Ham Quits Hobby Over Funny Phonetics
By K5KVN, on the scene
NORFOLK, Va. – Mitch Eversdale blames it on “Three Lovely Ladies.” Those are the phonetics a ham in Michigan used when talking to a station with a callsign suffix of “TLL.” And it was the last straw for the long-time ham radio operator.
“It happens all the time and I’m sick of it. Just the other day, I was tuning around 40m and someone made ‘WB’ into ‘Wild Bill,’” said Eversdale.
A retired Navy radio operator, Eversdale admits he’s a “hardcore traditional man” when it comes to phonetics.
“Can you imagine saying something that ridiculous on a Navy frequency? I believe you’d get thrown into the drink if you did,” he says.
His ham radio friends, like Benny Roddenfall, have told him he needs to lighten up.
“I don’t know why he gets so worked up about it. Heck, he nearly punched me at the club meeting last week when I referred to QST Magazine as “Q Street,” says Roddenfall.
After overhearing the contact between the Michigan ham and the station ending in “TLL,” Eversdale says he’s through with being on-air.
“I’ll focus my attention on a hobby that takes things more seriously, like embroidery. There’s a hobby that can’t get things wrong.”
### hamhijinks.com
photo credit: ian_pettigrew via photopin cc
Hell hath no fury like Ham Rage. It’s what separates us from the common run of tightly-wrapped hobbyists. Scratch a niche stamp collector of say, blue late 19th century unwatermarked airmails, or one of those guys who buys little molded Visigoths and paints them with authentic barbarian costumes, right down to the teeny weeny little hooks and eyes that keep their bearskins from falling off, and most often you’ll find a sweetheart of a Ginger Bread Boy underneath. Hams start out that way, but QSO after QSO, Lid after Lid, Appliance Operator after HT totin’ Whackerdoodle, the bile begins to roil and boil and finally has no place to go but kaflooey. Pretty? Negatory. Nevertheless, it comes with the Territory, Bunky. Someday,perhaps MFJ, will roll out a Ham Bile Bung to vent the venom before it goes critical, as it always does, sooner or later. How many more must cut off their noses to spite their faces for radio? Who will be the Last Angry Ham?
Tehehehehe, three lovely ladies, tehehehehe. Had Mitch stuck to straight key, he’d have had none of these problems.
I am usually fine with strange phonetics (a friend of mine always uses Japan Italy Golf for his suffix), but I really hate people that use “KILOWATT” for the “K” letter. When they do that, I always report KW instead of K, and they usually stop 🙂
If you had Kilo in your callsign you would understand. I cannot count the number of times I use Kilo and get the read back as ZERO. “Was that November Zero something Juliet?” There is a reason we resort to using Kilowatt… trust me.
That would make my call Killowatt Four Tango
Name here is Bill — Bill — Boy I Love Ladies ….
Bet he hates Chinese radio’s Too
Quoting is giving up. I’d rather stick around and educate people by example. But that’s me. Hard Zcore but willing to lead by example. You also have to understand some people can’t be taught. Deal with it!
Quitting. Spellchecker strikes again.
Must just be sick of the hobby, poor old bugger. DE VK2RT, RAVING TWIT
This is kinda sad. I respect anyone who respects tradition but I also believe there is scope and need for a bit of diversity in phonetics. I often have trouble getting my call sign across to other operators – why I don’t know. But for some reason the combination “Z-V-X” gets mashed up, especially the “V”…. and that’s the English speaking stations. On one occasion I was really struggling with a Spanish station, but finally got through with “Vittorio Kangaroo Trios(3) Zebra Vittorio Xray”. If you wanna communicate, you gotta do what you gotta do. 73s de VK3ZVX
I call QRPers “kwerpers” 😉
Silly as far as I am concerned. Who cares what phonetics people use. It’s just a hobby, relax and have fun.
Best phonetics are simply the ones that work! I fail to understand why anyone would be confused by kilowatt. No one thinks that foxtrot means FT. How is it any different?
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Bad Case of “RA”! de K5OKE — like in “O K E (Okie). Got that call to have fun! …Being and “Okie”!
An outrage!
Wretched Xenophobic 8 Linguini – 88’s