Posted: 8/19/2014 4:22:31 PM EDT
|
I got this email today. I have TRAFFIC for you from the OKLAHOMA area. W5TFW A.R.S. W5TFW Richard Joey Fiero II www.599dxa.org I assume he got the email from my QRZ page or my ARRL info. Any ideas what do I do with it? |
|
Quoted:
I assume he got the email from my QRZ page or my ARRL info. Any ideas what do I do with it? there is an imitation crab meat joke in here somewhere, but ... 
there are a couple of possibilities... "traffic" could be an NTS message that was addressed to you, for some reason. it could be "welcome to ham radio", it could be "heard you on 40m on 17aug2014 2145Z", it could be "nothing". have you been contesting recently? do you participate in local or regional nets? overdrawn on your checking account due to ham radio purchases? 
etc. if not, don't worry about it. ar-jedi |
I'd just send him an email reply,.
|
Quoted:
Someone sent you an ARRL radiogram via the National Traffic System. Bingo. There's a few hams out there that scan the new licenses and upgrades and send out congratulations radiograms... and then the new hams freak out that they got some crazy message notice. Been going on for years, I swear the radiogram guys really need to explain what's happening when they send notes like this. |
|
Quoted: Bingo. There's a few hams out there that scan the new licenses and upgrades and send out congratulations radiograms... and then the new hams freak out that they got some crazy message notice. Been going on for years, I swear the radiogram guys really need to explain what's happening when they send notes like this. Quoted: Quoted: Someone sent you an ARRL radiogram via the National Traffic System. Bingo. There's a few hams out there that scan the new licenses and upgrades and send out congratulations radiograms... and then the new hams freak out that they got some crazy message notice. Been going on for years, I swear the radiogram guys really need to explain what's happening when they send notes like this. LOL once I saw he was local I figured that's what it was. He's much older than I am but looking at his QRZ bio page I think it's possible we worked either for the same small company years apart or one next door to each other in another state. Small world. I would have actually called him but I don't have a phone (no job = no reason to own a phone lol) and I call my girlfriend using skype and I hope there's no reason to explain the beauty of that. When I first got my license a ham guy in the same state sent me a package that weighed about 4 pounds of misc. ham radio info in a package. He actually got my call callsign before I did and mailed it to me. That's how I knew my call sign was in the database. But the guy put an Ole Miss Rebel deal on the package. I almost trashed it from the start. I emailed him. |
|
He emailed me his phone number and I called. Just standard message about how I should volunteer my time to be a net controller or some such. The guy who gave it to me sounded less than enthused but he said it was a standard message. He really didn't read it word for word and at first said watch your net traffic like I had stepped on someones toes. I thought it might be because I upgraded to extra, but now after a month it's still not in the system :( |
Some clubs will send traffic messages of congratulations to hams who have recently upgraded. Either as a pitch for the club, or just for practice. Fact is there were spam radiograms before there was email. I used to pick up traffic once in a while (back when long distance used to cost extra), and I would get something like that and be like "really, you are wasting both of our times for this?"
I remember back when I first got my Novice license, the first knowledge of my callsign came as a solicitation for some QSL card printing outfit. Next day I think I got the actual ticket and an "invitation" from ARRL, then gobs of assorted catalogs and solicitations for months thereafter (like, I really needed that gunnplexer). Back then everybody tried to get their hand in the pocket of new hams but I fooled 'em. I was not their preferred demographic, but just a 20 year old with empty pockets. |
|
Quoted:
Bingo. There's a few hams out there that scan the new licenses and upgrades and send out congratulations radiograms... and then the new hams freak out that they got some crazy message notice. Been going on for years, I swear the radiogram guys really need to explain what's happening when they send notes like this. Quoted:
Quoted:
Someone sent you an ARRL radiogram via the National Traffic System. Bingo. There's a few hams out there that scan the new licenses and upgrades and send out congratulations radiograms... and then the new hams freak out that they got some crazy message notice. Been going on for years, I swear the radiogram guys really need to explain what's happening when they send notes like this. This. When I was first licensed I just happened to be in our club radio room and the club president was explaining how radiograms worked. There was a traffic net on and lo and behold, one for me. I got the message, wondered what it was about. A few weeks later I was visiting my son and his new wife (both members here at Arfcom) in Oklahoma City. I looked up the originator of the message and called him. Had a nice 45 min conversation about ham radio. Arlie and his wife were both quite elderly, probably SK by now, but a very nice couple. They also did the Slow Code Net in that area, where hams learning CW are given slow code, and the new to CW hams slow and torturous CW is tolerated. Arlie told me about the tornado that hit OK City some years before, devastating about 1/3 of the city. Hams, he said, were on the air within 15 minutes coordinating help getting in. There was also an old ham in a nursing home, and that is exactly what he did, perused the lists of new hams and sent them a nice "Welcome to ham radio" message. It's simply a nice gesture welcoming you into the fold. Take it as that and enjoy it. Do that for others coming up behind you. |
|
Guy gave me his number so I called. He seemed kind of annoyed to be doing it. He said at least 3 times he drew the short straw. Whole conversation lasted less than a minute. He couldn't come up with the call sign of the sender and said it really wasn't important. |