Sometimes we have many unsatisfying incomplete illegal and immoral "QSO" in a row — this often happens when conditions are good, and you call CQ…
First, we call CQ in the correct manner, the RESPECTFUL manner, we call CQ give our call sign and we END with an INVITATION TO TRANSMIT: "K"
We don't call CQ CQ VK5EEE (silence). We don't stand in a market square and shout "Calling everyone this is Louis" we say "Calling everyone this is Louis, please answer me".
We could even end with PSE K although K is enough. As civilised, polite, courteous, and practical telegraphists (CW Operators) we MUST end a CQ with at least a K at the very end.
You may end with PSE K or + K (<AR> K) or K but you cannot end your CQ with anything else no matter what ON4UN and the IARU may tell you!
Having thus called CQ and ended with the unambiguous and simple K which is an invitation for someone ANYONE to answer you, what do we EXPECT to hear?
The Right Way to Answer a CQ
We EXPECT to hear OUR CALLSIGN at LEAST ONCE. If we have a very ambiguous callsign like VK5EEE or VK5EEEE we would even appreciate 2 or 3 times to hear our callsign thus:
VK5EEE VK5EEE VK5EEE DE 7K4XYZ 7K4XYZ 7K4XYZ N
The KN tells us that if anyone is tuning across and hears 7K4XYZ K they are not to answer, he is asking for a SPECIFIC station to answer him, thus KN. Or, if you like, <AR>.
BUT there MUST be at LEAST ONE times my callsign VK5EEE even if the calling stations wants to leave out DE then AT LEAST: VK5EEE 7K4XYZ K
Otherwise, it is totally ambiguous as to whether we are being called. This should be obvious, but it is not, judging by the number of illegal contacts that occur daily and cause us great frustration:
1) You are violating the radio regulations. You should identify the station you are calling, as well as yourself. But this for me, is not the main reason, the "illegality"
2) The station being called has NO WAY of knowing if you have their callsign correct!
3) The station being called has NO WAY of knowing if you are just in some illegal "DX SPLIT" pile up!
WHY would I or anyone in their right mind, answer such a call? It would be wasting my time if the station is not actually calling me or if it does not have my callsign correct and I don't know.
Aside from this is is POLITE? Is it not RUDE to answer someone with only "7K4XYZ" in real life? Would you not address the person you are talking to, and then identify yourself, and give an "over to you" ending, such as KN?
This is not Skype! A Signal Report at Minimum!
It does not end here. The impolite, incomplete, unsatisfying "QSO" also has at least one further requirement, an honest signal report!
SO, if I answer to 7K4XYZ and I give an honest report, and MY NAME, I do not expect the station to answer me, the one he called after all, and not even the other way around, with just "7K4XYZ 5NN"
Not after I have given GE TKS FER CALL UR RST 579 NAME LUI HW? 7K4XYZ DE VK5EEE KN
I STILL have not heard my callsign and I still have no report!
It took me a total of 4 minutes to get an honest report out of YB72RI/1. Is YB72RI/1 such a rare DX that he has no time to give a GE and a real RST, and even his NAME and a 73? The Republic of Indonesia has existed for 72 years. Next year, it will have existed for 73 years, and the year after, for 74 years. So then we have YB74RI/1 and the same nonsense. I don't care that the R.I. exists for 72 years, I only wish its citizens peace, freedom, good health, long life and sanity. I care about the person I am talking to, the fellow HUMAN BEING, RADIO AMATEUR, TELEGRAPHIST.
Prophet Muhammad was on the Earth more than 720 years ago, in fact around 20 times a long as the Republic of Indonesia, and many of the people of that country claim to follow his example. Was not the example to GREET someone first, EVEN the "non-believer"? And to be POLITE? And to be HONEST? Did not all Prophets and Sages teach us such values? Our Grand Parents too?
But let us as Universal Radio Amateurs leave aside RELIGION: Is not the VERY BASIS of Amateur Radio, the honest report? And politeness and universal friendship? Is not sport meant to be founded on fairness, accuracy and honesty? We all know the decline of commercialized "sport" which is now about $$$ and DOPING and CHEATING has long become the norm in Radio Spot. Dishonest reports, entering into CW category while using automated digital stations, to say the very least. And talk about that and they WILL ATTACK YOU.
SO it is MOST UNSATISFYING to put up, after calling CQ, with incomplete, impolite, illegal, unsatisfying non-QSO, outside of the Cheating Radio Sport "contests".
