Where are the Elmers?
04/10/20 09:41
I woke up this morning around 4:20 am and headed into the shack to start my day, the aprs propagation display was showing some promise, so hoped onto 144.200 and put out a CQ and made two contacts, station in Missouri and another station in Louisiana. Both decent contacts with good read-ability.
All in all a great way to start the morning, I was shifting over to monitor 144.180 and 144.200 along with 146.520 which is my standard activity setup in the shack and read the news and just listen for a bit, heard a few guys out in East Texas on 146.520, so hoped in and made a contact and then went back to reading the morning news.
And now we move into what my topic of focus is for today.
About 5:14 I noticed, a spike on the display of my Flex at 144.130 MHz, so I dialed up to see who it was. It was two stations, one out of Houston who was struggling to make the station in Louisiana understand what his call sign was. It took them a good 10 minutes to confirm the call and log it, and both were giving each other decent enough signal reports.
After they finally very exasperated ended the QSO, I went back to the Houston Station, who had a KI5 call, so relatively a new HAM. He also happened to hit my HOT BUTTON regarding phonetics. I got on and made contact with him, we had a nice chat for a few minutes, the guy who he just worked was his very first Single Side Band Contact on two meters, and I was his second {So QSL Card will be mailed to him today} turns out he has been licensed for just over 5 months. After I welcomed him to the hobby, and of course welcomed him to Weak Signal and such…I then told him, that he did understand that they entire miscommunication with his call sign was 100% his fault. He was confused and asked me why……He even spelled it out phonetically.
I said that is why, you are using some of the strangest words to spell things out phonetically I have ever heard, and I have heard some really stupid things used over the years.
I told him if he had used standard phonetics that the ear is keyed up and ready to listen for and that when spoken clearly indicate the letter. He was baffled, he had NO Idea that there were a set of standard phonetics out there.
This guy went down a few months back and tested for Technician and General passed both and got on the air and started operating with out any clue what he was doing or how.
Now I will 100% agree that this is how WE LEARN, myself included and we all will make mistakes. But my question to this subject is simply this.
Where are his Elmers?
How do you get tested too general with out a clue.
I’ll focus more on those two questions shortly.
First off, I do not blame this guy at all, he is doing the best he can and I loved his energy and enthusiasm. If he does not discouraged due to the lack of having a quality Elmer guide him, then he will offer a great deal to the hobby. Not many put up a quality SSB Station on VHF this fast into the hobby and he had a fantastic signal.
But this reminded me of a conversation I over heard the other day, I leave the radio’s in the shack on, and I was in my home office working {to pay for said radio’s, as well as food, electricity, etc}. When I heard two local hams, one brand new and the other a seasoned ham.
The brand new ham signal was horrid, very distorted and just sounded like crap. The seasoned HAM working him, noticed he was off frequency and was actually operating 146.525. He directed him down to 146.520 and advised him this was the actually calling frequency, the guy thanked him for that information. He thought the calling frequency was 146.525.
Again this was a brand new HAM so mistakes will be made and that is to be expected. But again he is an EXTRA CLASS Amateur Radio Operator.
Again I ask WHERE ARE HIS ELMERS?
AND AGAIN I ASK: HOW DO YOU GET TESTED TO EXTRA CLASS WITH OUT A CLUE.
Again, I do not fault the operator fully…….He is brand new and trying to learn and operate. But you can make an argument that any band plan clearly shows 146.520 as the simplex calling frequency.
Anyway, this brings me to my point.
#1: We as experienced Radio Amateurs need to start doing a much better job at Elmering the new HAMS.
I think local clubs, upon testing and passing new hams, should then have in place volunteer Elmers they can assign to these new hams to answer any questions, help them out or provide support.
Depending on the interest the new ham has in the hobby, it may not even be members of the club they direct them too.
Far too often I hear a bunch of grumpy old men sit back and make fun of the stupid LID, or bitch about the LID, but they are not doing anything productive to help the new ham.
All of us need to remember that we each started out as new hams at one point or another and by the same token we all made stupid mistakes or lacked knowledge.
We learned one of several ways, we were lucky to pick up an Elmer or we learned from trial and error and making mistakes.
But think how much more rewarding our experiences would have been to avoid some of those really bone headed mistakes.
#2: My other pet peeve, the FCC is always promoting new rule making the ARRL is always promoting one thing or another supposedly to help enhance the hobby.
Something that I think in today’s world of lower tolerance for other peoples to make mistakes and the fact you can study the answers for the test online, memorize them and pass with out any real practical understanding of the test you just passed.
I would really like to see a TIME IN GRADE rule put into place for Advancement.
The entire purpose of the Novice in the old days and the Technician class today is to gain practical experience.
I think a new ham should become an extra, learn the hobby, learn operating practices and gain operating experiences and understand how to properly communicate with each other on the air.
Then say after 6 months or a year of operating be eligible to take the General Exam.
Same thing, build HF operating experience, advance your skills and understanding and then after a year of operating as a General be eligible to take the Extra Class Exam.
I would even support and promote a new Novice level license that came before the Technician and provided limited areas to operate and expired at the end of a year. You either advanced to Technician or you went away.
I am not trying to add a layer of difficulty to gaining new Amateurs, but make the new ham’s experience much more pleasurable and help avoid them getting into trouble in the hobby.
