The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) has become the custodian of the operating standards guide Ethics and Operating Procedures for the Radio Amateur. Over the last 8 years, the booklet Ethics and Operating Procedures for the Radio Amateur has become a respected work describing the best standards of operating on the amateur bands,” the IARU said in a news release.
Ethics and Operating Procedures for the Radio Amateur is available as a PDF document in more than 25 languages. PowerPoint presentations are also available that you can use to help you give a presentation on the topic. The authors’ stated goal is, “to improve, where necessary, the behavior on the bands in matters of ethics and operating procedures, and make available to the newcomers in the hobby a document covering these subjects in detail.” The guide was accepted by the IARU Administrative Council in 2008 as the recommended manual covering the subject of ethics and operational procedures.
While I think the booklet generally gives good advice, I take exception to some of it. For example, in Section II.9.6, it says,
- While replying to a CQ, do not send the call of the station you are calling more than once, better still is not to send it at all (you can trust the operator knows his own call…).
The authors give this advice in several places. While not sending a calling station’s callsign is standard operating procedure for contests and DX work, I don’t think this is the right way to reply to a CQ in day-to-day operation. If you are replying to my CQ and don’t send my call, how do I know that it is me that you’re calling. And, in poor conditions, it may be necessary to call more than once to ensure that I know that you’re calling me.
Another example can be found in section, II.9.16. Here, the authors say to never sign ‘/QRP.’ This is perfectly legal here in the U.S., and I see no reason not to do so if you want to alert the other operator that you’re running low power.
I didn’t care for this one either: “Repeaters should not serve to inform the XYL that you are on your way home and that lunch can be served… Contacts through amateur radio concern primarily the technique of radio communications.”
That’s obviously NOT true. Think of how boring amateur radio would be if we had to restrict the content of our contacts to “the technique of radio communications.”
I noticed the same thing, a bit too much emphasis on policing DX chasing behavior.
For example, they insist on being fussy about QRZ. I was really mystified by the SOTA pileups using QRZ to mean “ready for the next caller”, but that is so common that it doesn’t deserve the pedantic comment “not quite correct.”
The whole document is really tedious for someone who doesn’t do DX or contests. And once again, CW is first, even though it is a minority mode these days.
The only mentions of VHF procedure are for DX.
The tiny section on repeater use is hilariously off-base. Always use simplex where possible? No, we try to keep idle chit-chat off of 146.52. It is crazy to suggest “break break break” for an emergency. Have they never heard of “mayday”? And “break” is a completely reasonable prosign, maybe a net member is on short time or wants to share some traffic info quickly. Don’t use the repeater to tell the XYL you’ll be home for lunch? Why not? There is a couple that makes those quick communications locally and I love it. It is the only time I hear “88” on the radio. Who could be against that?
And after all the don’ts, they never say that only noobs call CQ on a repeater. Sigh.
I wish I still had my 1960’s ARRL Operating Manual, because I found that readable and useful.
wunder
Thanks for doing a deeper dive on the recommendations in this booklet. I might try to give this more coverage the next time I appear on the ICQPodcast. It kind of makes me wonder if anyone at the IARU actually read the booklet.
Repeater etiquette MIGHT by too local to include in any document that has such a wide-spread potential audience. There are differences in what is normally found (and tolerated and/or encouraged) when going from repeater to repeater locally, much less expecting that operators in France or Russia will treat the local repeater the same we would in say, Arkansas.
Other than that, there are a number of oddities that are in such daily use, that it sometimes strikes me as wasteful of breath to spend any time trying to ‘correct’ it.
We could all use a bit less pedantic in our hobby. After all, it’s just a hobby.
This RSGB article on repeater use sounds very much like what we do in the US.
https://www.ukrepeater.net/operating.htm
Since a repeater is a shared resource, there are probably a lot of common good practices.
* Keep transmissions short.
* Leave space after a transmission so that others can get in. Give it a good count, like three seconds or more.
* ID frequently, but not on every transmission.
* With multiple operators on the repeater, cooperatively manage round-robin, handing the conversation the next operator.
* Ignore jammers and lids.
wunder
I just found a new winner for pedantic advice. This guy (AJ4D) claims “Seventy threes, seventy thirds, eighty eights…. BELIEVE IT OR NOT , THESE TERMS DO NOT EXIST on voice !”
That’s because “73” and “88” are CW abbreviations. He also doesn’t want anyone to use Q-signals on voice, ever. Sigh.
http://www.hamuniverse.com/proceduers.html
wunder