I’ve written before about Ham Radio Fun, a tabloid Wayne Green published in the 1990s for new hams. Well, this morning, I’m scanning through the issues that I have before sending them on to Steve, KB9MWR, so that he can scan them and add them to the online 73 archive.
In doing so, I ran across this little tidbit in his column in the May 1993 issue:
Rag-Chewing for Fun
One measure of intelligence is how long it takes someone to get fed up with exchanging the same old crap over and over…how long it takes before they begin to start looking for people to actually talk with instead of broadcast to. Som old-timers have been exchanging signal and weather reports, and not much else, for decades.
It’s a pit that we’ve allowed our ham communications systems to evolve on a simplext basis, with one of us talking at a time, instead of duplex, as on the telephone. It’s difficult ennough to generate conversations when you meet someone new, that you can see and hear, but trying to find mutual conversational ground with someone you can’t see and can’t hear while you’re talking is a real challenge.
If you’re into pioneering, you might consider developing a system which will allow us to at least talk to each other at the same time. We can do this via either time or frequency splitting. Eventually we’ll have video along with voice, if you’ll start working on it.
In the meantime, let’s get along as best we can with what we’ve got. I’ve been hamming for over 50 years now, and contacts haven’t changed much. Oh, we’re using sideband on the low bands and NBFM on the VHF bands, but our conversations haven’t changed. We’re still where we were 50 years ago as far as actually talking with each other is concerned. We’re still in the dark ages when it comes to communicating.
Wayne goes on to describe some of the things he does to encourage some real communication. This includes not talking about equipment and listening to clues for what the operator is saying for “clues on things to ask him about.” Of course, now we have QRZ.Com. By looking up an operator that you’re in contact with on QRZ.Com while the contact is in progress, you can often find lots of things to talk about with him or her.
Basically, Wayne’s advice is to work at being a good conversationalist. I like to think that I work at being a good ragchewer, and as a result, have had many interesting contacts over the years.
Before I end this blog post, I wanted to also point out again the bit about duplex communications. I’m still not aware of something like this being available. It might be difficult to come up with an HF system, but certainly something could be developed for the VHF and UHF bands.
And finally, I want to put out a call for more issues of Ham Radio Fun. Steve is trying to find the missing issues so that he can digitize them and make them available to the entire ham community. If you think you might have some hidden in a box or a pile somewhere, dig them out and send them to Steve.
Mark W8EWH says
Great topic. This makes me think about how CW contacts go. Why do we ID so often? Every 10 min and at the end is the rule, right? So how come we tend to do more than this? Why not get more conversational? If the station I’m talking to tells me their age, when it’s my turn why not respond with: “How long have you been a ham?” BK. In other words, why not have more back and forth using BK to signal the break and that I’m handing it back to you.? Do a “de mycall”every 10 minutes. We waste so much time with the both calls every time. Why not go back and forth using the BK (break) and just have a conversation? I want to try this but I’m wonder what the response would be!
David Ryeburn VE7EZM and AF7BZ says
“I wanted to also point out again the bit about duplex communications. I’m still not aware of something like this being available.”
We’ve got something that can be pretty close, and we’ve had it for many years: high-speed CW with full break-in.
David Ryeburn VE7EZM and AF7BZ
Dan KB6NU says
True, but few operators really do that. It’s outside the skill set of most CW operators.
Jeff says
Hello Dan,
This might be resource if you have not seen it. I love the site.
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-start-a-conversation/
Jerome Lamb says
Great points. When people ask me about amateur radio, I explain it by the differences you point out. I’ve been an avid instrument commercial pilot that flies for pleasure and our communications are to the point and we speak in a common phraseology. Like in ham radio, we don’t get a cue to speak based on seeing someone face to face, and we develop a timing to get our check-in heard. Timing has a lot to do with amateur radio conversations and humor. Round tables at night on 75 meters have been the best learning technique for me. Jerry Lamb K0ID
Gerald Yowell says
Wayne Green was editor of CQ magazine in the 1950s. If you can find a copy of the January, 1956 issue, you will find a guest editorial which takes hams to task for the formulaic nature of 98% of all QSOs. The writer also gives some suggestions on how to remedy this.
The writer was one Jean Shepherd, K2ORS. You may or may not recognize the name, but you’d immediately recognize the voice. He’s the narrator of “A Christmas Story”.