Zero Bias: March  2003

“Thanks for knocking on my door,” said the voice on the radio. “I know there are a lot of you out there and I really want to shake hands with each one of you…” This was the unique pileup management style of Michael, operator of club station M0RAD, just outside Stratford-Upon-Avon in England, last Christmas Eve. And he had quite a pileup going.

“I’m not going to talk about radio today,” Michael told one caller. “I just want to shake hands with as many hams as possible and wish them a Merry Christmas and a peaceful new year.” Just the same, he made time for a bit of friendly chatter with everyone he contacted. During the course of the half-hour or so that I was listening (and occasionally calling—I did finally get through), I learned about where he lived, that his only child was grown and on his own, and that his wife had just bought him a new car as a Christmas present.

What fascinated me, beyond Michael’s easygoing pileup management and friendliness on every contact, was his whole concept of “shaking hands” on the radio. What a wonderful way to describe what we do on the air, especially when we’re making brief DX QSOs. Likewise, the idea that someone calling you on the radio is “knocking on the door” of your house adds to the warm and personal image he was creating on the air. We were all just people, using the magic of radio to step inside each other’s houses, shake hands, share a holiday greeting, and go on our way. This personal, one-on-one, interaction with people we’ve never met before (or perhaps with old friends), and who may be half a world away, is at the heart of what makes ham radio unique—“shaking hands” across the airwaves. I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, Michael, and thank you for giving me fresh inspiration about this marvelous hobby we share. Oh, and enjoy your new car, too!

More Ham Radio Moments

This contact was not unusual. Something like it happens nearly every time I get on the radio. I make contact with a ham someplace and some little thing happens to keep me inspired and keep me excited. This is exactly the sort of “ham radio moment” I talked about in last December’s “Zero Bias.” Reader Murray Green, K3BEQ, ran with the idea, asking members of his club—The Green Mountain Repeater Association in the Washington, DC area—to share their most interesting on-the-air stories in the club newsletter. A half dozen responded to this initial request, with some very interesting reminiscences. Elsewhere is this issue, you’ll find “The Nine-Minute QSO,” the story of how WB2UDC uses one such “ham radio moment” over and over, to get people interested and excited about amateur radio. If you’d like to briefly share some of your “ham radio moments” with us, we’ll do our best to find space for as many as possible, either in print or on our website.

In subsequent e-mails with Michael in England, he described one “ham radio moment” he experienced on Christmas Day, telling me that “a call from an 86 year old operator to wish me Good Cheer confirmed my approach to our hobby. During the short QSO and without prompting, I was informed that his wife had recently passed away, and that he was alone for the Christmas, with only his radio for company. I did not offer condolences, as I am sure he had heard it all before. He just wanted a little company for Christmas Day and a friend to chat to. We spoke for just a few minutes, as he was aware of the pileup and did not want to take up too much time. Well, I did spend a little more time with him, listening to an old timer who has forgotten more than I will ever know about radio. We all need friends to talk to, and I was so happy to make a new one on Christmas Day...”

Again, it wasn’t rare DX or some famous personality, but it was the kind of QSO one remembers, one that reminds you what ham radio is all about—in other words, a “ham radio moment.” Tnx, Michael, for sharing it with us.

Back to the Clusters

Speaking of ham radio moments, if you read my editorial last May, you might recall the “enrichment clusters” that my hometown of Bloomfield, New Jersey, started running in its elementary schools, and my experience leading a four-week mini-course on hobby radio. Well, I’m at it again—helping another group of 5th and 6th graders to discover the joys of radio beyond their local Top Hits station. I just finished the second of four sessions. My plan for this session was to spend most of the time doing shortwave listening, but there wasn’t much there of interest to the kids, and after I told them about some of my weekend contacts—with a YL in South Africa operating the Lions Club contest, a Frenchman in Honduras, and people in Labrador, Brazil, and Guadeloupe—one of them asked, “Why don’t you bring in the radio you talk to people with?” I told him that I did—it was the same radio we were using for SWLing—and they all said, “Then let’s talk to somebody.” (Forget this listening stuff, we want to talk! Yes!) How could I say no?

