View Full Version : Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. How about you?
We all know there's an ugly side to the hobby. How many here have had this happen to them, or have witnessed it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO_sil00UD8
He certainly has the General portion of 75m pegged.
Someone buy that man a razor and make him use it. Please. Or at least a pair of scissors and a good trimmer (like a Wahl)
X-Rated
04-23-2013, 10:17 AM
"People Who Don't Want Their Beliefs Laughed at Shouldn't Have Such Funny Beliefs" -AD5MB
I've had similar experiences in my 30 years on the radio.
Actually, the last time it happened was when I got on 160 when I moved here. It was a group of 9-landers and they were the rudest people I had encountered in years. They the same shit, trying to jack me around asking snarky questions about Stanford etc. Needless to say, I didn't hang around.
There is a segment of the ham radio community that doesn't like newcomers, period. Our band segments are large enough that you can get away from those people if you so choose. I'm not a big fan of sitting on a frequency listening to a bunch of sociopaths mouth off at each other, so I don't do it. Who needs the aggravation?
One comment I would make about newbies is they should listen for a while before they transmit, so they can get a feel for the use of language etc. Hearing CB-speak on a repeater (unless is someone doing parody) can be annoying. I think I had my license for 9 months before I said anything on the air. I didn't want to make a fool out of myself. It doesn't take much to figure out how things work and what freqs to stay away from.
Someone buy that man a razor and make him use it. Please. Or at least a pair of scissors and a good trimmer (like a Wahl)
Thanks for not addressing the issue, Ron. I'm disappointed.
X-Rated
04-23-2013, 11:07 AM
Janet hit the nail on the head. Learn the characteristics of the ham community before just jumping in there.
Anyone can bitch and bellyache about any community. They can display valid points and bring up real issues. I didn't listen to the whole thing so maybe he offered solutions. Get in there and change things if you don't like 'em. I am a horrible community organizer. I can't even get one person roiled up about an American kid being roughed up and taken to jail with no access to an attorney. There's no way I can change behaviors of those on the airwaves.
I never had anything like what he described happen to me but it did take a couple of weeks before someone finally came back to my call sign on any of the local repeaters. Once I joined a local ARC and people got to know me, things changed. Since then, I'm usually the first one to answer a call from someone who's obviously a newbie.
X-Rated
04-23-2013, 11:43 AM
Well, anyone jumping on a repeater with a beard looking like that should expect whatever they get.
Seriously, I remember the first time I posted something on teh Zed. I had not been monitoring the exchanges on there and just jumped on one day and the exchanges were vile. I had never run into anything like that on the air. I was back off of there for literally years. I had made a comment about my callsign being Dubya Bush 5 Land and they went insane. They wanted to know if I would leave the country like Alec Baldwin said he would and crap like that.
On some of my first radio contacts, I asked people to QRS. I just had my Novice license and needed people to be a bit slower. Well they would crank up the speed and away they would go. No code copying apparatus or noting like that. I sat there dumbfounded. I copied lots after those first few days. I got my speed up and was able to make enjoyable contacts.
I listened to this guy the rest of the way through. He brings up some good points about being more friendly. That is good.
I listened to this guy the rest of the way through. He brings up some good points about being more friendly. That is good.
I think the friendly thing is a good. I think the mistake made by some in our community is when they focus attention on the miscreants and the anti-social.
The zed was a toxic mess back then because they didn't make much of an effort to enforce the rules evenly. They seem to be a lot better about that now. I still don't go there unless someone links to here, because there are some people (actually about 10-15 active posters) over there whose opinions aren't worth even scanning for lulz.
K0RGR
04-23-2013, 12:02 PM
I'm sorry, but there is a small amount of broken glass and dog crap on the beach of life. Learning not to step in it is an important part of learning to enjoy the beach.
When I hear one of these stories, and I do see a lot of them, I have to wonder what really happened. Here's a relative newbie who thinks he was dissed by some longer term hams. Clearly, he was upset by what he heard or thought he heard. You always have to remember that they can't really tell if you're smiling when you say something on the radio - and even less so when you are writing on a web site or using CW or data modes. Newbs often interpret things they hear as insult, when they are nothing of the kind. How many times have you heard someone complain that he was having his first CW QSO when the other guy called him a 'lid'. Minor investigation often shows that the other guy responded 'Solid Copy', which the newb received as So Lid.