THIS is why we have the QTT campaign.
IF some one wants to call CQ YB72RI/1 (SILENCE) or CQ YB72RI/1 UP — I can choose not to answer, as I don't want 5NN and UP. That's fine, to each their own. I can spin the dial, and usually I do.
BUT if I am calling CQ and you answer me, SEND MY CALLSIGN AT LEAST ONCE. And if I give you an honest report and you do not hear me with an extremely strong signal do NOT give me 5NN. You are slapping me in the face with great disrespect. And if I gave my name, you too should give yours. If I shared my power and antenna you too should share yours. It is YOU who answered MY call, so you should respect me, or not respond to my call.
IT IS common sense isn't it?
IARU Severely Damaged CW Operations
So why all this nonsense put around by IARU people such as G3BJ, ON4UN, DU1EV and others, such as CQ CQ DU1EV or even more crazy combinations that make no sense (ON4UN)?
Sure, as Muammar Qaddafi, accused of being a Mad Man pointed out with all evident sanity: "Even a mad man has a right to speak freely, if only to prove his madness". So does ON4UN have that right, and I too have a right to post an Email sharing my madness with unsatisfying experiences this evening when the local noise level is so high that I cannot (yet) operate freely again!
Incidentally, ON4UN author of the unethical "ethics" book containing terrible errors that have created huge problems for new CW operators and yet he refuses stubbornly to correct them, and the IARU continues to promote this book, is one of three radio hams in three years that did not manage to correctly copy my call-sign no matter how often I sent it, insisting on VK5EE. Funny, thought I'd mention it!
The inability of new OPs and returning old OPs to call CQ correctly, and thus miss out on many QSO, and the inability to use efficient, correct and meaningful CW procedures, is mostly to blame on the IARU and it's lack of support to CW but most especially its wrong publication that should never have passed the censors, and then should have been binned.
We have to make a stand, otherwise who else will?
Since the authorities care not about the noise made to radio amateurs by the tell-lie-vision RECEIVERS that are founded on OUR technology and history, but now transmit unwanted emissions since all that matters now if keeping the masses in their places, for which the Tell-lie-vision is KEY not the Morse Key!
Rest assured, OT Jean ON8RA-5T0JL taught many of us that we should NOT put up with this negative trend and avalanche of immorality heralding the rapid decline and degeneration of amateur radio in silence, if at 88 until his last breath he could speak out against it and help to encourage more Quality True Telegraphy then SO CAN ALL OF US.
What is the suitable response to a "5NN" then? Perhaps it should be "999" or NNN. 99 is CW for Get Lost! 999 can be Get Lost to the Power of Nine!
Another Bad Example
THREE unsatisfying incomplete QSO in a row where I had to struggle to get even my own callsign, is becoming all too often the norm.
The THIRD of the three, I do not even know if it was aimed for me: "RA0XYZ" — was he calling me or calling in some illegal split causing QRM and confusion?
I was calling CQ on 10116.3 (it is wise to avoid a .0kHz these days) and therefore the reply "RA0XYZ" on the very same frequency, was LIKELY for me. BUT was it? He NEVER sent my callsign, not once, and all I got was "5NN" — so that is NOT a valid QSO - if I don't hear my callsign correct, it goes in the log as INVALID QSO.
The NO QSL is not going to be much of a sanction, from VK5EEE, since this is not a rare DX area, and already hundreds are waiting for my QSL: I'm also waiting, until 1) I can return home where it is affordable to have them printed and 2) affordable to post them, and 3) have an amateur radio society and QSL bureau worth joining, having resigned from the one down here.
Join in QTT
So who is with me? And if Truth is with me who can be against me? Are we now really that much in the minority among all the "5NN" many of which even doesn't have "TU"? See you in QTT!
Let us revive the art of having a polite, enjoyable Q S O — you don't have to "rag chew" or "chat" — all that is required is an honest report and your name. Adding a QTH, your PWR and ANT, and 73, completes a satisfying QSO. After all if you are 449, it means nothing without knowing your power and antenna. If I get 579 from the other side of the world, is that on a 7ele beam or a dipole up 3m? That's the information that makes it fun, educational and interesting, not 5NN.
By all means do your 5 Nothing Nothing stuff, but please don't IMPOSE it on us, when you answer our calls, and AFTER we already gave you an HONEST REPORT and our NAME!