Posted: 7/31/2012 4:31:54 PM EDT
| I've had my license since the early 2000s. But I rarely chat or talk to other hams. I would actually say I hate it. But I love to mess with the equipment and work on ham related projects. I even like doing contests (though its been a while). Anyone else like this? |
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I don't like rag chewing either. I do like to say high to people I know, and even meet new people, and have a brief conversation, but I don't talk endlessly in person so I don't do it on the air either.
I like working on my station and seeing what it can do, and how good I can make it, and how far I can make contacts. IIRC, Mndless is the same way and I suggested we should have a 10 second QSO like we do with DX stations! |
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I don't mind short voice ragchews. 10 minutes or so. I do like contacting people I "know", like other arfcom folks. More than 10 minutes becomes a chore on voice. Digital can go a little longer, say 15 or 20 minutes, if the conversation is interesting. What I really hate are insanely long turns. The other night I literally waited 15 minutes to throw my call out on HF so that I could borrow a freq. to make a sked (and then QSY). They guy was just droning on and on, drifting from one unrelated topic to another. That's not a QSO, it's a friggin' dissertation! |
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I agree. I just like playing with the rigs and seeing how far or where I can make a contact. I don't mind short QSOs. Maybe longer if I'm interested. I REALLY have no use for 2m for this exact reason. Same people every day and same topics on repeaters. And those people whom you have nothing in common with and don't want to talk to who answer your call every time.....
I have been in a parking lot in my car on HF and answer a CQ. then my wife comes out 10m or so later and the guy is still yakking away and I just turn the rig off. |
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i hate people. but with that in mind, that's what i got in to ham for. When I was a teenager, I'd hop on the radio after dinner, and woudln't shut down until the sun came up. Night long rag chews, you name it. Kind of like arfcom, before there was arfcom. The internet killed it. Now it's a bunch of nerds that want to rack up QSO's for the latest gee whiz award. I can't stand contests.
There's a reason that my setup covers 160M. 
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OK so you make contact with Bob Heil, like my ffriend down the road did over the week-end. What are you going to do Say Hi Bob Bye Bob??? I don't think so! Some ragchews can be very entertaining and education. My bud was on the air with Bob for over 20 minutes! Great Man and just loves to talk and educate!
Sarge |
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I got to where I don't listen to the local repeaters. I got all the gardening, baking, and medical advice I could need for a couple of lifetimes on one. Another became the personal days of our lives for a married couple. Save that shit for when you get home. Don't tie up the repeater with your drivel!
I just realized it was just shy of 60 days since the last time I turned APRS on. About the only thing that gets me fired up now is PSK contests. |
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Bingo I don't think I have been on 2 meters FM in 3 years for just this reason. The morning road show use to be entertainment on the way to work. Then it got like you said and afternoon and evenings even worse. There are guys that camp out on the repeater all day. Get a life besides recliner operator.
I enjoy short rag chews on hf especially with European stations where I have travelled. Made some great friends that way. Always nice when traveling far from home to have friends to visit and enjoy great times. Better than any tour guide. We use to have a 6 meter round table every night surprisingly it was great for stirring up the band when most thought it wasn't open. Round table was nice I could do paperwork and ragchew at same time. Sometimes since most of us worked in similar fields we could brain storm a new project. Some weekends we get together for antenna raising cookouts or even just get the families all together for a seafood buffet. It's all what you make of it. I can see both sides. There are times I enjoy a good conversation other times its pounce and qsy as I hit DX pileups. Quoted:
I got to where I don't listen to the local repeaters. I got all the gardening, baking, and medical advice I could need for a couple of lifetimes on one. Another became the personal days of our lives for a married couple. Save that shit for when you get home. Don't tie up the repeater with your drivel! I just realized it was just shy of 60 days since the last time I turned APRS on. About the only thing that gets me fired up now is PSK contests. |
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Quoted: OK so you make contact with Bob Heil, like my ffriend down the road did over the week-end. What are you going to do Say Hi Bob Bye Bob??? I don't think so! Some ragchews can be very entertaining and education. My bud was on the air with Bob for over 20 minutes! Great Man and just loves to talk and educate! Sarge Generally I'm not a rag-chewer, and rarely visit 2m FM short of WX Nets. BUT... If I run into Bob Heil, former sound guy for the Grateful Dead <==== See avatar I'm gonna talk to this guy for quite a long time if he'll let me! I can't think of a more interesting dude to meet on the air! |
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me.
don't care what you had for lunch or that you need to go to tthe store for the xyl tampons. for local, give me a quick signal report, maybe what your running, and 73's. for dx, i'll give it a couple minutes to chew. mostly like to qso with other parts of terra firma heck, i really don't even like to contest, just surf the bands and get that quality (to me) qso. .02 |
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Can't say I hate ragchewing in itself. Had some great ones.
