Snotty Hams

[Polar Bear]

I have been licensed since 2011 - have been a Amateur Extra Class ham - all but 3 months of that period of time.
Was talking the other day on QRZdotcom and someone told me that I had no right to say anything - that I did not know anything, since I have only been licensed for 11 1/2 years.
I have been shortwave / amateur radio listening since about 1969 / 70

They know nothing about my educational background or what I even did for a living for 40 years.

I was just wondering if any of you had a similar event happen to you like that?

ps - I have never been treated that way on this chat forum!

[Traveling Wave]

QRZ.com has a Code Of Conduct for the forums, any unacceptable behavior can be reported under #7 Reporting Guidelines...https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?pages/QRZ_Forums_Code_of_Conduct/

[osiris]

It is what it is, no matter what subject or hobby. Don't take resenments personally. Smile and move on.

[BoomboxDX]

Yes, I've experienced it as an SWL, not on QRZ dot com as I am not a member there, but on some other ham / radio forums some of the hams can get cantankerous, even towards each other.

On more than one occasion a ham has said I probably don't know enough because I'm just an SWL, even though I've been monitoring the ham bands as well as SWBC bands for over 40 years, which indicates I must know at least a bit about radio, antennas, and propagation.

When they toss out some vitriol, I counter it with fact, and then let it go. There's not much else you can do. Sometimes they might lighten up after a bit. People are people -- there are awesome ham guys and some that maybe have a bit too much attitude, but just hold your own and move on.

[ThaDood]

Oh yeah... I´ve especially run into these folks on 160M. Even, on 75M, especially AM mode. If you are not putting out at least an S+20/9 signal, with broadcast quality 100% modulation, there´s stations that may ignore you completely. A lot of QRP´ers seem to get ignored as well, like those folks that worked with those DIY 5W Pine Board Projects. If I heard their 5W signal, then I knew that they could hear my barefoot 20W signal. Makes me wonder if a lot of these stations run their RF Gains down, and just can´t hear ya. One band that I believe you´d love is that newer 60M band. Pretty much, a nice bunch of folks there, that have that 100W limit, and being channelized, you don´t have to worry about someone just 1, or 2, kHz from you blasting over. Oh.. The other thing that I´ve run into is Big-Gun snobbery. Ya know... Those folks with several Icom IC-7851´s, +100ft towers, multi-acreage arrays, broadcast quality audio processing, legal 1.5kW power all the time, etc. I´ve had that attitude towards me upon, ¨If I can get all that going, why don´t you?¨ Well, like me, a lot of us take years to acquire what we have, let along being able to afford to maintain all this gear. It´s the same deal of some of those people that you might meet that feel broke, if they don´t carry around at least $10k at all times. So, I guess we all have to find the folks that seem like our perks, and just avoid the jerks. 

[LibertyCave WS7PB]

New to this forum, first post. QRZ is well known for being unfriendly. I find the Youtube Hams, like the guys at Coffee and Ham Radio have good forums, most on The Discord, where everyone is respected.

There is a lot of interesting content here.

[Rizla]

For some reason some of the most obnoxious people in the hobby (outside drunk zones of 80m) seem to post on QRZ. The vast majority of people I've met on air have been helpful and friendly.

I just had a casual QSO on 10m with a guy across the country, and the general courtesy level of the old timers in this field is quite a throwback to very different times.

The hobby seems pretty healthy on air, qrz forums not so much. [QST magazine is another weird stagnant pool with a few bright spots IMO]

[tybee]

You shouldnt say Hams are snotty, It's just that you met up with a snotty Ham. People in general can be snotty regardless of their expertise or hobby.

By the way, @Rizla, this may be an ignorant question on my part, but what are "drunk zones of 80m"?

[Pigmeat]

"Drunk zones of 80 meters?" Why on 75 meters, of course! Tune in during the Holidays and you'll find flocks of them on 75 meters quacking away in SSB all night long. My pal Fansome thought they were poorly raised penguins, but I favored the train of thought they were puffins that picked up bad habits like drinking and cigar smoking from cod fishermen. They're so rude and loud you would swear you were in Boston for a Celtics-Lakers game at tha' Gawdan back in '69, when Russell played and coached. Thick with smoke, the place reeked like Ol' Man McGillicuddy, himself.  Gawd's own team, they were!

For a guy who uses the name of an island off the coast of Georgia as a handle, you sure ask a lot of questions? You're going to rile Pat Murphy's ghost if you keep that up. He was weird enough the first time around.