Imagine if someone has no clue what the national 2 meter calling frequency is? Does he have a clue where he can actually even operate on the HF bands or when he is even out of band?
Just some thoughts to think over.
All in all a great way to start the morning, I was shifting over to monitor 144.180 and 144.200 along with 146.520 which is my standard activity setup in the shack and read the news and just listen for a bit, heard a few guys out in East Texas on 146.520, so hoped in and made a contact and then went back to reading the morning news.
And now we move into what my topic of focus is for today.
About 5:14 I noticed, a spike on the display of my Flex at 144.130 MHz, so I dialed up to see who it was. It was two stations, one out of Houston who was struggling to make the station in Louisiana understand what his call sign was. It took them a good 10 minutes to confirm the call and log it, and both were giving each other decent enough signal reports.
After they finally very exasperated ended the QSO, I went back to the Houston Station, who had a KI5 call, so relatively a new HAM. He also happened to hit my HOT BUTTON regarding phonetics. I got on and made contact with him, we had a nice chat for a few minutes, the guy who he just worked was his very first Single Side Band Contact on two meters, and I was his second {So QSL Card will be mailed to him today} turns out he has been licensed for just over 5 months. After I welcomed him to the hobby, and of course welcomed him to Weak Signal and such…I then told him, that he did understand that they entire miscommunication with his call sign was 100% his fault. He was confused and asked me why……He even spelled it out phonetically.
I said that is why, you are using some of the strangest words to spell things out phonetically I have ever heard, and I have heard some really stupid things used over the years.
I told him if he had used standard phonetics that the ear is keyed up and ready to listen for and that when spoken clearly indicate the letter. He was baffled, he had NO Idea that there were a set of standard phonetics out there.
This guy went down a few months back and tested for Technician and General passed both and got on the air and started operating with out any clue what he was doing or how.
Now I will 100% agree that this is how WE LEARN, myself included and we all will make mistakes. But my question to this subject is simply this.
Where are his Elmers?
How do you get tested too general with out a clue.
I’ll focus more on those two questions shortly.
First off, I do not blame this guy at all, he is doing the best he can and I loved his energy and enthusiasm. If he does not discouraged due to the lack of having a quality Elmer guide him, then he will offer a great deal to the hobby. Not many put up a quality SSB Station on VHF this fast into the hobby and he had a fantastic signal.
But this reminded me of a conversation I over heard the other day, I leave the radio’s in the shack on, and I was in my home office working {to pay for said radio’s, as well as food, electricity, etc}. When I heard two local hams, one brand new and the other a seasoned ham.
The brand new ham signal was horrid, very distorted and just sounded like crap. The seasoned HAM working him, noticed he was off frequency and was actually operating 146.525. He directed him down to 146.520 and advised him this was the actually calling frequency, the guy thanked him for that information. He thought the calling frequency was 146.525.
Again this was a brand new HAM so mistakes will be made and that is to be expected. But again he is an EXTRA CLASS Amateur Radio Operator.
Again I ask WHERE ARE HIS ELMERS?
AND AGAIN I ASK: HOW DO YOU GET TESTED TO EXTRA CLASS WITH OUT A CLUE.
Again, I do not fault the operator fully…….He is brand new and trying to learn and operate. But you can make an argument that any band plan clearly shows 146.520 as the simplex calling frequency.
Anyway, this brings me to my point.
#1: We as experienced Radio Amateurs need to start doing a much better job at Elmering the new HAMS.
I think local clubs, upon testing and passing new hams, should then have in place volunteer Elmers they can assign to these new hams to answer any questions, help them out or provide support.
Depending on the interest the new ham has in the hobby, it may not even be members of the club they direct them too.
Far too often I hear a bunch of grumpy old men sit back and make fun of the stupid LID, or bitch about the LID, but they are not doing anything productive to help the new ham.
All of us need to remember that we each started out as new hams at one point or another and by the same token we all made stupid mistakes or lacked knowledge.
We learned one of several ways, we were lucky to pick up an Elmer or we learned from trial and error and making mistakes.
But think how much more rewarding our experiences would have been to avoid some of those really bone headed mistakes.
#2: My other pet peeve, the FCC is always promoting new rule making the ARRL is always promoting one thing or another supposedly to help enhance the hobby.
Something that I think in today’s world of lower tolerance for other peoples to make mistakes and the fact you can study the answers for the test online, memorize them and pass with out any real practical understanding of the test you just passed.
I would really like to see a TIME IN GRADE rule put into place for Advancement.
The entire purpose of the Novice in the old days and the Technician class today is to gain practical experience.
I think a new ham should become an extra, learn the hobby, learn operating practices and gain operating experiences and understand how to properly communicate with each other on the air.
Then say after 6 months or a year of operating be eligible to take the General Exam.
Same thing, build HF operating experience, advance your skills and understanding and then after a year of operating as a General be eligible to take the Extra Class Exam.
I would even support and promote a new Novice level license that came before the Technician and provided limited areas to operate and expired at the end of a year. You either advanced to Technician or you went away.
I am not trying to add a layer of difficulty to gaining new Amateurs, but make the new ham’s experience much more pleasurable and help avoid them getting into trouble in the hobby.
Imagine if someone has no clue what the national 2 meter calling frequency is? Does he have a clue where he can actually even operate on the HF bands or when he is even out of band?
Just some thoughts to think over.
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