A lament that I often hear is that many amateur radio operators either don’t seem to understand the importance of good operating practices or just don’t care about them. Just this morning, a reader sent me an e-mail saying, “I think there are too many hams out there that don’t how to call a station on split frequency. It’s amazing that we have so many dummies out there.”
I wrote back, saying, “Maybe we need another type of Official Observer, called the Operating Observer. This group would note when operators aren’t following good operating procedures and send people gentle reminders.” Of course, as soon as I hit Send, I knew this wasn’t a very good idea. As my reader noted, this would be a thankless job, and chances are the poor operators would simply ignore the notices, anyway.
Even so, there must be some way to encourage good operating procedures. One effort to promote better operating procedures is the DX Code of Conduct. This is a list of 13 suggestions to make DX operation, particularly pileups, less chaotic. The website includes a small image that you’re supposed to post to your website to show that you support the Code. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, I wish there was something that we could do to be more proactive in improving operating practices.
There is, of course, the ARRL Operating Manual. This publication is now is in its tenth edition and still going strong. The problem is only a fraction of the amateur radio operators on the air have a copy, much less read it.
Another attempt at promoting good operating practice is the ARRL’s A-1 Operator’s Club. While a noble effort, I think that this program really requires more promotion. In addition to being more aggressive about finding A-1 operators and bringing them into this “club,” the ARRL should use it to promote better operation. Perhaps a series of videos with the A-1 Ops logo showing how to operate split or how to properly call CQ would help improve operating practices overall.
Talking about videos, I’d be surprised if there weren’t already some YouTube videos that illustrate good operating practices. If you know of any, please comment below. It would be great to have a list of really good ones that I can send to people who want information on how to operate better.
What do you think? Do we need to be more proactive about encouraging hams to use good operating practices? If so, how do we go about it? What do you do to encourage better operating practices?
Yohei, N8YQX says
I wish the ARRL trained it’s W1AW/x operators better for the centennial. There were some very good operators, but there were some horrible ops as well, and I think they lead to poor operating practice on the air.
Ultimately, we are civil, because we trust that we’ll be treated fairly if we follow the rules. Once the DX station breaks its own rule (split, call area, etc), all hell breaks loose.
Some examples…
1. Not announcing the split (often), but still expecting everyone to split
2. When calling by call area, but taking calls out of turn (for /M, /QRP, YL, or just some rude op)
3. Changing the rules mid-cycle (for example, calling by call area, then suddenly accepting all calls)
4. Unclear rules, such as East/West coast only
I’ll admit, I’ve transmitted on simplex, when the DX was operating split. BUT, in my defense, it was always because the DX was not announcing the split.
Do we need more OOs? No, the DX needs to control his pileup better.
k8gu says
Are operating practices so truly awful in general? It is, after all, “amateur radio” not “professional radio” and there ought to be some room for learning and goofing off. I think that things like the DX Code of Conduct are enough to at least raise the bar by pointing out things we should be doing.
There will always be sociopaths who wish to work or jam the DX at all costs, codes be damned. Even if they are small in number, they can cause a big headache for the rest of us and there’s relatively little we can do about it other than to make everyone aware of what constitutes good operating practice. Application of local peer pressure may also help, but there are situations when a blind eye is turned simply because it’s easier and less confrontational to do so.
As N8YQX says, pileup management is all based on communicating instructions to the pileup and then adhering to them. In many ways, it’s like classroom management for teachers. One of the best ways to do that is to keep instructions simple so the pileup can understand them and the operator can remember what they’re doing. Finally, it takes considerable discipline to let your QSO rate fall while you wait for that partial call you asked for to repeat through the QRM of louder, easier-to-copy out-of-turn callers. From the receiving end, I’d rather have a lower QSO rate and better-behaved pileup…