[Qcwa] Contest boycotts?

[Tom Repstad]

I do not wish to get into the political aspects of the war in Iraq, other
than to state the obvious that the world and this country are divided on the
issue.

But it saddens me that the amateur radio bands are starting to sound like
"CB". I agree completely with Raymond/W5VPU. When I started in ham radio in
'75, hams were polite, apolitical and followed FCC regulations. I don't know
how many times I've heard stations engage in long discussions without ever
identifying themselves, hams that think they own a frequency just because
they have weekly schedule there, hams who tune up on frequency where a DX
station is working a pile-up, and various other forms of rude behavior.

Perhaps we need more OO's and more enforcement of the rules and regulations.
The FCC has stepped up it's enforcement for those hams who commit blatant
and harmful violations, perhaps it's time to "slap a few wrists" for
behaviour unbecomming a ham. I do believe that most hams are polite, and
follow rules and proper operating procedures... but the number of "rude"
hams is growing. :o(

--Tom
K1VG

----- Original Message -----
From: <W5VPU@aol.com>
To: <qcwa@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 7:35 AM
Subject: [Qcwa] Contest boycotts?


> Hello, Bob:
>
> I am in no way surprised. The world (i.e., "the people" in the world) is
not
> today what it was. Not just what was when I was first licensed fifty years
> ago, but even five years ago. Amatuer radio operators all over our own
> country today are not what they were when we were all first licensed (at
> least twenty-five years ago.)
>
> He has a right, I suppose, to respond as he wishes. To talk to whomever he
> chooses to is within all our rights. Yet how he chooses to do what he does
> reveals more about him than it does about you and me. It is totally about
> him, not us.
>
> I am saddened by the downward spiral in the civility in ham ranks that I
have
> observed over the past several years. But it is nothing more than a
> reflection of how people today are less civil than they used to be. As
well,
> I have learned through my experiences in countless venues there is nothing
I
> can do to "make" another person be different from what he or she chooses
to
> be. If I may, I would suggest that we all be rather careful as to how we
> choose to respond to these rebuffs. These behaviors, as I said, are more
> about them than they are about us. These are the behaviors of people who
> apparently don't know to do anything else. That's why people who are in
> stages of high anger are called "mad."
>
> Those barbs sent our way are by people who want to "get our goat." I
worked
> under an incompetent supervisor (who hasn't?) about whom I once remarked
in
> anger and frustration to a colleague, "He just gets my goat!" That friend,
> wiser than I, simply pointed out the only thing under my control, "Stop
> putting your goat in the front yard."
>
> I was taught that as human beings our anger is directly proportional not
to
> what we actually get, but to what we expect and don't get. The ball is in
our
> court. Where we lob it depends totally on us. And if we respond in a
> mini-war, those who rebuff us have gotten just what they wanted -- to
prove
> we are less civil than they.
>
> 73,        Raymond                W5VPU
>
>
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