We tuned around 15 meters and, lo and behold, there was SM7CRW calling CQ DX. After a quick explanation of what CQ DX means (“He wants to talk to someone far away, and we’re pretty far away from Sweden”), I gave him a call and we spent the next 10–15 minutes chatting. I told him about the cluster program, and John told us about Oland Island, where he lives, and which is home to over 300 species of birds, making it a popular tourist destination for birders and ornithology students, including groups of American students who come over each year to see the rookeries where baby birds hatch and grow.

What does information about birds and tourists have to do with ham radio? Everything! This is the essence of our hobby, what makes it so special. I’d much rather hear about the people I’m talking with (like Michael) or the places where they live (like Oland Island) than what kinds of radios and antennas people are using. I have nothing against radios and antennas—I love radios and antennas (I was using an IC-746 and a High Sierra multiband mobile antenna on a tripod)—but what I really want to hear about are people, places, and events. Why? They’re much more interesting.

Side benefit: Twenty more young people can now find Sweden and the Baltic Sea on a world map ... and they have a reason to want to. Somebody who’s there is talking to them! Side note number two: I was too busy on the radio to go to the map. John explained over the air where he was and several of the kids went over to the map and immediately found the right spot (even though Oland Island itself was not identified on the map). So there is hope for American students and geography ... and there is help in the form of amateur radio. Next up: the world of VHF, complete with scanning, and hopefully some IRLP contacts with faraway hams through a local repeater. Stay tuned.

31 Years Later...

For at least a half century, one of the primary benchmarks of accomplishment in amateur radio has been getting confirmation of contact with hams in 100 different countries, or “entities,” as we call them, since places like Alaska and Hawaii are not true countries but count as such in the world of ham radio. The CQ DX Award and ARRL’s DXCC Award are the “diplomas,” as they call them in Europe, attesting to this level of accomplishment, which qualify you as a “real DXer.”

Some people who are truly dedicated to the art of contacting and QSLing hams around the world become “real DXers” by this standard in a year or less. Some of us take a little longer... or a lot longer. Take me, for example. I was first licensed (as WN2QQN) on October 27, 1970, made my first contact on November 9, 1970 with WA3JYO, and my first DX contact about six months later, on May 20, 1971, with VE3FIA. Forget that he was closer to me than many of my US contacts to that point, he was in another country and that was all that counted. When his QSL card arrived, it pushed my DXCC total to 2 (the US was #1). On December 29, 2002—31 years, 7 months, and nine days after making my first DX contact— my card from ZK1MA in the North Cook Islands (a little more exotic than Ontario) arrived for confirmed country #100 and qualified me for the CQ DX SSB Award, plus both mixed and phone DXCC. While I was counting such things, I discovered that I also qualified for our own WPX Mixed and WPX SSB awards, so it looks like I’m going to need to make space on my walls for five new certificates.

Could I have done it sooner? Sure, but radio has always been one of many things going on in my life, and DXing has always been one of many things going on in my ham radio life. My CQ colleague and Worked All Zones Award Manager K5RT predicts that now that I’ve reached this milestone, I’ll really get hooked on trying to build up my totals for endorsements, other awards, etc. He’s already planning a station upgrade for me that I can’t afford. But I appreciate it, and believe that one important part of keeping interested in any hobby is dreaming about moving up to the next level of involvement. Even if I never get that beam and tower or kilowatt amplifier (for which my neighbors would be thankful), thinking about it, talking about it, even planning how to set things up if it ever comes to pass, are all critical parts of keeping my interest high. I think my next goal will be qualifying for at least the basic level of our other two awards, WAZ and USA-CA, the USA Counties Award. I’m not sure which one will be more difficult, but my computer tells me I’m well on my way toward both of them. We’ll see how long these take at my current rate!

By the way, one note of interest: In going through my cards, the value of contests in award-chasing became immediately obvious. I didn’t count, but at least half of those contacts (probably closer to 2/3) took place during contests. The pattern was clear—late October (CQ WW SSB), mid-December (ARRL 10M), early March (ARRL DX SSB), and late March (CQ WPX SSB). The message is clear, too: If you want to work new countries, get on during the big contests. Message for me: If I want to work counties, get on during state QSO parties. Message for all of us: Let’s get on the air and shake some hands.

73, Rich, W2VU

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