[ADXA] Odd Experience Last Night

[WB5JJJ]

Thanks Rory and to echo your comments on the memorizers.

Thousands of new hams have come along the past few years and are suddenly
Extra Class by one method or another.  And for many, they only know digital
modes, namely the FT variants mostly because of crappy band conditions for
SSB, so it's not entirely their fault.  What would the ham world be like if
for some unknown reason WSJTx and other similar programs just stopped
working.  Many of these new digital hams would not have a clue how to exist
in a SSB or CW world with band edges and propagation charts.  And I know
way too many that fit into this category.

First licensed in 1973, I was never a Novice, but spent 25+ years as a Tech
because of the code requirement for General.  I was either just too lazy,
or scared to try and relearn CW.  But I found out I had a 10m Phone DXCC
when I finally got on LoTW.  Then one day, I got the biggest surprise of my
ham radio career, that as a "Coded Technician" I could be grandfathered
into General since the code requirements were dropped.  That day in 2000
was a big day for me as I moved from 10m to become a real HF operator.  My
IC-745 had been paitentily waiting for this moment for years to tune up on
something other than 10m.  It was just a matter of finding antennae that
worked on something other than 10m.  It took a while since I lived in an
apartment at the time.

Then a few years ago, I was heavily pressured to upgrade to Extra.  I
considered it and did some study and boy did it bring back some long
inactive brain cells.  But finally, with help from ARVARF club's local 8
week classroom course, pondering the 700+ questions in the ARRL Study
Guide, and some online study guides, I gave it a go in 2017 -- and
passed the first time.  Barely passed, but good enough.

73's
George - WB5JJJ


4


On Sat, Jan 1, 2022 at 12:26 PM Rory Bowers <k6cks01 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Oh No!!  It was an I D I O T !!!  We all try to believe that all Hams are
> responsible solid operators but the fact is any moron who can memorize
> answers to a test can get a license these days.  They are then unleashed on
> the unsuspecting Ham population to do any dirty work they choose.  It
> reminds me of the CW ops who will send a 5NN to another op just to get him
> off the DX station's frequency when it would be faster and easier just to
> send "UP".  Are there unscrupulous Hams out there?  We aren't in Kansas any
> more Toto!
> 73 & HNY!
> Rory, K5CKS
>
> On Sat, Jan 1, 2022 at 11:44 AM John McKinnie <kt4ac at att.net> wrote:
>
>> Last night I had something happen that I haven’t seen before.  I was
>> trying to work SV2RSG/A on 40 meters.  He was in F/H mode.  I got a
>> response in F/H mode but it wasn’t from SV2.  It was a stateside station
>> running F/H mode and it wasn’t a special event station or anything like
>> that.
>>
>> Was chatting with George WB5JJJ as we were both trying to work Mt Athos.
>> It was a bit confusing and George helped me figure out what was happening.
>> Thank you George. I would imagine that there are quite a few stations that
>> were going to be pretty upset with that US station.
>>
>> Anyone else ever have that happen?
>>
>> HNY everyone!
>>
>> John
>> KT4AC
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