Like the time I answered a CQ on 12m. When he found out I was from LA he asked about the effects of Katrina. All he heard was from the news and he hadn't talked to someone from the area. I asked him about what his life was about. 20 minutes of my life well spent. The other end? Peter ZD7FT on St Helena Is. Another time a guy checked out my QRZ page and noted that I'm a shooter. Turned out he was a NRA High Power competitor. Spent a while swapping load data and educating each other on various niches of the shooting sports. I had just gotten on the air on CW. Some dude answered my CQ. When he found out it was like my 5th CW QSO he proceeded to turn it into a 45 minute ragchew. At 5wpm not a lot of BS was thrown back and forth. Sneaky SOB was slowly cranking up the speed as the QSO went on pushing my skills. Toward the end I was copying and sending faster. When I sent the final dit dit I was exhausted but ended with better CW skills than before. Can't tell you how much time I've spent just listening to some ragchews that discuss the technical aspects of amateur radio. Learned some good info there. On the other hand.... I really don't care to know your medical history, what you ate that morning, and that your car needs an oil change. Primarily on PSK31...I really don't give a damn how much memory your computer has or how fast your processor is. Satellite OPs...Pass your grid and sig rpt and move on. There's others who want to QSO and the time for a pass is short. Shutting out others because you want to blather on is just rude. |
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I love to ragchew on 2m. Our club's repeaters are mostly silent during the day, but over the last few months, every time I'm in the truck going to work or heading home, I key up and ID on the repeater every five minutes. Eventually, some folks took notice, and now I've got a great 45 minute ragchew every day, and the repeater gets more use rather than just sitting there, ID'ing itself every 10 minutes. On HF, I love talking to some of these old-timers and I've made a lot of friends across the world that way. I don't do CW and I only play with PSK31 since it's pretty robotic, in my opinion, but on SSB/FM, I love to talk. |
Rarely turn on the 2m radio unless it's for Wx monitoring or listening to the local aviation chatter. Some of the HF pre and post net digital Olivia and Contestia QSO's are the longest rag chews I normally engage in. Those are even shorter because I can't type worth a damn. 
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I like to talk...so the local 2m is fun for me, esp when mobile.
not so much on HF, my avail time to run up to the barn and try to snag a contact is Very LTD! I'd love to try for WAS, but I've not really nailed down a plan to make it happen, mostly due to my inability to have lots of radio time...and if you do get a contact on 80, 40, or 20..they want to 'chew'...any ideas? |
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Quoted:
I don't mind rag-chewing, but I hate conversing with monologists. Unfortunately, monologists seem to comprise the vast majority of all rag-chewers. Around here it's the gall bladder, kidney stone, and constipation nets. I have my share of health issues too, but I'm not going to subject the world to hearing about them 
Every once in a blue moon, the old elmers start talking about homemade antennas, baluns, band propagation, and EME or satellite ops. Those discussions are absolutely fascinating to me, but since I'm still pretty new at this I'm more of a listener than an active participant. Those occasional tech discussions are what keep me interested 
My elmer was recently taken by pancreatic cancer. One day I hope to be one tenth the operator he was 
Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
Only for SKYWARN nets and when I'm up at the BOL.
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I don't mind rag-chewing, but I hate conversing with monologists. Unfortunately, monologists seem to comprise the vast majority of all rag-chewers. Around here it's the gall bladder, kidney stone, and constipation nets. I have my share of health issues too, but I'm not going to subject the world to hearing about them
Every once in a blue moon, the old elmers start talking about homemade antennas, baluns, band propagation, and EME or satellite ops. Those discussions are absolutely fascinating to me, but since I'm still pretty new at this I'm more of a listener than an active participant. Those occasional tech discussions are what keep me interested
My elmer was recently taken by pancreatic cancer. One day I hope to be one tenth the operator he was
Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile So chime in and keep them on track. If they're talking to each other, they know that they already know that kind of stuff, so they talk about mundane stuff that the other buy may no know about. Tell them you're a bit newer than they are, and you'd like to chew their ear a bit. I'm sure they'd be receptive.
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Quoted: I've had my license since the early 2000s. But I rarely chat or talk to other hams. I would actually say I hate it. But I love to mess with the equipment and work on ham related projects. I even like doing contests (though its been a while). Anyone else like this? I've been an Army MARS station for a number of years and enjoy the network discipline of the MARS nets much more than ragchewing ....unless I'm talking to my buddies. I also do SKYWARN nets as both a spotter and as net control. I do more digital on the amatuer side than voice because I'm not so fond of ragchews. I don't contest either. YMMV |