[Elecraft] abject buffoonery

[w7aqk]

Hi All,

This is a major reason why I have almost totally abdicated usage of SSB, and 
stick to CW, which is my preferred mode anyway.  There I can participate in 
relatively nonsense free and enjoyable rag chews with others.  About the 
only time we get substantial craziness on that mode is when there is some 
sort of DXpedition going on.

For the most part, I don't think that, for the most part, these clowns (I 
actually have a much stronger, more profane term for them!) can even copy 
CW.  So, it's not much "fun" for them to jam conversations they can't even 
understand.  I also think that alcohol has a great deal to do with what you 
hear on 75 meters.  Sometimes it is completely obvious!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I would be willing to pay a 
significant additional fee, and every year if necessary, if FCC could then 
do serious enforcement on the bands.  I know right now they don't have any 
real staff to do it.  You wouldn't even need a particularly high percentage 
of successful enforcement situations to generate substantially beneficial 
results.  Just having a real threat that such actions might be successfully 
captured could be enough to put "the fear of God" into a significant number 
of perpetrators.  Right now, there is little, if any, risk of being caught. 
So, it is like having speed limits, but no enforcement whatsoever!

A lot of people say "just ignore" the incidents.  I tend to agree with that, 
since confrontation only excites the perpetrator--particularly if alcohol is 
involved!!!!  You can't argue or reason with a drunk!  I do think recordings 
could be helpful, and if you have the capability, a little "DFing" might add 
some useful info if there was any place such info could be collected for 
further analysis.

I think every ham radio club in the country should take this issue 
seriously.  Not only should members "pledge" to avoid such conduct, they 
should also agree to be actively involved in identifying it.  It's hard to 
believe that a number of these perpetrators aren't close enough to someone 
else that they couldn't be better identified.  We need to take some 
responsibility ourselves for trying to reduce such infractions.  That 
doesn't mean direct confrontation, but serious information could be useful 
to authorities.

Just my thoughts.

Dave W7AQK