The Art of
Ragchewing
John D.
Tate
KX5JT
4/22/2010
The A.M.
mode really lends itself well to the ragchew. It was almost as if A.M. was made for
ragchewing. Under difficult
conditions, A.M. can be a lesson in frustration, with fading signals, high noise
floors and crowded conditions.
However, A.M. is a real pleasure to operate during optimum times and
conditions. The pleasant audio
fidelity and armchair copy of great conditions really invokes a warm nostalgic
feeling.
From the
Urban Dictionary dot Com….
Ragchew
“A long QSO between two amateur
radio operators. This is generally what amateur
radio operators are doing on the radio when they're not contesting, testing
equipment, bouncing signals off the moon or meteor showers, providing
communications in national emergencies, sending still or moving pictures or text
back and forth, connecting to packet radio networks, and partaking in
nets.”
This indeed
is what we mostly do with the A.M. mode. I personally find it sometimes
daunting to keep ragchews interesting.
This is why I am writing this article. I decided a discussion about this
subject may be helpful. There
certainly is a fine art in a well executed ragchew. I often find myself in QSO with many of
the same people on the same frequencies.
This is a great way to forge some lifelong friendships and indeed I have
begun to do so after only 18 months of A.M. operations. However, keeping the QSO interesting and
fresh is sometimes difficult. It is
real easy to repeat the same old QSO.
I am fairly
new to the A.M. community. My
previous phone experiences were from VHF FM, HF and VHF SSB contacts. They mostly tended to be short exchanges
of signal reports, weather conditions and station equipment. Rarely did these contacts stray from
these old standard exchanges. It
gets boring pretty quick. On some
nets, maybe there was mention of things we did during the day or week that may
have some interest or information on an upcoming hamfest and that was quite a
bit better than 59 reports.
A.M. lends
itself more to the ragchew instead of the brief exchanges. This is not to say there are not
ragchews in the other modes because certainly I have been involved in some, but
it really doesn’t seem to be the modus
operandi. In the case of A.M.
however, it is. Often the dilemma
for the new and even the veteran A.M. operator is how to keep the QSOs
fresh. I think back to when I was a
short wave listener in the mid 1980’s.
A bulky, ugly rack mounted, open back boat anchor receiver was bestowed
upon me by my electronics instructor at the tech school I was attending. It was taking up far too much space in
the storage closet so he offered it to me.
I was instructed on the basics of erecting a longwire outside with the
help of some trees.
That boat
anchor receiver was my introduction to amateur radio. I spent some time being fascinated with
the foreign broadcast stations and some of the warbling and whirling sounds of
utility, RTTY and other strange signals.
The novelty of these wore off soon.
One early morning well before the sunrise, I tuned into a classic AM
roundtable ragchew on 3.885 Mc. The
warm A.M. audio captured my interest immediately. The old timers were talking about these
transmitters they were either building from scratch, restoring, modifying and
moreover, USING them. I was hearing
those rigs! As an electronics
student, I was fascinated. It was
interesting to listen to these tales of old transmitters. Sometimes there was a story of some
misadventure that took place back between the wars in the service. Stories and fish tales were
exchanged. My point is that this
was great stuff to listen too. I
would laugh along with the old men and find myself wanting to wake up early the
next morning to listen to more.
This was good radio!
If the
conversation is interesting, fresh and inviting, people enjoy listening, whether
they are simply monitoring or actively participating. There seems to be a certain art
involved. I aspire to be a ragchew
artist! I have a long way to
go! Here I will put some of my
thoughts to print.
The
Introduction
I think
it’s important to thank the other operators for the opportunity to be in the QSO
to begin with. If you call CQ and
get a reply, thank the other operator for coming back to your CQ call. If you are responding to a CQ, likewise,
thank the operator for calling. If
you break into an existing QSO and are allowed a place in the rotation, thank
the other operators for allowing you into the rotation. It really is a nice feeling to hear a
station thanking you and that feeling is reciprocal. It begins a QSO in a positive
manner. Likewise, when signing out
of a QSO, thank the operators for the QSO again. This really sets a positive tone for
amateur radio in general. Courtesy
and politeness radiate excellence.