The results of these kinds of things are often tragic. I worked with a guy whose whole family were hams. When he got his ticket, he bought a 2 meter rig and put it in his car, and embarked on a long trip. Somewhere in the middle of Nebraska, he got on a 'closed' repeater, and was chewed out by some &^%^$%^. As a result, he turned the radio off, never turned it back on, and let his licnse lapse. My first question is "why would anybody in his right mind discourage someone from getting on 2 meters anywhere near the state of Nebraska?". I've heard this kind of thing too, on 'private' repeaters out in the great wooly west, and in places where there are hundreds of repeaters, it doesn't hurt to politely ask intruders to go elsewhere - but sometimes repeater barons act like gods, and it would be easy to see why people would get discouraged in a hurry.
There is an unusual amount of broken glass and dog crap on 20 and 75 meter phone. I encourage newbs to find other outlets, and I hope the mentally challenged just stay where they are. I had another coworker who always wanted to get into ham radio. He went out and bought a receiver, and started listening. After a couple weeks, I asked him how the receiver was working, and got an earful. He said he'd tuned across 75 meters, and found so much profanity and insanity there that he sold the receiver. He didn't want anything like that in his house!
I don't answer 100% of the calls I hear on the repeater - I often have other things to do, and while a newb might find it interesting to talk to me 5 times in the same day, I rarely find the conversation that compelling. Still, I do feel something of an obligation to see that everybody has success on the radio of one kind or another. And, once in a while, I learn something new that is really useful. One of our newbs here recently introduced me to ninite.com - a very, very useful computer site. It lets you select and install a wide variety of commonly used software WITHOUT installing the crappola that often comes with it. It's fabulous for new computer setup!
X-Rated
04-23-2013, 12:02 PM
"Back then" was in 2000 when I first got on teh Zed. I was still WB5L. It was insanely vile. This Youtuber had nothing on these guys. I wish I had recorded their callsigns. I don't really recall who it was. I didn't care at the time. I just wanted out.
KB3LAZ
04-23-2013, 12:46 PM
I've never really run into such a problem. I guess I've just had good luck. Now, I have run across my fair share of assholes but I continue to turn the knob at that point. I guess that is due to the fact that I listen awhile before I throw my call out.
Also, I know that a lot of people seem to have problems on or with 75m but I normally dont. Sure, it is a bit different. I would say that on most bands there are 10 great hams or ham groups waiting for a contact for every one asshole. On 75m I would say its closer to 3/1. However that still leaves room for a contact.
I have always found 2m to be worse, ten fold. To each their own.
I guess it might have something to do with when and how I got into the hobby. I'm from a line of hams and have been around it for as long as I can remember. That means that I already knew a lot of hams.
That aside, what I do like about 75m is that I like to ragchew and said band offers many groups of differinig opinions to choose from. Also, all of the nets are good for testing new antennas, etc. I can always find a contact.
I guess it is what you make of it but I can tell you that I run into many more assholes on the Internet than I do on the air, no matter the band.
FWIW.
W2NAP
04-23-2013, 03:36 PM
one thing I can say. if you are around here and you get on 435. better be ready for anything.
one thing I can say. if you are around here and you get on 435. better be ready for anything.
Are your guys as bad as the LA 435 idiots?
A little comedy and satire I think is great for the hobby. I was involved with a repeater in the Bay Area when I got on 2 meters in 1984 that was a lot of fun. One of the Santa Rosa repeaters was like that too. Many of the older hams didn't like the users talking about things other than ham radio but we were never crude.
The LA 435 bunch is nothing but jamming, tapes and insults being exchanged between a lot of unidentified stations. There was nothing original about it, it was just noise.
I heard that repeater one time when I was in LA during the Gerritsen years. Nothing but noise. I listened to their internet link once, nothing but noise and threats. You don't have to hit me over the head more than twice...
X-Rated
04-23-2013, 07:37 PM
I don't know what is worse. Chicago is like a radio silence zone. Hardly ever find anyone on the UHF of VHF bands.
W2NAP
04-23-2013, 07:55 PM
Are your guys as bad as the LA 435 idiots?
not as bad per say. we do our own thing. we are the only repeater in this state where you can talk about whatever. (well almost we dont care to hear about peoples sex lives but that goes without saying)
We are the type if someone gets on bitching about what we are talking about we will tell them to get fucked and go back to the dummy-hundred
K7SGJ
04-23-2013, 08:25 PM
The soultion is simple. Go back to code testing, newbies can only use 75w cw. Problem solved. Everyone is nice on cw. That's what I had to do, and I had to walk uphill in snow over my head to get to the FCC test site in Phoenix.
Now, get off my fucking lawn.
K7SGJ
04-23-2013, 08:27 PM
I never had anything like what he described happen to me but it did take a couple of weeks before someone finally came back to my call sign on any of the local repeaters. Once I joined a local ARC and people got to know me, things changed. Since then, I'm usually the first one to answer a call from someone who's obviously a newbie.
