Hello, Goodbye - In Praise of 599 QSOs

I was not too different from many other boys (and a few girls) when I started in ham radio over 50 years ago. I was more comfortable with machines than with people. I was shy and nerdy, and I took to electronics, radio and computers like a fish to water. Amateur radio was a perfect outlet for my enthusiasms. 

The downside was that the practice of amateur radio, the fruit of learning the code and building a station, was talking to people. Certainly I was thrilled with the possibility of contacting people all over the world, especially in the 1970s before the public internet, affordable long distance telephone service and commercial wireless services, but shyness and feeling intimidated by adults caused anxiety. 

One of my fears was that my QSO partner would take the conversation beyond signal report, name, QTH, weather and station info. I never really knew what to say. As far as I was concerned, the shorter the QSO the better. I felt that anxiety every time I reached for the key or microphone to respond to a CQ.

The attitude of the adult hams in my life may have been part of the problem. They were less encouraging than you might think. Many were pleasant but quite a few seemed to find youth annoying -- we were inquisitive, ignorant and unruly. This was a time when the prevailing wisdom was that children were meant to be seen and not heard. They were good people but the generation gap was difficult to bridge. 

Instead of adult ham mentors, I learned from other young hams, magazines and from my on air experience. We were the middle wave of the baby boom and there was no shortage of other hams my age. We paid little attention to adult hams and many of them did the same. I was never comfortable talking to them on the air.

My friends and I soon discovered contesting. Young adults are always trying to "test ourselves" and make a mark in the world -- having our calls printed in a magazine. I could make oodles of contacts with anyone and everyone in a few hours with my small station and without the anxiety of having conversations. It was perfect for me. I formed close friendships with peers who were also drawn to contests. We spurred each other to improve our stations so that we could do better against the "big boys".

Conversations: is that the point?

Many hams who do not like contests or DXing cite as their reason the absence of conversation. The exchange of little more than a signal report in endless succession is pointless to them and a waste of time and spectrum. They are not wrong, for themselves and their interests. Obviously many of us feel differently. 

As teenagers we would mock adult hams for their lengthy and boring rag chews, nets that did nothing but take check-ins and, for the oldest, endless blather about their health woes. Few young people have the patience for any of that. When we did talk to each other on air we talked like the teenagers we were, and that irritated many of the adults who listened.

The objective of a contest QSO is to correctly exchange information with others as quickly as possible. There is little time to spare for anything more. When you run into a friend on CW you might just send "dit dit" to acknowledge them. Time is of the essence and all participants understand that and so both hams race to make the next contact. The same is true for DXpeditions that aim to hand out the maximum number of contacts as possible.

This does not mean that contesters don't talk to each other. I suspect that contesters talk to each other more than most non-contesters. But they do it outside of contests. Sometimes on air though more often in person, on the phone, in online fora and at hamfests. We share stories, talk about what did and didn't work, help each other to improve our stations and skills, and gather as multi-op teams and spend the weekend enjoying each other's company.

Hams who value conversation above other styles of operating may decry the spectrum occupied by contests and DXpeditions. This was a greater problem decades ago when the bands were packed on weekends by hams filled the bands with conventional QSOs and contesters were in the minority. 

These days the spectrum is emptier when there is no contest. Conversations are less popular and contests are more popular. This is likely to continue. Modern technology makes talking to other people, near and far, easier and cheaper than ever for hams and non-hams alike, so that is less of a draw to the hobby than it once was.

Contests and DX: speed and agility are everything

In radiosport, time is of the essence. I don't dawdle and I don't like it when others dawdle. I'll slow down when I must to complete the contact. When I'm running and several stations call, I am likely to choose the fastest.

Think of it as choosing a lineup for the cashiers in a store. Do you choose the one where the cashier or customer is chatty and striking up a conversation or the one where neither says a word and they stick to business. I choose the latter. Conversation is nice but even as a retired person I'd rather take the faster line up so that I can move more quickly. That isn't unfriendly or rude. I appreciate fast service.

Despite that, a conversational QSO is vital CW practice, and I make a point of doing it from time to time. I love Morse but I have no talent for it. It was a struggle to learn to copy and send when I started out long ago and that's still true. In a conversation you can't readily predict what the other ham will send and that makes me concentrate and not lose any vital characters or information. That skill makes a difference in contests even though the exchange is more predictable.

Digital

Digital QSOs aren't very fast, but they stick to the essentials: call sign and signal report. It isn't possible to have a conversation with digital modes like FT8. Well, it is possible but so difficult that few bother to compose messages on the fly.

I don't mind the simplicity of digital contacts, though many do. Those who decry the hello-goodbye QSOs typical of contests and DXing are, not unexpectedly, skeptical or hostile to digital modes. The absence of conversational possibilities can be an advantage since no one can keep me into a QSO longer than I'd like.

Are hams that preferentially operate digital modes loners and losers? No! Like contesters they do their talking when meeting with friends and local club members, on air and off air. They are happy, well adjusted human beings that happen to enjoy and appreciate the benefits of digital modes.

The future

I am no longer a shy teenager. I'm comfortable speaking in front of an audience of 1000 people and conversing on air. Yet I continue to prefer "599" QSOs. During our long and cold winters I will occasionally get on the air to talk. It doesn't happen often.

When I take the time to chat on SSB with my large station, not a few are surprised to have never spoken to me before. A big signal from an unrecognized station is a curiosity to those who regularly scan the bands looking for conversations.

Conversational QSOs are a secondary interest for me, but when a QSO partner wants more I am usually happy to oblige. More often I'd rather have a brief contact and move on. Perhaps I'll learn to enjoy the simple pleasure of having on air conversations when I'm older and I've put aside antenna and tower projects.