[SOC] Unanswered CQ

[Fred Jensen]

Someone I don't know wrote to the reflector:

"Which also begs the question: Did you waste your time calling CQ if no 
one answers?  I like to think that time can never be wasted. Time can 
only be lived and experienced. We only believe time is wasted when we 
desire to be doing something else."

Not too long ago [at my age, "not too long ago" might be in the 1970-75 
range], I ran across my original logs from my Novice, General, and early 
Extra days as a teenager.  They were in a box marked "Fred's Radio 
Stuff" in my Mom's handwriting.  The date on it was 1957, when at 16, I 
left for college.  We were required to log all transmissions, successful 
or not.  I counted for a few pages in my first log as KN6DGW and about 
9% were successful ... since I had a lot of nerd ham friends, I had a 
lot of Q's that did not start with anyone calling CQ.

So, 91% of my CQ's went unanswered and presumably unheard, unless the 
smell of teenage boy's feet drove them off.  What happened to all that RF?

Fred K6DGW