Unwritten Rules of Ham Radio

Hams never find a lack of reasons why other hams are hamming wrong.

Great for new guys like me. You are right, some of this was not fully communicated in training well enough I think. I am guilty of kerchunking cause of suffering "mic fright". 🤷‍♂️ Thanks Craig,....my name is Don and I'm a LID!😆🙋‍♂️73

The reason it is called "LID" is back in the day the new operators would build a receiver that would tap on a coffee can lid to receive Morse code. They still had more then the basic hams of today.

Ive called CQ on the 2m simplex frequencies for 44 years as have most of the old guys in my area but never on a repeater frequency.

The most common method to break in and join a QSO on a repeater is to key up between the other station's transmissions and simply say your callsign.

Great suggestions along with a great delivery. Thanks. We have a bunch of new hams and I will show this video at our Jan. club meeting. Thanks again.

Hell I have my extra class license but am so busy with school that I forget lots of the small things. Best of luck with your ham radio hobby and thanks for the great video.

Good topic, good channel :) A few points I'd like to add. ZED is used because ZEE is too easy to confuse with b,c,d,e,g etc. I would still encourage hams to use the phonetic alphabet anytime they're on the radio. Gets you familiar with it and it was designed for clarity. It does help. Especially if you have any hint of an accent which you probably do to someone out there. My first call had an "F" in it and it was constantly misheard, even on 2m, as "S" You may hear a rare(ish) station ragchewing on HF. No matter how much you want to contact them, wait. Do Not start barging in on the conversation. They don't owe you a contact. You forgot one of my favourites, The ham who is on HF calling CQ "CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, CQ, XYZ123" and waits 2 seconds and repeats. Please don't do this.

My Elmer taught me to also tune HF in a different mode and lower power, for instance, if I am tuning I switch from USB or LSB to AM and reduce poser to 15 watts. Tune the radio to the antenna and then switch back to USB or LSB. Power should be back at original setting, if not bump up to the power level you need to transmit and make the contact.

Thanks for the ham etiquette.

"Q signal", "R-S-T system" and "S meter" are three separate methods of signal reporting. For example, S-7 (S meter) does not necessarily equate to 5-7 (RST system). S meters are indicating a physical relative signal at the receiver antenna terminals. RST reports are based upon what you are hearing. Wikipedia is misleading on the relationship between S meters and RST. Telling someone they are "5-9 plus _" is nonsensical. Best of best regardses Craig ...a fun video! 😊

when checking in to a net on vhf it is generally preferred to use phonetic alphabet to aid the net control station, this helps in 2 ways. one is to clarify your call and second is to give the NCS time to write it down. and usually goes like this, this is wx2y , whiskey Xray 2 Yankee, also use of phonetics is standard practice when one makes contact with a new station on any ham band.

I always use phonetics on VHF UHF FM, especially when I'm the NCS running our club net and checking in late or missed, and visitor stations. And phonetics are required for DEM RACES Nets.

Mr. Jones - Counting Crows

I find many ops say their call so darn fast on VHF you can't get the call. That's ok for when they're talking to their buddies, and know how they sound etc., but otherwise it can be really different to hear the 'speed mumble' callsign.

If it is not listed on FCC rules and regs, it is gentleman's agreement passed down through decades of operators and needs to be respected by incoming CB operators

Great video... you have described my issues exactly... and solved my issues. Thank you! Out of Canada 73.😀👍

When I got my Novice in the early eighties, we were taught to only use CQ for Morse Code, not voice.

Thanks, this vid was very helpful.

Good stuff here for a brand new tech, namely me. Guitar player also :) Thank you, learned a lot here.