FT8 Shenanigans and poor Amateur Radio behaviour

Hi All,

Hope you're keeping well and enjoying your radio.


As some of you know I've been well and truly bitten with the digi-mode bug enjoying the possibilities that FT4/FT8 has rewarded me with. Now I'm trying much harder at achieving more.

Yesterday morning I gave out a few FT8 CQ's on 12m as the band looked in good condition and after a tentative wait with PSKReporter I was happy to discover my signals were being picked up as far away as the USA and even Japan!!

So I haunted the band in the hope of picking up a few good DX contacts.

It wasn't long before a certain Slovenian station had started up something that I've already experienced from him on another band and that is to call me incessantly. It doesn't matter if you answer his call, he will continue with CQ, (despite PSKReporter showing I'm hitting him a good signal), and often transmit that on both odds and evens. 

I kept moving and ignoring his calls and it wasn't long before I suddenly and weirdly had my own callsign CQ'd back to me from his location, (again PSKReporter is good at seeing this).

Now I've experienced first hand the CW 'tuning' on the SSB modes and the keying over with whistles or shouts of "Hola! Hola!" so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to experience similar bad behaviour on digi-modes either. (Similar woes with idiots that key over on the repeater networks!)

In the end the conditions were lost which was a real shame as I had hoped to bag some good DX.

All I can say with earnest is, "Poor show".


But, not long after on another band I managed to bag the Canary Islands which at least has given me an African Continent contact on my QRZ awards.

So sod him! 


Such bad behaviour and pirating of call signs really does give Amateur Radio a bad name but I'm glad that it's in the minority.

Should you ever unfortunately experience such poor attitudes just move on and never give up. 

I certainly won't.  


All the best,
Victor

"Funny" you don't need to mention a callsign but I still have a pretty good idea of the station you talk of. Have heard his manner on various bands. Last night on 10m around the time of the 40m CT net trial he was mouthing off at a Portuguese station about being on the frequency first. They both wouldn't give in for a good 15mins and both their signals got stronger each time they called CQ over each other, clearly both cranking up the power. He finally relented and moved up 15kHz but saying on his exit to the other station "never to call him again".

Ridiculous behaviour, the 10m band is huge and he's fighting over just 28.505

I've managed a few good QSOs on 12m Victor on SSB. Very much like 10m, but (generally) less people fighting for the contacts. My furthest distance QSO on the ham bands so far has been on 12m. Wish you luck on this band for the future.

Really appreciate your kind words there Neal and heralds me with enthusiasm.

Yeah, over the years as an SWL I'd heard some poor examples at radio 'etiquette' but it really does put you off when you're actually involved on the bands. Luckily, but only after many examples, it's sort of becomes water off a ducks back. I was making mention so that others aren't put off by such behaviour and to enjoy their radio no matter what.

Always been impressed with your SSB contacts Neal and after many false starts I think I now have the confidence to give it a try a bit more often than I have been doing. Got to agree, 12m is a bit of an awesome band that can throw some nice surprises at you.


Just glad that there's people like yourself that can shine positivity to others and be a perfect example of what a Radio Amateur is all about.

New country/contact to me OA4DVG Peru on ft4 and confirmed straight away.
Still get a buzz after thousands of contacts on ft4/8.

Well done Alan, that's a cracking contact!


I'm still buzzing, working my way through the QRZ awards which is good for the challenge and keeping interest. (Got some way to catch up with you though. )

Now working on a new antenna matching system and hopefully grab a volunteer to get some more copper up in that loft!

Your loft must be a good size Victor.
We live in a tiny bungalow and the loft is around 20ft but it also has old pipes sticking up under 10"of insulation so not a safe place for me with bad legs and a wonky arm lol.
Looking to get more wire in the air bus as you know garden is small as well.
Got 2 poles around 10m apart any ideas m8.

Our loft is not really that big Alan mate, (22ft x 20ft & 7 foot high, all open spaced), but with some clever 'folding' I've squeezed the 44 foot doublet up there with help from the Missus. (Hangs mostly NNW/SSE as evident by my lack of Scandinavian contacts.) I did have a dipole for 40m squeezed up there once so it's just about feasible.

I've mentioned before on the forum about how you can zig-zag dipoles and doublets with them performing just as well as having them in a straight line. Never tried with an end fed as never used one. (All that counterpoise stuff and faffing. ) Bit harder to do in 'free space' hanging in the air unless you run two support lines.

Unfortunately my gardens are even spaced front and rear so no lengths to hang anything outside and 'village' life precludes such stuff without parish council members twitching their noses.

You can see my difficulties Alan let alone the leg disability hence my experiments with doublets and tuners but I'm managing with what I have available to me and that's what counts.

I did toy with experimenting by receiving with a PA0RDT Mini-Whip such as used on the University of Twente webSDR with a magnetic loop for transmit but haven't got round to it yet.


I think you do rather well with your setup Alan and probably a bit better than mine!
(I thought you had a spider or hex beam anyway?)

I'm not after the "Best of the best of the best Sir!" but something that allows me to enjoy Amateur Radio in some form or another which I am doing. I'll leave the expensive radios and huge plots of lands for 160m antennas to others.

Cobweb 7 band Long wire and the 360 vertical is what i have up.
I should be satisfied but we always want better lol.
The end-fed is the uk antennas one shortened with a choke ? bur 80m is very poor.
Should be satisfied like i said but would love to get 80m and top band if i could.

Ha! Ha!

We always want more Alan.

I can load the doublet up for 80m despite it being slightly short for 40m and then it's probably a bit of a cloud-warmer but gets me some FT8 action. With the old 40m dipole I could load it to 160m, again cloud-warming but was better than nothing. Hence my desire to get more wire in the loft and seeing if I can switch it between short and long so that I still get the slight gain when short. Better than multiple antennas in my case and nice to be able to work with something.

Now you can see why I wanted a doublet with open feed ladder line to prevent coaxial SWR losses.

You do well with what you have Alan and you should be pleased. We all want 'more' and I know I'd love some sort of beam antenna......but then I'd like a working leg too!

I know i should be very happy with what i have but we are always thinking lol.(well i am)..