This is called "going full circle". Now that people have talked to you and know you, they don't answer your calls any more. Of course, they don't answer mine either. You don't suppose it's because we're old farts, do you?
This is called "going full circle". Now that people have talked to you and know you, they don't answer your calls any more.
More like the opposite, in fact: now that I know most of the local hams, I don't want to talk to any of them.
Of course, they don't answer mine either. You don't suppose it's because we're old farts, do you?
No, it's because we're assholes.
K7SGJ
04-23-2013, 08:31 PM
More like the opposite, in fact: now that I know most of the local hams, I don't want to talk to any of them.
No, it's because we're assholes.
I knew it was something like that, butt I counldn't quite put my finger on it.
not as bad per say. we do our own thing. we are the only repeater in this state where you can talk about whatever. (well almost we dont care to hear about peoples sex lives but that goes without saying)
We are the type if someone gets on bitching about what we are talking about we will tell them to get fucked and go back to the dummy-hundred
That's not the same thing as the LA experience. The LA guys are truly sociopaths to the nth degree.
If someone wants to bitch about legal content, they can go fuck themselves, they don't have to listen. I draw the line at mindless radio mayhem.
I draw the line at mindless radio mayhem.
Guess we won't be hearing you in the General portion of 75m then. ;)
PA5COR
04-24-2013, 05:58 AM
Never had that experience, i got my first license in spring 1977, hamradio was a far cry from wht it is today, most of us did build their own gear by lack of money or transceivers weren't in our incomegroup ;
Got my full license soon after that and as now i liste 99.9% of the time 2 to 4 qso's a day suits me fine.
Hams here were then a close knit society then, emphasis was on homebrew and sharing experiences in that.
Most new hams were accepted with open arms, and supported in their quest to become better at what they wanted to do.
Now most hams have no clue about the innards of ther fancy Yaecomwood radio, let alone how to make a dipole...
They learned the stuff needed to get the exam done and as we had experience in building stuff before we got our license isn't there anymore.
I can acccept that, i don't see myself rebuild a FT 2000-D as well...
We then went from a 9 or 10.695 XF M.F. and build our transceiver around that.
Parts were in abundance there and relative cheap, that also changed a lot.
As did the courtesy on the bands, lots of changes there as well, enough to make me grab the mike and intervene when a new ham gets hammered.
I think i became an old sod over the time...
Thanks for not addressing the issue, Ron. I'm disappointed.C'mon. What do you want me to say? (Besides a "Lighten Up Francis" quote)
Look. There are jacka$$e$ out there. We've all run into them from time to time. There's the crotchety all bastids who hate all newcomers... or everyone who's not from their neck of the woods... or don't like their favorite mode or method of operation... or are simply psychotic and either off of or in need of their meds.
Illegitimi non carborundum
I could tell many similar stories. I managed to tick off a prominent member of the local club one time, and he got his buddies to hound me off of the club repeater, back in the early 1980's; were it not for the PSU club, I might have caved in and quit. When I moved from State College to Pittsburgh, I had a real a$$wipe chase me off of the Blue Knob repeater, simply for daring to mention that my new job was at a new ham store. (I was later told that he was told to stay off the repeater afterwards for playing repeater cop when he wasn't even a control op). Then there were the two skinheads... I ended up winning in court, but I got forced to quit my club at the time because the club leadership felt that I had no business taking other hams to court, even if they did break my wife's car windshield and turned my HF6 into a pretzel.
Fortunately, these incidents are actually few and far between, in 40+ years licensed. Even so: If I'm wrong on something, I'm wrong and I'll admit it. But otherwise, I don't take $h!t off nobody.
Illegitimi non carborundum
kb2vxa
04-24-2013, 11:54 AM
The 75M political comment fits the Liberty Net to a T fitting. So why not an RF connector? They're not hams, they're plumbers.
plumber
Someone who connects pipes between his bum and his mouth.
"Illegitimi non carborundum"
You started something here... again. The fake Latin phrase originated with Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell 4 star US Army General and carried on by Barry Goldwater. That name sounded familiar, the Vinegar Joe I know was an English rock band in the early 70s that launched the solo careers of two great vocalists, Elkie "Elk" Brooks and Robert Palmer who ended up Addicted To Love and surrounded by fembots.
Then there were the two skinheads... I ended up winning in court, but I got forced to quit my club at the time because the club leadership felt that I had no business taking other hams to court, even if they did break my wife's car windshield and turned my HF6 into a pretzel.
THAT would be worth a few pitchers of beer at Dayton to hear that story.
But otherwise, I don't take $h!t off nobody.
