A couple days ago, I worked Scott, W1AL. When I looked him up on QRZ.Com, I found this:
That looked remarkably like my “retro QSL:”
so I emailed him and asked him if I’d sent it to him. He replied, “I thought your call sounded familiar!”
Propagation at sunset
If you’re like me, you’ve noticed how radically propagation can change around sunset. One transmission, a station is just booming in. On the next transmission, however, they’re down in the mud. I would love for someone to explain to me the mechanics of that.
Showing a new op the ropes
Earlier this evening, a station answered my CQ by simply sending his call a single time. Normally, I don’t reply to those stations, but I decided to this time for some reason. I’m glad I did.
This fellow was not a ragchewer at all. He didn’t know the standard protocol for a CW contact, and he admitted as much. He said that he’d operated in CW contests, but hadn’t really done any ragchewing.
So, I took the opportunity to teach him how to do it. For example, he’d just stop sending when he was finished with what he had to say. He didn’t send BK or even K. I explained why that was important, and by the end of the contact, he was doing this correctly.
I’m glad I took the time to explain things to him, instead of just blowing him off. After all, how else is he going to learn how to do it? He seemed like an interesting fellow, and I hope that I hear him on again sometime. I’m going to send him a copy of my CW Geek’s Guide to Having Fun with Morse Code, and hope that that encourages him to do more ragchewing.
Caryn KD2GUT says
Right you are! Contesting builds certain targeted skills but it doesn’t fine-tune the kind of etiquette needed for a pleasant and courteous ragchew, one that even allows for sender (or receiver) error, and the patience and respect called for when a transmission is missed or simply drops off due to band conditions. Glad you opened this op’s eyes and perhaps a lot more of us should think about helping someone along in much the same way. It’s all about helping one another to be the best we can be in whatever CW venue we choose.
Dave New, N8SBE says
Re: Sunset propagation
In particular during this time of year, gray-line propagation on 15M during our local sunset in the Midwest, opens a connection to Japan. If you check a source like a Geochron, or Ham Clock or other source that shows the Sun’s day/night terminator, you will see the terminator crosses the US East Coast, and arches up and over the North pole, then descends on the other side of the planet over the Pacific Rim.