.  That wasn't a typo.  These guys have often commanded a particular frequency for literally decades and they ain't going to move for anybody.  I've seen them literally move off frequency, tell the station too close to their quiet channel to move, and if he does?  They all move down on top of him and talk as if he isn't there.  Yes, the offending station, who didn't know he was intruding on to someone private frequency, ends up moving just to get away from them.  When he does, the original group just goes back to their private channel once again.  they generally require at least 3 KHz above and below them to consider their channel to be quiet and called a clear channel.  I've also seen traffic nets start up, the net control to be breaking in and asking them to move for 30 minutes while they conduct their net, and most of the time, the big guns refuse to me because they were there first.

A guy would must have been just over S9, and was also a W5, but not running his amplifier and was a new comer to this group, got the big guns riled up a little because they claimed they could not hear him well due to his pour signal strength.  He was 20 to 30 DB weaker but as I said, if I could hear him, he had to be above S9 but not much more than that.  Anyhow, they got to ragging on him because he wouldn't turn on his amp, if he even had one, which he claimed he did, but he said, if you are copying me now, what do I need all that extra power for.  Well, shoot, the old boy does have a point because, if I'm not mistaken, the FCC rules and regs do say to use the least amount of power necessary to maintain communications.  Nobody I know, in all my hears as a ham, ever has practice that rule and it is sort of a silly one anyhow.  Because, unless you are running 30 or 40 or 50 KW, whose going to be able to tell how much power you are putting out.  Even the FCC doesn't bother with that rule unless someone is grossly misusing it and causing loads of interference but I digress.  So, the low power guy, weaker station, and the big guns kept arguing that he should crank up the power because, these guys, running 2 holer amps, with 3 and 4 K output, 100 to 180 foot towers, and inverted vees hanging from the tops of their towers, claimed they couldn't copy this weaker guy better.  I'm using a G5RV at 35 feet with an S9 noise level and I'm copying every freaking word the guy says.  Sure, he was weaker, way weaker, than the big boys, but the old guy, as I said, had a point.  Plus, I thought it was sort of funny he was pissing off the big boys with his weaker signal.  I believe he was doing it on purpose, not turning on his amp, because he was trying to prove that these guys only like talking to new people if they have big signals.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the old boy, the weaker station, was yanking their chain just a might.  Well, here is what a big gun on that frequency said to the weaker station.  He finally gave his call, something often forgotten in these larger round tables that are open ended, and he told the little station the following.  "It is true," he said, "one does not need to be the owner of an amplifier.  If, on the other hand, you break in to talk to a bunch of guys, all running big amps, and putting out big signals, it is easier to communicate with the larger group, with bigger signals, if you also have a loud signal."  that's what he said.  Does he have a point?  Of course but the weaker guy still got his point across.  This is one reason why I would never break into a big loud group like I have described.  You will soon discover they have forgotten you are even there.

Phil.
K0NX