Do you contact/converse with bad sounding stations?

[kc7jty]

I don't. I find obnoxiously over modulated, distorted sounding stations quite undesirable.
It surprises me how many don't mind.

[n2ize]

t depends how bad they sound. If I can;t understand them at all then no. No point in trying to understand something you can't even make out. If they are intelligible I might contact them and let them know how bad they sound and perhaps even give them a few pointers on improving things. Could be that the person isn't monitoring their own signal and may not realize how distorted they are. And you'd be surprised how many hams will talk to them but won't tell them anything.

[W4GPL]

Just depends..

I feel that not everyone knows they're putting out a 'dirty' signal. So I feel there's no harm in letting them know they're difficult to hear for whatever technical reason.. My experience most people are appreciative of the advice. :dunno: I certainly won't communicate with someone who acknowledges the problem and is unable/unwilling to fix their shit.

[W3WN]

Part of the problem is that too many hams have simply not been taught or have not learned where to set the damn mike gain. Too many have it turned up way to high. Same thing with speech processing... too many crank it up to the max.

It's not always hams, either. Long, long ago, when I was running WGMR, we had a new board op who simply could not understand that you didn't set all of the controls full clockwise. He didn't learn; he didn't last.

[K7SGJ]

I agree about on air folks. Although most jocks will keep the controls where they are supposed to be, and watch the remote metering, there are those select few who don't understand what the signal sounds like when the controls are full tilt boggy and all the compressors and limiters are crowbarring the hell out of the audio. As for hams, I will gladly make contact to advise them their signal is nasty, and try to explain what it sounds like. As mentioned, most appreciate it and take measures to correct the problem. For those who don't, screw em. And, of course, there are a few whose audio is so processed, you can hear their neighbors fart. I stay away from them. Usually cw ops are most appreciative to know they have a problem like a chirp or ac hum in the signal.

[KG4CGC]

What do you mean the left channel is out? I can hear it in the studio.
Go check the board. I bet someone bumped the pot.

[N8YX]

When the guy's signal has so much IMD associated with it that the non-fundamental components are acted upon by your rig's noise blanker and actually mask the in-passband signal?

Only way to fix that kind of stupid is to QSY to another band. :roll:

[W1GUH]

In general, yes. I had a qso a couple of years ago and the guy started breaking-up. So after I had checked my radio to see if it as OK, I told the guy what was happened. As it turned out he was just trying out a new old D-104 and it had decided to go bad during our QSO. The good news was that was while Heil still sold replacement elements so I could let him know how to fix it. He sounded fine after he switched to a good mic.

But there there's the guys who rag chew in "full war mode." Infinite compression, etc. Never really been in a QSO with them...probably wouldn't call them. But if someone answered a CQ sounding like that I'd probably politely inform him that copy was solid & there was no need for all that. Whether or not my radio "broke" after his reply to that would depend on his reaction.

[KC2UGV]

But there there's the guys who rag chew in "full war mode." Infinite compression, etc.

I've got to remember that one :)

[WØTKX]

It funny the crap you see when you watch everything with a Panadapter style display. :omg:

And they are hard to understand! :wall:

During the recent fun on the upper bands, even some of the DX stations had wide signals with artifacts. One of the worst I see on the Panadapter? The Kook from Kanada. And recently, plenty of incursions from radios that beep and stuff. I go looking for them, with a STRONG signal say at 27.555, but then you find them "up frequency" in two or more places? Yea, that's CRAP!

Wouldn't it be cool if somebody made a clean and potent "freeband" radio that was cheap enough that it became popular? Minimize the damage, ya know? Call it the Platinum Eagle or something.

[W1GUH]

They'd find a way to dirty it up. Probably consider a clean signal pretty lame?

[NQ6U]

They'd find a way to dirty it up. Probably consider a clean signal pretty lame?

They'd hook the clean and potent freeband radio up to a cheap and dirty linear with no filtering.

