Wow. A ham in crisis!

Sat parked up behind a van with a disabled sticker and a M6 call sign in the rear screen.

There was a lot of QSK's and the driver was getting louder and angrier!
Only I'm thinking he's the one QSK'ing.

Suddenly a handheld came flying out of the drivers windows.
Straight under the wheels of a lorry, and the van literally screeched away.

So I've got three thoughts.
If he was QSK'ing without a response, I'm thinking he was target fixated and not thinking that sometimes you can hear them but they can't hear you.

If he was BEING QSK'd, again, and again, and AGAIN!
I think I would have been a 'mite' angry as well.

But the third thought was WTH was he thinking that drove him to chuck the radio out of the window!

I've heard some REALLY nasty conversations on the air over the years but the drivers reaction was one I've never thought I'd see.

Still, his loss, my gain.
As I've now got a well mangled IC-T81 to strip for spares.
And like a few old timers, we all have a VERY DEEP spares drawer.

I heard a story about a bloke who completly flipped his lid because one of his thongs blew a plug.
The bits I didn't hear were how he woke up 2 hours late for work that day, got a speeding fine on the way to work, was sacked for being late, went home to have his wife dump him for loosing his job ... he'd kept it all together until he was walking to the fish and chip shop to get some dinner when his thong blew a plug ....

What's the moral of the story ?

Never judge someone's poor reaction to a seemingly minor issue, they might just have had the worst day of their life.

QSK is more of a cb thing break works better on the Ham side so that could be why he wasn't called in.

Here folks say 'Z' to break into a QSO. Not sure why?

I've always used "breaker breaker" usually timed at the end of the strongest stations over. Then I patiently wait to be bought in.
Typically after another over or two, the strong station will announce to the other stations "we have a breaker" and bring me in with "come in breaker"

Hotel Zulu 253 wrote:

I've always used "breaker breaker" usually timed at the end of the strongest stations over. Then I patiently wait to be bought in.
Typically after another over or two, the strong station will announce to the other stations "we have a breaker" and bring me in with "come in breaker"

Same here well similar just "Break" is enough and wait a minute.

I can’t imagine someone shouting QSK on the ham bands going down to well, lol.

Q - codes are very much an 11m thing on phone and pretty much restricted to CW on the bands , except for the odd time in a low contact . A call should always be by your full callsign unless already in a group or net where "break" might be in order should you wish to add something out of turn at least on the Amateur bands.

Hotel Zulu 253 wrote:

I heard a story about a bloke who completly flipped his lid because one of his thongs blew a plug.
The bits I didn't hear were how he woke up 2 hours late for work that day, got a speeding fine on the way to work, was sacked for being late, went home to have his wife dump him for loosing his job ... he'd kept it all together until he was walking to the fish and chip shop to get some dinner when his thong blew a plug ....

What's the moral of the story ?

Never judge someone's poor reaction to a seemingly minor issue, they might just have had the worst day of their life.

or buy better shoes lol

Seeing as though there are a great deal of old school cb'ers who became radio-am's, I wasn't at all surprised by him using QSK.

In the dark ages (70's), before 'freebanding' became fashionable), it was always "On the side" or "Break" and wait for a call in. However, you didn't have to wait for long to be acknowledged.

Only (expecting a load of flak) I've also sat, quietly listening to Ham skegs (CB for chatting, and I haven't a clue what term is used now) and numerous CQ's that went unanswered, even though the frequency was jammed with everyone and his dog calling.

That and other little tidbits always left me with the impression that some would only talk to "equals within their exclusive little pecking order" and ignore the CQ's from (how to say it) the not so experienced. Which did rile a few, especially they who were 'patted on the head' and told what good little operators they were .

The sarcasm was positively dripping out of the speaker at times.

Yet, all that on one side, he must have been having one hell of a bad day to trash gear.

Strange how areas differ. We still use 10 codes and leave Q codes to hams