Ron,

That's the only part about ham radio I don't like; you can't always live 
next door to every guy you have a contact with on the air.  As you say in my 
other followup post, I agree with you 100 percent about it being a societal 
problem overall.  Thanks for the kind words, too, but I'm just an old Iowa 
farm boy and so is my wife but she's a woman,, haha.  I love animals as much 
as she does, too, in fact, when they get around to miniaturizing elephants 
like horses and dogs, I'm getting one for the back yard.  Maybe he can help 
me lifting tower sections.

Phil.
K0NX



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dr. Ronald E. Milliman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: Ham Radio Ethics In Decline


> Phil, first, I feel it is important for me to convey to you that I have
> known you , respected, and admired you for many years. I regret that we 
> have
> not been in close enough proximity to become really good friends, but
> relegated to only friendly acquaintances. I am sincerely sorry that you 
> are
> going through all of the extremely painful and challenging health issues
> that you are experiencing.
>
> Second, like you, I, too, am very concerned about the seriously poor and
> declining courtesies extended among the hams today. As you know, I earned 
> my
> first ham license back in 1957, and the ugliness among hams then was
> entirely over the introduction of sideband, double and single sideband,
> which created a real ugly war between the AM guys and the sidebanders, and
> it was really ugly. Even still, it was not systemic among the hams like it
> is today. I was a young kid using a DX-40 with controlled carrier 
> modulation
> running only about 60 watts, but I do not recall one single time when an
> older ham treated me in any kind of a rude manner, whether I checked into 
> a
> net, like the Buzzard Rooster net on 75 meters or working someone,
> one-on-one.
>
> However, as I pointed out in a previous post addressing this topic, it is
> not limited to just ham radio ops. Unfortunately, it permeates our entire
> society. There are examples all around us, almost daily mass shootings, 
> road
> rage, everyone giving everyone the finger, and the list goes on and on.
> Compare TV and movies of the 1950's and 1960's with the TV programming and
> movies of today. As I stated once before, it seems like for every step
> forward we take technologically, we take at least two steps backward in
> inter-personal relationships. When we graduated from high school 40 or 50
> years ago, we were pretty solid in the fundamentals, reading, math, 
> Science,
> and English. Today, students graduate from high school who cannot read,
> cannot do basic math, know little about science, and speak and write like
> they have never taken a single course in English. Yet, most of these
> students graduate with all A's and B's. Why? Because if the system gives
> them all A's and B's, everyone is happy, the students, the parents, and if
> the students and parents are happy, they don't present any problems for 
> the
> teachers and administrators; so, they are all happy too, and are rewarded
> for the wonderful job they are doing. It has nothing to do with whether 
> the
> students are learning anything.
>
> I could go on, but my point is that everything in our society has changed,
> and in my opinion, most of the change has not been good. The ugly behavior
> among our hams is only one illustration of it. Our entire society lacks
> discipline and consequences. It started many years ago in our homes and
> parents not being parents. Today the FCC is the toothless tiger. Again, 
> the
> result is no discipline and no consequences with the result being what we
> are experiencing when we tune across our ham bands.
>
> Fortunately, the people on our blind hams list here are exceptionally fine
> people, and I can honestly say that I have developed some pretty close
> friendships here. Of course, you all might be like the rest of the jerks
> once I meet you on the air! <Big smile>
>
> Ron, K8HSY
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
> Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 10:31 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
>