[W1GUH]

More in, more out, right?

[kb2vxa]

...you are 5 & 9, 5 & 9, please repeat... you sound like Tux playing a B. C. Rich Wizard Revenge guitar into a Fender Champ amplifier with a blown output tube.

Frankly I don't like ear bleed, nor will I give a 5-9 report to a station with a 5-1 signal. That's what a VFO is for, easy listening.

[WØTKX]

Actually, the report to give is a "3 by 9". As in... readability sux, but very strong.

[HUGH]

Pointing out to the more intelligible stations doesn't always have effect, after doing this it's surprising how many other operators inform them how good their audio is. Perhaps these others assume all staions sound like that so it's the norm.

Excess digital compression usually sounds like a demented frog so I've tried asking the operator if he has a bad throat infection!

[w2amr]

t depends how bad they sound. If I can;t understand them at all then no. No point in trying to understand something you can't even make out. I guess that applies to some DX too.

[NQ6U]

I guess that applies to some DX too.

Yeah! Why, just yesterday I heard some people speaking a furrin language on our American ham bands! There ought to be a law against that sort of thing!

[W3WN]

It funny the crap you see when you watch everything with a Panadapter style display. :omg:

And they are hard to understand! :wall:

During the recent fun on the upper bands, even some of the DX stations had wide signals with artifacts. One of the worst I see on the Panadapter? The Kook from Kanada. And recently, plenty of incursions from radios that beep and stuff. I go looking for them, with a STRONG signal say at 27.555, but then you find them "up frequency" in two or more places? Yea, that's CRAP!

Wouldn't it be cool if somebody made a clean and potent "freeband" radio that was cheap enough that it became popular? Minimize the damage, ya know? Call it the Platinum Eagle or something.Wouldn't help. Some maroon with the proverbial Golden Screwdriver would "fix" the radio and dirty it up, so to speak.

[N7YA]

I hear chirpy signals from time to time. Especially out of Cuba and some AF countries. Back in the 70's and 80's, if you heard a clean signal out of the Soviet Union, you usually assumed it to be a party member, everyone else had to build their own gear and had used breadboard and TV tubes, with odd fixed output levels like 23 watts. :lol:

I am a DXer, i really dont care what they sound like if they are friendly and i can make out the call at least. Now, as for SSB, thats a bit trickier. The arrogance level is greatly increased up there, but most ops are open to suggestions. I havent been on fone in quite a while, but the last time i was, i was told that it sounded like i was overdriving, so with his help, i would adjust the mic gain a little bit, then turn it back. After we did that a few times, he said i sounded great because we found that sweet spot for my mic. I felt better about transmitting after that as i dont want to be a radio douchebag. The biggest issue i have is splatter and kilowatts between two stations only 200 miles apart, completely obliterating a rare DX station 15 kc's up the band...then a dick attitude about "owning the frequency", or some crap like that. Even if i run across that twat on CW, i can still make out the DX due the tonal qualities and only focus on them. Even with KW's pumping, the signal is still cleaner. The issue is that some great DX never get on CW, so i have to make a jaunt up to the fone band to have a look around on occasion...i rarely stay long because i can only take in so much info about a 68 year old mans prostate. :yuck:

[kb2vxa]

Cuban canaries used to be common but I thought Arnie Coro CO2KK and friends fixed that. Radio Douchebag, is that one of the 40M pirates?

[W3WN]

Cuban canaries used to be common but I thought Arnie Coro CO2KK and friends fixed that. Radio Douchebag, is that one of the 40M pirates?Possibly; you never know.

But that reminds me... don't forget that Monday should mark the annual return of one of my favorite pirate broadcasters, The Voice of the Purple Pumpkin.

[kc7jty]

Pointing out to the more intelligible stations doesn't always have effect, after doing this it's surprising how many other operators inform them how good their audio is.
Yes! One man's ceiling is another's floor.