Excellence is a good aspiration.
Following
the thanksgiving, some form of introduction should be given in each QSO
entry. Many times the QSO will be
with the same regulars. Of
course they already know who you are, probably what you are running and other
basics. Give your name and
location on your first round anyway.
Remember, there are others listening too. Although I do not always do it, I think
it is a good idea to give a brief rundown of the equipment being used. Many of us have several different rigs
and even have several operating areas labeled, “studio a” or “studio b”
etc. The truth be told, a lot of us
have less than perfect memories, so a brief rundown never hurts. Many amateurs will be monitoring the
popular AM window frequencies while working on projects or what not. Always assume there are others
monitoring. Unless I have entered
an ongoing roundtable, I also like to give a brief weather report and I like to
hear brief weather reports. Many of
the stations I contact are off to my west and their present weather will be my
future weather. Of course my
present weather conditions will be moving to the east. These preliminary items do not take long
and sometimes may open up other topics of interest. After all, that is what we are trying to
do, is promote interesting topics.
The introduction is a good habit.
It doesn’t take long to run through. However, if you are entering an ongoing
QSO or roundtable, the introduction should be greatly abbreviated as to not
throw off the flow of the topic.
Simply put your call, name and location as your introduction and get on
to comments about the topic to keep that flowing. You can get a feel for the
appropriateness of the other introductory information
later.
Roundtables
vs. One-on-One QSO
I often
hear stations enter roundtables haphazardly. Inevitably the station will announce
something like “Thanks for letting me in, but I don’t know what the topic is or
who all is in here….” This is
chaos. It is sloppy. If you want to add yourself into a
roundtable, you should really be prepared to add something valuable to the
QSO. LISTEN for a round or two or
three!.
Construct a list of the stations and the rotation order. Take notes. Get a feel for the topic or topics. Moreover, if there is already four or more stations, consider sitting out until
the numbers dwindle. This brings me
to another wonderful lesson. LISTEN
more than you transmit. You do not
have to participate in every QSO.
We become very enthusiastic about our radio operations but sitting out
and just listening goes a very long way for
understanding which things work well and which do not. After listening to the roundtable for a
bit, then decide whether or not to enter.
Have any of the stations suggested taking on breakers? Are they pausing between
transmissions as if to invite others? Another good practice is to gauge the
length of each transmission according to the number of stations in the round
table. The more participants, the
shorter each transmission should be so as to keep the dynamics of the QSO
flowing smoothly.
Many times
you will come across a one-on-one QSO instead of a roundtable. Before deciding to join, listen for a
while. Again, it’s important to
listen to any ongoing QSO before joining.
Many operators enjoy the one-on-one QSO and prefer to keep it that
way. If you break in, realize that
you are changing this QSO into a roundtable. Are they pausing between
transmissions? I’ve noticed some
stations will not put a pause at all between the transmissions. This is indicating they wish to continue
without breakers. There is nothing
wrong with this! I have quite a few
times heard a breaker enter into a QSO and throw the dynamic of the QSO off, and
the flow of the conversation, the train of thought totally collapses. I’m sure I’ve been the guilty party in
such QSOs. It is quite easy to do
even if unintentional. If a QSO is
proceeding well between 2 operators, sometimes the best thing to do is to let it
continue and just enjoy copying for a while. Before joining, really consider if
you have some value to add. If you
do enter, thank the operators for allowing you in. If the QSO topic was flowing nicely,
then abbreviate your introduction and keep the flow
moving.
