If you like to actually converse with other hams on the air, there’s always an issue with when and how to end a contact. It’s bad enough on phone when there are no visual cues and even worse on CW because there are no audible cues. A recent article that I came across online, “2 Science-Backed Ways to Politely End a Conversation,” might offer some help in this regard.
The article reports that Adam Mastroianni, now a Ph.D. student at Harvard University, recently conducted a study on how conversations end. His results suggest that conversations almost never end when both participants want them to stop. I’ve certainly found this to be true. There are many times that I’d like to continue a conversation with someone on the air, but the other ham signs off. Conversely, sometimes I find myself in a contact where I just don’t hit it off with the other operator, and I’m the one pulling the plug.
He offers two suggestions for how to end conversations gracefully:
Make your partner feel good about the end of the conversation by “clearly communicating that you had a nice time and would like to talk again.” Swap out “gotta run” and swap in “hey, it’s been great to talk with you — I should get going, but let’s talk more soon,” for example.
We almost always do this in CW. “TNX FER QSO” is normally a part of the last transmission.
The article also suggests:
You can solve both problems by being clear about how long a conversation is going to last beforehand, either by scheduling or by attaching your conversation to an activity that has a fairly clear time course,” he explains. Saying you only have a certain amount of time to talk at the start of the chat is a good place to start.
This might be a bit harder to do on the air, but some operators do this when answering a CQ. They’ll say something like, “HI DAN–HRD U CALLING ES JUST WANTED TO SAY HI” or “ONLY HV A FEW MINS.” I appreciate those calls, especially if I’ve been calling CQ for a while.
I usually will say “OK, I’ll let you go” when I’m done talking