[Rizla]

 7200 kHz right now is full of people talking over each other about how drunk they are,  this activity has been around since the dawn of the hobby. Pigmeat got it right, & it helps to have a sense of humor to appreciate (?) how "bad" things can get late at night on LSB. The 3840 guys a few years ago were (are?) legends to each other. 7200 seems to be the "new reliable".

[Shortwave_Listener]

Luckily it seems some of the 7200 LSB ops are being forced to leave, Radio Algerienne uses 7200 AM starting at 0300 UTC and it forces anybody off the frequency. Only once have I heard anyone even attempt to talk over Radio Algerienne.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

Yes, it took me some time out of radio (decades) and then coming back to it to realize there are a fair number of assholes in the hobby.

Everybody? No, absolutely not. But a nerdy hobby dominated by old white men is going to have a bunch of people with sticks up their butts and low social skills, for sure.

Two of my observations:

1) There are a large quantity of hams that think that because they know Ohm's Law that this qualifies them to be experts on every technical topic under the sun. It doesn't. I say that as a person with a graduate degree in EE who has decades of professional experience and actually has to know what I'm talking about (otherwise I get fired) as opposed to some random clown you meet on 2 meters. As a ham friend who is also a senior member of the IEEE and a published author in his field of expertise said to me years ago, "Many hams think they are experts on everything but the reality is that they don't know shit."

2)

The other thing that I´ve run into is Big-Gun snobbery. Ya know... Those folks with several Icom IC-7851´s, +100ft towers, multi-acreage arrays, broadcast quality audio processing, legal 1.5kW power all the time, etc.

Exactly this. Then they have the gall to rag on people who do FT8 or SOTA or VHF because they are not "he man" enough. You hear this a lot on the SSB DX windows. Guys whining because they blew $50k on a station and they have only two stations to talk to. That's not my (our) problem, dude, and don't blame anyone else on your unexpected free time and lack of QSOs. It's also elitist: "You can't play with us unless you blow $50k on a station."

Ham radio is dying and attitudes like this are not welcoming to younger people, who largely don't have that kind of money and the land for three 150-foot towers with stacked monobanders on each.

But that's what you get with a bunch of men whose tower height is inversely proportional to their amount of self-esteem.

[NJQA]

I usually avoid this type of discussion but I feel a need to add my two cents.

When I got my ham license 50 years ago, it took a lot of work.  Exams were held at the FCC offices, CW proficiency was required, and you had no idea what the exam questions were (the Bash study guides came out years later).  I studied intensely for months to pass the test.

Every other ham I met back then worked just as hard to get their license.  It took real effort and the license meant you really wanted to be part of the community.  Having passed the exam hurdle meant something - I got my first jobs in the electronics industry partly because of my having earned a ham license.  A ham license had some meaning back then.  Not so today.  I rarely mention my ham radio background when I am involved in professional activities today.

Fast forward to the present.  Now you see people like W6NBC hosting 1 day cram sessions that emphasis pushing the test answers into short term memory and taking the exam that day.

My point is this:  you value the things that you work for.  If something comes too easily you won’t value it the same as something you had to work for.  You see this exhibited a lot on the air with “hams behaving badly.”

Today when I meet a new ham at our local club I am friendly and welcoming but in the back of my mind I always wonder if this is someone here for the long run or if they will be gone in 6 months.  I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are here because they love the hobby.  But too many drift away because they were never that interested.

[MDK2]

My point is this:  you value the things that you work for.  If something comes too easily you won’t value it the same as something you had to work for.  You see this exhibited a lot on the air with “hams behaving badly.”

Today when I meet a new ham at our local club I am friendly and welcoming but in the back of my mind I always wonder if this is someone here for the long run or if they will be gone in 6 months.  I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are here because they love the hobby.  But too many drift away because they were never that interested.

The first part is a rather harmful stereotype, as many of the confirmed bad actors on ham radio have been licensed for decades. I see very few younger newer hams doing that. Why would they? If a younger person wants to be a troll, social media offers an almost infinite amount of opportunities which all have greater reach than ham radio.

As far as the second part goes, speaking as someone who's only relatively recently licensed, I find that though there are clubs around and folks say they want to welcome more to the hobby, they still often (perhaps subconsciously) have a standoffishness about them as if it's more up to us to try to show we belong than it is on old hands to welcome new blood. I think you express that yourself - "but in the back of my mind I always wonder if this is someone here for the long run or if they will be gone in 6 months." You may say you give them the benefit of the doubt, but make no mistake, sometimes we can sense that attitude when meeting folks like yourself.

I want to make it clear that you don't come across as the kind of ham under discussion here. But lukewarm reception can be just as discouraging as outright disdain.

[autovon]

That website forum is an echo chamber of narcissistic richards.