Illegitimi non carborundum
You seem to do a fairly decent job at picking your shots.
THAT would be worth a few pitchers of beer at Dayton to hear that story.
< snip >Tempting, isn't it? Pity that my doctor has told me no alcohol due to my meds. The bastid.
Make it diet birch beer though. That'll work, even if it's not as much fun as the real thing.
I'll let you in on this much though... Steve -- remember that 3rd District 1x2 (who was constantly changing his call amongst a pair of 1x2's and a 1x3 that was a shorter prefix flavor of his original call), who was giving me a hard time over on the old QTH forums, a year or so back? (Let's keep his name & calls off topic for now) Well, one of those two skinheads was at the time his brother-in-law... and for all I know, may still be today.
Tempting, isn't it? Pity that my doctor has told me no alcohol due to my meds. The bastid.
Make it diet birch beer though. That'll work, even if it's not as much fun as the real thing.
I'll let you in on this much though... Steve -- remember that 3rd District 1x2 (who was constantly changing his call amongst a pair of 1x2's and a 1x3 that was a shorter prefix flavor of his original call), who was giving me a hard time over on the old QTH forums, a year or so back? (Let's keep his name & calls off topic for now) Well, one of those two skinheads was at the time his brother-in-law... and for all I know, may still be today.
OH... and no, I won't dignify the station by mentioning his call. THAT'S interesting.
I don't recall any vandalism by hams where I lived in NorCal, but I understand the pin in the coax thing was done down south.
OH... and no, I won't dignify the station by mentioning his call. THAT'S interesting.
I don't recall any vandalism by hams where I lived in NorCal, but I understand the pin in the coax thing was done down south.
Speaking of vandals....
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?221887-Power-Line-Noise-and-Passing-the&p=1734092#post1734092
Is that dipshit STILL allowed to post over there?
Is that dipshit STILL allowed to post over there?
Hard to say. He hasn't posted anything for almost 3 months.
WØTKX
04-24-2013, 05:18 PM
Ya know wut? There are islands of sanity on 75 meter phone. And that's the troof, so pblpblpblpblpblpblpblpbl!
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110725181824/muppet/images/b/b4/EdithAnnSandwich.jpg
I never have rude experiences on 75 or 20...or any ham band because i pretty much have ZERO interest in old farty necks acting like they are important. Just a simple listen will reveal this. I wouldnt want their company in person, i sure as hell dont want to waste my valuable operating time on them when i can be chasing DX.
Just like in real life, i am not desperate to make friends, they just happen along...those are the best kind. If these old fucks are being dickish to newcomers, im not going to key the mic (which i rarely do anyway) in the first place. I will turn the big dial in the middle, though. I have nothing to prove, these twats have been there long before i was ever born, let them die there.
Ya know wut? There are islands of sanity on 75 meter phone.
Most of them are below 3800. ;)
Speaking of vandals....
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?221887-Power-Line-Noise-and-Passing-the&p=1734092#post1734092Oh, lordy lordy. He's no longer banned. I wonder if he knows that? I haven't heard a peep from him (thank the Lord, and thank you Your Holeyness) since his last ban was imposed.
Come to think of it, I haven't seen anything from the Onliest Ham in Punxatawney either. Don't know if his last ban had an end time, or if it was a perma-ban. (And before anyone bothers to check... I don't care, either)
W2NAP
04-24-2013, 09:34 PM
C'mon. What do you want me to say? (Besides a "Lighten Up Francis" quote)
Look. There are jacka$$e$ out there. We've all run into them from time to time. There's the crotchety all bastids who hate all newcomers... or everyone who's not from their neck of the woods... or don't like their favorite mode or method of operation... or are simply psychotic and either off of or in need of their meds.
Illegitimi non carborundum
I could tell many similar stories. I managed to tick off a prominent member of the local club one time, and he got his buddies to hound me off of the club repeater, back in the early 1980's; were it not for the PSU club, I might have caved in and quit. When I moved from State College to Pittsburgh, I had a real a$$wipe chase me off of the Blue Knob repeater, simply for daring to mention that my new job was at a new ham store. (I was later told that he was told to stay off the repeater afterwards for playing repeater cop when he wasn't even a control op). Then there were the two skinheads... I ended up winning in court, but I got forced to quit my club at the time because the club leadership felt that I had no business taking other hams to court, even if they did break my wife's car windshield and turned my HF6 into a pretzel.
Fortunately, these incidents are actually few and far between, in 40+ years licensed. Even so: If I'm wrong on something, I'm wrong and I'll admit it. But otherwise, I don't take $h!t off nobody.
Illegitimi non carborundum
id love to hear some of these storys in detail.
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