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I recently re-posted a link to my satirical “My first annual pre-post-Dayton writeup” that I wrote a few years ago. The intent of that was the poke fun at all the write-ups that showed up after the annual Dayton Hamvention, which, to me, seemed to all say the same thing. However, I noticed a couple of interesting things this year. First, unsurprisingly, technology has advanced enough so that there are many folks blogging and even tweeting from on-site while attending. Second, I noticed that several of the on-site bloggers have been posting really good writeups, not just the usual “big, smelly crowds” and “Hara Arena stinks” comments. (Well, apparently Hara Arena is still badly in need of repair).

I suspect that many of my readers already follow these blogs, but David, K2DSL has been posting on-site updates from his first time to Dayton  on his blog, and Steve, K9ZW has been posting a series of “Random Notes” on his blog, With Varying Frequency – Amateur Radio Ponderings. I’ve found those postings to be informative and can recommend them. There are also a number of other bloggers posting about Hamvention that are syndicated at amateurradio.com (as is this blog).

Most of the tweets on twitter, while occasionally amusing, haven’t been particularly informative, but Jeff, KE9V has been doing a great job of tweeting about some of the new gear that’s showing up, particularly the new portable Elecraft KX3.

Several years ago, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek blog posting satirizing the usual post-event writeups that are posted after folks attend the annual Dayton Hamvention. I just re-read it and and I think it stands up pretty well, so I thought I’d include a pointer to that, particularly for those of you who are new to reading this blog and might not have seen it the first time around. Click here to read “My first annual pre-post-Dayton writeup”.

This is a follow-on post to my recent post “Weird things heard on the radio“. If this keeps up, perhaps I’ll make this a series, though I’m not sure that “weird” is quite the right word. Silly is more like it, and I’ve adjusted the title of this post accordingly.

As I write this at about 18:30 GMT on 23 April,  I am attempting to work 9M2TO from West Malasia on 17m phone. He’s got a good-sized pileup and of course, there’s the usual guys who can’t figure out how to turn their VFO to tune up their amplifier off the frequency. For non-hams who might be reading, this sounds like a high-pitched squeal on the frequency, and is pretty annoying. Aside from it being rude, it’s in violation of FCC rules against intentionally interfering with ongoing transmissions. (I’m sure that it’s against the rules for amateur radio operators in any country, of course.) That’s not the silly part, that’s the annoying part.

Here’s the silly part: As usual, the DX Cops are present, and one of them said the following: “Hey, don’t tune up on the frequency”. Some of you will immediately know why this is silly, but I’ll elaborate: Under normal circumstances, when you are transmitting you are not receiving. Aside from the fact that the guy who was tuning up likely doesn’t care what anyone else thinks, he’s not going to hear the guy yelling at him. All it does to yell is to add to the noise, which is as bad as the guy tuning up.

For my friends celebrating Passover, here are the four questions in CW. First the “intro” question:

And the other four questions, a bit faster (so you can get on with the seder):

Text to Morse translation courtesy of Learn CW Online. The first part is at 20 wpm, the main four questions are at 50 wpm. (And no, I can’t decode that by ear either.)

Happy Passover!

The player embedded here requires HTML 5, which means you’ll need a pretty recent browser. If you don’t have one, you can right-click and save the intro and the questions.

Last night, Brian, KP2HC, left a comment on my original post about the passing of his wife Ann, KP2YL. Because many of you might not see it otherwise, I wanted to provide a direct link to that original post where you can now read Brian’s remarks: Ann, KP2YL, SK. I was very touched that Brian posted such a wonderful message about Ann, and I wanted to make sure that as many people saw it as possible. Please spread the word so that others might see it.

One of the greatest things about being in The 3 Steve’s ARC was going to ST Croix to visit our dear friends, Brian (KP2HC) and Ann (The Queen of DX) KP2YL and to use their station and actually be DX.  Not only were we busy working stations, but I got over my fear of flying..something Ann never let me forget

 

Many a time, while working HUGE pile-ups on 80M, I could throw my call out and she would spend a few minutes with me on the air, then right back to the pile-ups.

 

Ann and Brian are responsible for many new band countries for St Croix for so many

 

It is with that in mind that I pass along the sad news that Ann, passed away quietly, in the company of her friend and husband, on the island that they both loved, this morning

 

Brian has asked that you keep Ann and him in your thoughts and to give him some time before you email or call.

 

I speak for the all 3 Steve’s when I say that a small part of us passed this day as well

 

As it is said, may her memory be a blessing

As I was sitting next to my radio this afternoon, I had tuned to a frequency on 12 meters sideband where I’d seen a spot for a station in Madagascar (5R). I need 5R on 12m so I was listening to see if the station would build (grow in strength) to the point where I could attempt a contact. While waiting for that to happen, I heard another US station call him, giving his callsign properly. Although I couldn’t hear the 5R station, what I did hear was this (callsign changed mostly because I don’t remember exactly what it was, and to protect the not-so-innocent): “5R8UI, did you come back to my-callsign question mark?“. The US station literally said the words “question mark“!

Ok, while I can understand that had this happened on CW, the operation would have sent the code for “question mark”, but given that this was a voice contact, wouldn’t you think that the tone of voice and the fact that the sentence was actually a question would have been sufficient?

There’s been a lot written about the overuse of the CW Q-signals when using a voice mode, and while you can debate some of those (saying “My QTH is River Vale” rather than saying “I live in River Vale”), it just struck me as pretty funny to hear someone actually say the words “question mark“.

By way of explanation, the reason the Q-codes were invented was to provide a shorthand way to send information over telegraph lines and later wireless. It does make sense in particular on CW, where the operators at both ends of the conversation might not both be fluent in a common language. So on CW, it does make sense to say “QTH River Vale New Jersey” rather than spelling it out. It becomes, along with some other abbreviations, it’s own common language.