Rug Rat wrote to Jimmy Anderson <=-

On Thu 6-Nov-2025 6:32a, Jimmy Anderson@1:105/7.0 said to Rug Rat:

Yep! If someone has no interest, they have no interest. I have no interest in contesting, but I'll be happy to answer POTA CQ's once I get an HF
rig, because I like to TALK TO PEOPLE. :-) Heck - it's what got me
into BBS's years ago - the nets!

You might be a bit disapointed then with POTA, as the majority of the contacts with POTA operators are very contestest like, in that they are out there to make as many contacts as possible within the time of their activation. At the same time there are a lot of people waiting to make contact with them. Very rarely will they take the time to "TALK TO YOU"... It is exchange contact information, and off to the next
station. The majority of DX is like that is well. That is not to say
I have not had longer QSO with either, but it is not the norm.

No I understand that, but I mean even a quick contact with a POTA activator will be a cool thing for me. :-) Will be a way to test and make sure I'm getting out there too - then I can worry about finding a rag chew. :-)

BTW - got my HF out of the shed and powered it up last night... From what
I said to Daryl in another echonet...

A fellow ham 'handed down' a Kenwood TS-140S, MFJ-941E tuner and a
homemade fan dipole! I powered up the radio last night just to
confirm it works - but no transmit, as antenna not up yet.

I don't really have room for the longest parts of it, but for now
I'm going to make an inverted V on my tower and use at least the
10 meter part... Get my feet wet, so to speak, and if everything
works okay I'll get another power supply to run it as well for
more power and I'll invest in an antenna I can mount without taking
up 100' of yard space. :-)




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Ed Vance wrote to jimmy anderson <=-

Jimmy, I didn't want to include a lenghty quote of your and Rug Rat discussion. Just want to add a bit to it

Understood. :-)

You said you will answer some Contest calls.

Yeah - not planning to do contesting for me, but will answer
as opposed to silence on the bands. :-)

That made me recall one time I heard a DX station calling CQ.
I called him thinking I would get a QSO with the station.
The return call I heard was very short , something like TNX QSO PSE QSL
. There was a pause then the station began calling CQ again.

LOL

I ain't a DX'er or Contester.
Actually haven't been on HF since XYL didn't like thise ugly wires
coming out of a room and going into the fold down attic stairs.

Yeah... My wife doesn't mind, but *I* don't want 100+ feet of wire
across the yard - LOL




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Sean Dennis wrote to Rug Rat <=-

Rug Rat wrote to Jimmy Anderson <=-

I have an ICOM IC-706MKII and a BuddiPole tat I may connect to my
mobility scooter as it has two 12 volt, 60 amp batteries I could tap
into to run a low-power mobile station I can use to activate a few
parks here in town once spring comes.

In the back burner of my brain, where sits a LOT of things "I wouldn't
mind doing eventually..." sits the idea of a go-box. I've actually
thought about a go box with HF for the purpose of POTA at some
point...

I know it's 'contesting' but the idea of doing a portable station
sounds intriguing...

Back to the original point, yeah, you'd have better luck with a ragchew
by just calling CQ.

I plan to do that too... :-)



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Rug Rat wrote to Jason Brady <=-

They are out there (Just like there are stations that will try to stop
and rag chew during a contest..).. It is just not the norm. I give warning because you hear people all the time how they were put off from ham radio after getting their license and feeling that nobody really wanted to talk to them.

My response to that may sound a bit odd, but I feel that those people
just toss away the hobby because it was not what they expected, are the ones that either got into it for the prepper aspect or like the example above not only believed the marketing but like all endevors had a
starry eyed vision that they where going to get their ticket and
everyone on on the air would want to talk to them for hours on end and instead of taking the time to find their niche either found the "sad
ham theory promoting YouTube channels" and to save themselves the
bruised ego belived the probelm is "those old timers.." or put their license aside..

Same with local repeaters on 2m/440. There are more repeaters than
there are people on the air. :-) But I've learned that a lot of them
are on HF, which I'm working toward getting set up.

But yeah - I'll put the radio on scan when I'm in the truck and a
lot of time it's dead. I'll call out, but sometimes I'm listening
to a podcast and don't take time to call, but will listen and/or
answer when someone does. :-)





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