[Elecraft] Re: "Cans" and KPH (was something else unrelated)

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Fred wrote:
K6KPH DE <yourcall> QLB KSM 6474 QSA 5/KPH 426 QSA 4 K

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Fred, you are sounding like a Ham contester!! 

For those who don't recognize QSA and QLB, QSA is the commercial radio
operators signal report (instead of the RST Hams use). I think it's far
preferable since it assumes a decent tone (T), and it's been a long time
since a normally-operating Ham rig produced anything but a perfect T-9 tone.


The QSA report ranges from QSA 1 to 5 with 1 as the weakest that can be
copied at all to 5 being very strong and perfect copy. QSA 0 is usually
referred to as simply "nil" - no copy. 

I know Hams these days commonly send some arbitrary RST that has nothing to
do with the actual signal, or they are concerned that they'll offend another
station by sending anything less than 599, but real radio operators report
truthfully! So if you use QSA, report the actual signal as you hear it! 

I'll often send a QSA report instead of an RST report on the Ham bands if
the other station sounds like a "Sparks" - they are usually easy to spot
running their bugs with the smoothness of a radio announcer's baritone voice
<G>.

If someone wants to use QSA instead of RST, by all means do so. For those
who want to complete a QSO with the fewest possible characters, it is
shorter! Just don't fall into the Novice trap of sending a QSA greater than
5. Like Readability in RST, QSA runs only from 1 to 5.

Unfortunately, being 600 miles north of them, I must often report to KPH
that their 426 KHz signal is QSA 1 or Nil unless it's well after dark.

Oh, if someone's wondering about "QLB" it means, in this context, "Here's
your signal report...".  

Ron AC7AC