Good points, Richard.  Since I work out of my home and monitor a couple of
frequencies most of the day and evening, I am often bumping into brand new
hams roaming the bands and trying out their new radio on all the repeaters
to see which ones they can hit.  I had a guy, new ham he was, call me one
day on the repeater and as we talked, he said, I want to ask you a
wquestion.  I held my breath in case it was a technical question I no longer
remembered how to answer.  Instead, he said, Is it wrong for me to say QSL
when I reply to what someone has said?  I laughed.  This same guy, his first
day on the air, told me his personal was Mike.  I casually told him that if
he used that term on certain repeaters in the Denver area, they would
literally ban him from their repeater.  In this case, I first asked him a
question.  I said, Mike, have you been down on 145.145 talking to people
already?  He admitted he had.  This particular repeater club, and on that
frequency in particular, loved telling people how, and how not. to be a ham.
They didn't care if you just got on the air and need time to learn; they
just insisted upon playing mister important all kn9ow ham operator.  I have
monitor that frequency many times over the years and they operate in
properly all the time as far as regulations are concerned but that don't
want any stupid CB boys on their frequency using old ham terms either.  Of
course, the HF bands aren't nearly as bad as the gods on 2 meters and 70
centimeters but the only place of safety I have found is on CW.  Shoot, it
takes forever to yell at somebody on CW and since half the time the CW
filters are cranked down tie as a drum trying to block out the digital boys
from taking over the lower half of the band, you likely won't hear the guy
who is complaining about your fist in the first place.

73,
Phil,
K0nx
Over and Out