CQ RC (original) (raw)

CQ RC CQ RC for Real Conversation cq, cw, morse code, amateur radio, ragchew, rag chew, real conversation Gan Uesli Starling 2015-2019, Gan Uesli Starling CQ QTT

For use when seeking a Qualtiy QSO (proper, old-fashioned rag chew).

Something Lacking

A meetup where no one does more than hand out business cards of identical boilerplate info makes for a very dull party indeed ... regardless with whom, no matter from where. How is it different when the same happens over the air? Such is the frustration for many of us, who contrarywise, turn on our rigs in fervent hope of discovering a new friend. That hope is dashed each time a QSO bruskly is closed off with “73 TU dit-dit” after only a single exchange. Such QSOs as that provide satisfaction equal to a poke got on Facebook.

Some nights it happens that boilerplate QSO responses fully obstruct all opportunity for even so much as a single genuine conversation. I end up turning off the rig wondering why I bothered at all. I and those like me long for a way to politely fend off such replies as will prove unsatisfyingly short.

Special Prosign

I had formerly advocated for RC to serve in this role, such that I might enjoy to send CQ CQ CQ RC as advertisement of wanting an old-fashioned ragchew. That seeming to me the simplest remedy of all.

In this, so I learn, I was by no means alone. A whole lot of other folks have since taken up use of an even better such prosign: QTT, standing for Quality True Telegraphy. And in the actual case, the Morse symbols for QTT consume slightly fewer PARIS elements than did RC. But with QTT requesting, at absolute minimum, a full reply consisting of rig, power, antenna, key-type, and weather. Possibly also a rag-chew, but in any case no mere TU 599 ... especially when the 599 is an obvious lie, generated by push-button memory function.

And so, now I myself send CQ CQ CQ QTT instead. Especially on the daily frequency of the 30CW Group. Which, should you not know, varies from day to day as 10.1dd5 where dd comes from yyyy-mm-dd. And so, on the 1st day of the month it is 10.1015, and on the 29th day of the month it is 10.1295. And on most of those days there is also an hour, same as the day of the month. Such that on the 1st day 0100 through 0200 UTC, more CW ops are likely to have congregated on that freq. No special time is designated for days 25 through 31.

No Slight Intended

Suppose we were judging breakfasts instead. Some of us old farts want our pancake traditional-sized. Many a young whipper-snapper prefer a dozen dollar-sized pancakes instead. Nothing to spark an argument over.

Except, that is, when time after time your own preference goes unfulfilled. Then is when you complain to the waitress. She shows you your order, and all that’s written on it is “pancakes”, no mention of size. Why? Because you yourself failed to mention. The waitress suggests you speak your order more clearly next time.

That’s all this is. One QSO, please. The old-fashioned, full-sized variety. Not a dozen dinky ones each on its own separate plate. So, QTT = Real Conversation, or Rag Chew, or Random Chat. An acronym that’s clear and concise.

Consider as well those who call CQ DX. Do their fellow countrymen take offence at having been deemed unworthy? The thought is absurd. Likewise regarding CQ QTT. Answer or don’t depending on your own individual chattiness quotient. Problem solved.

Advocacy

Everything new has to start somewhere. It may take a while for recognition to spread. Once it has, we can look forward to other ops understanding that on-air courtesy works both ways. That while other ops might only want a QSL for their collection of our station’s prefix, grid square, or whatever ... in return we expect a personal introduction of substance. Complete sentences of normal chat about themselves or any other topic of choice, howevermuch abbreviated.

As for not cutting discourse short, the standard exceptions of course still apply. As in the case of the XYL/OM calling down from upstairs. Or QSB, provided at least some effort at perseverence was made.

On the Air

Since it will take a while to catch on, for starters I am presently batting at the cootie around like so...

CQ CQ CQ QTT DE KY8D K

Cocktail Party Etiquette

At festive gatherings, two topics have by tradition been labeled taboo. You know them surely. But in these sad times, we each can point to someone who needs them explained.

Politics

Certain politicians exist whose names I cannot endure to speak without tacking on such epithets as would put my FCC license at risk. You might even feel likewise, but quite possibly in reverse. In days of yore such ardent disputes could be settled in gentlemanly fashion: with pistols at dawn. Over the air across thousands of miles, strident invective comes off both futile and cowardly. We devolve into infants throwing tantrums. It is unseemly. Let us therefor completely refrain.

Religion

Should I attempt to push my beliefs onto you, you are then equally free to shove your own back at me. Likewise a stranger, adhering to neither, is granted full license ridicule both. Unless we are each willing suffer public rebuttal, we’d be wiser to cherish our separate beliefs in private.

Because otherwise, deep seated feelings are sure to be wounded. A heated argument will then arise. And never will either of us convince the other. Genocides have been perpetrated upon such differences of opinion. If pressed, I can cite chapter and verse to neither side’s credit. So let us agree to steer very wide around this most dangerous whirlpool.

Tangentialism

Nor is it clever in the least to skate around the twin taboos by threading in a patently transparent aside, glancing mention, or tangential remark. Such rhetorical ploys are petty, childish in the extreme. The more so when offered in complete safety where none can come punch us in the nose. And so once again, do let us completely refrain.

Surely there is something else of interest about oneself, yes? A second hobby, perhaps? One of mine is translating classic SF into Esperanto. Never heard of that language? Don’t get me started. Well, okay. If you insist...

Free Expression?

Sure, there is that. They who abuse it, however, are not very much welcome at parties. Better therefor if we all just agree to be nice. If it’s confrontation you seek, then pray (prey?) go think up an alternate special prosign for that. Enough said.

Quality QSOs

Below I cite two very memorable chance encounters, each of which ran on for upwards of an hour. I believe both took place on 60m, not usually a band condusive to such. The channel, however, was otherwise dead along with the channel either just above or below. I had set my IC-745 to scan back and forth between channels 1 and 2. Hearing no one I would call CQ on occasion. This while busy with something else. Such was my habit around the time of both these QSOs.

An even more long-standing habit of mine, is to avoid being first to send 73. Often I’ll ask, “How are things at your end?” by way of a prompt. In the first QSO cited, I had opportunity to proffer support. In the second to answer a nagging curiosity. Worthy services both. And amateur radio does proclaim itself as a service. And so, why not?

Sharing a Loss

I once had a QSO with a gentleman ten years my senior who happened to mention that his wife of many years had recently died. She hadn’t much liked his radio hobby, but still he had loved her and radio now was all he had left. I could sympathize as my own first wife had been instrumental in getting me to abandon the hobby for twenty-some years. Eventually we divorced, and I in time found my way back to the hobby. Meanwhile my ex-wife had also died. A sad occurence despite all earlier acrimony. Not really the same thing at all, but still sufficiently parallel for an exchange of sympathies and anecdotes. When his QSL came, inside the envelope was also a very nice letter telling how much he’d enjoyed our QSO.

Doing a Favor

In another QSO, it just so turned out that the other op, while participating a guided long-distance bicycle tour up the west coast of Lake Michigan, had passed very nearly right by my house. Not far from there, the op had bicycled past something which had stuck in his mind, and puzzled over many times since. A smokestack of truly stupendous size. For being but a single member in the tour group, he’d had no opportunity to stop and gawk, much less take a picture. He'd tried to find the thing on Google afterwards but without any luck. I drove over and took a photo myself, then emailed it to him. In a second chance QSO weeks later, he thanked me most kindly.

Any Others?

Have you a similar QSO memory worth sharing? Email it to me via the link on my QRZ page. I will be pleased to host it on this domain which I pay for. Or, as you may please, upload yours elsewhere and inform me of its URL.