Personality
One thing
about our hobby and especially A.M. operators, we have some real PERSONALITIES
among us! I have heard stories
about people like W8VYZ, Ashtabula Bill or W5PYT, Ozona Bob and of course
WA1HLR, the Timtron. I still hear
the Timtron out there and have worked Ashtabula Bill once or twice. These are folks with legendary
personalities. They are quirky and
fun! They make for GREAT
radio! We should allow our
personality to shine when on the air.
Follow these great examples but with your own personality. On the other end of the spectrum,
we sometimes run into operators who have a very monotone drone voice that nearly
puts us to sleep. Some of these
guys love to do the old buzzard transmission. Take notice of which end of the spectrum
you are on and adjust as necessary!
Ragchewing
Topics
Sometimes,
we seem to run out of ideas and interesting things to say. Even though we really want to keep
‘playing radio’ our well seems to run dry.
This happens to all of us, some more than others. We either need to bow out and let the
QSO dissolve or inject some new topic that keeps the interest going. Easier said than done! This is where the art form of the
ragchew takes place! The ragchew
artist knows how to keep an interesting flow. The ragchew artist is an adept
conversationalist. The ragchew
artist is good at coaxing interesting information from others, a linguistic
alchemist that can turn a dull lead QSO into shiny gold! *insert belch* Where do we
turn?
As amateur
radio operators and especially A.M. operators, we love the technical side of
radio. The majority of us have
ongoing projects. This is naturally
a topic that we discuss on the air.
We are drawn to it. It is
the basis of a great many QSOs.
I love to just listen when there is an ongoing QSO about a homebrew plate
modulated transmitter or some minor explosion due to the miscalculation of
component ratings. I don’t
think I have to expound on this area.
It’s a natural wellspring for QSO topics.
I know I
also enjoy hearing about peoples other hobbies. If you are restoring that ’67 Shelby
Mustang, surely you love to share your progress with us! That’s good stuff! You own some thoroughbred race
horses? How much money does it take
to feed them? You get the
idea. If something interests you
and puts a smile on your face, it’s pretty likely that others feel the same or
at least share some of the enthusiasm.
Tell us about that telescope!
Geaux Saints! What is it like to scuba dive off of the
Careers can
be fascinating too. I have heard
quite a few awesome stories from hams that work as broadcast engineers. You taught English in
Current events may be a mixed bag. Certainly the things going on in this world range from phenomenally awesome to downright scary. Disasters, celebrity deaths, Tiger Woods affairs, the so called Global Warming phenomena can be fodder for discussions. However, when discussing current events, it’s easy to venture into politics and religion. Personally, I am not opposed to discussing politics and religion but when doing so one must proceed with caution. These are very important subjects and some discussion on the air will always be present. If the topics do venture into religion or politics, many operators will choose to abstain from comments. Respect their decision. One has to have certain sensitivity if participating in such discussions because these topics set off differing opines with much emotion. It takes a certain empathy and delicate touch to handle. It can certainly be dangerous territory. I tend to be VERY cautious when the subject matter bends towards religion or politics. It is a great discipline to know when to bow out.
Get
out of the radio room sometimes! Go out and mingle with
people. Well rounded people (do not mistake this for large
people!) get out and do various things. Fill your life up with
different interesting activities. Sports, outdoors activities
like fishing, hunting and such always seems to generate interesting
stories. Consider volunteering if you have time. Here in
Louisiana, we love our festivals.
Quick break
in type QSOs can be a real gas!
These can be quite fun and although I do not seem to hear a lot of these
going on in the deep south, occasionally I have been involved in them. They are light and levity seems to be
theme. Sometimes we do have to let
our hair down!
Keeping our
ragchews fresh and interesting is definitely an ARTFORM! It is not always the easiest thing to
do! It taks some practice and some experience. Some of us seem more naturally inclined
and others, me included, need to work at it a bit. Always thanks the other operators for a
great QSO before signing out! Thank
you for allowing me to put my thoughts to print and keep those filaments
lit!
73 de
KX5JT, John