Since my last post, I’ve been practicing and learning. I think I’ve figured out 99% of my radio. There’s a few things I would do differently, but I’m not an electronics engineer, so maybe there’s a specific reason why I have to access 2 different menu options to program a CTCSS code.
In the last couple of months, I’ve tried to get on as many nets as possible. Its good practice for sure. Last night I turned my radio on, a net was already in progress, and it sounded like they had already finished check-ins. I had not participated in a net on this particular repeater before, so I just listened in. Its kind of funny how the traffic on each repeater almost has a certain ‘personality’. There’s one repeater that I’ve talked on quite a bit that has a pretty laid back group of folks on it. They are super active, very helpful and seem genuinely glad to hear new hams on the repeater. There’s a certain cheeriness in their voices. Another that I’ve only talked on once seems like they don’t want to hear anything over the repeater if its not an emergency. Others seem much more business like, simply getting to the task at hand. I guess it’s the controllers personality that shows through the most. This particular net was one of the latter, getting to the business of running the net.
Eventually, the net controller asked if there was any late check-ins, or announcements, so I called my sign as a late check-in. I’m not sure if it’s the way I talk, or if its just hard to distinguish the ‘DYT’ sometimes, but very often folks ask me to repeat my last 3 no matter how hard I try to enunciate the letters. Even if I use a phonetic spelling, I think it’s just a weird set of letters to get. I never have any announcements for the nets. I don’t know anyone yet, and I don’t feel the need to announce what I did for the day. Frankly, I feel bad for folks who feel the need to tell everyone on the net that they put too much sugar in their coffee, and couldn’t find a matching pair of socks. Since I’m still new, my standard announcement is simply that I’m still new to ham radio, that it’s my first time participating in their net and that I appreciate the work that the net controllers, and repeater owners do.
After initially announcing my call sign as a late check-in, the controller came back and asked me to confirm if my last 3 were DYT, and if I had anything to say. I answered him, saying “10-4, my last 3 are DYT”, and then gave him my “new guy” answer for my announcements. His reply started cordially enough, congratulating me on getting my license, and that I was welcome on the repeater anytime, then his tone changed. He went from friendly, but direct, to almost scolding, informing me that “we do NOT use ten codes on ham radio”, then his tone lightened back up a little, and he finished his transmission to me with the obligatory schedule of events on that repeater like most net controllers do when I announce that I’m new. I had no idea that I had struck a raw nerve in the ham community.
This is the first time I feel like I’ve been scolded over the radio. I’m in public safety, and we do not officially use ten codes, although 10-4 still gets used a lot. I understand that there is no universal set of ten codes and that they can vary a lot. I realize that ten codes aren’t part of ham radio, and agree that they should not be, but 10-4 specifically is not like any other ten code. It is so universally used, and recognized, that I didn’t even realize that I’d used it. This morning I hit Google to see what others had to say about it.
I pulled up a LOT of articles, blog entries, and forum posts about the topic of ten codes and their use in ham, and was surprised at some of the opinions, and how passionate some are about it.
One opinion, the same one that I subscribe to, is that 10-4 is so ubiquitous in all radio use that it doesn’t really matter, and who really cares. Virtually everyone, whether you’re into radio’s or not, knows what 10-4 means. Using 10-4 did not obscure, or hide the meaning of my transmission, and I think that’s the only thing the FCC really cares about. The FCC doesn’t specifically ban ten codes, but they do prohibit the use of any codes that obscure or hide the meaning of a transmission. I’m still new, so correct me if I’m wrong.
Another opinion is that 10-4 is akin to some sort of trashy slang, specifically CB slang, and that isn’t appropriate on the much more sophisticated ham bands. Ok, I added the “sophisticated” part, but you get my point. There’s definitely some folks out there who believe you’re only allowed to speak their language when you’re on THEIR band. Apparently, saying 10-4 to a ham is like speaking Hmong in front of Walt Kowalski… all they want to do is grumble and tell them get off their lawn, or go back to talking on CB. That’s a ‘Gran Torino’ reference, in case you don’t know what I’m talking about. To put it another way, it’s like using the word “ain’t” in front of an English teacher.
I’ve heard folks say “zed” on the radio instead of ‘zee’, which really should have been ‘zulu’ if we’re using the phonetic alphabet, right? Are we going to ridicule them for sounding Canadian? I know what zed means, so the meaning wasn’t obscured. I’m not on HF yet, but when I get there, will I hear someone from Michigan call someone a ‘yooper’? Will someone criticize me if I use the terms “y’all”, or “fixin to”? If someone from New England uses the term ‘wicked’, or someone from California say ‘hella’ am I supposed to tell them their hippie slang isn’t welcome on the bands? Slang creeps into everyone’s vocabulary no matter what. It doesn’t matter if its geographical slang, CB, work, or something else. I bet if I say “I used a set of irons to take the a side, then the tip man lost his lid while making a push on a worker yesterday” to another firefighter, they’ll know what I mean, even though no one else understood, and I wasn’t intentionally trying to obscure any meaning. Is some elmer going to scold me for that? What’s the difference between a little work slang and CB slang?
The craziest argument against the use of 10-4 is because it isn’t traditional. I think this is the sad ham’s saddest argument. There’s a group of (mostly) really old guys who think they are the gatekeepers, and if you didn’t build your own radio, learn morse code, dig your own copper from the ground and melt your own wires, that you simply aren’t as good as they are. They call it “tradition”. I wonder how many of those guys are still using their vacuum tube radios, or have they ditched tradition for a modern radio, with all of its conveniences and small size. I’m no expert in ham radio history, but like most things, this hobby has evolved a lot over time. What they consider ‘tradition’ is often directly related to what was being done when THEY entered the hobby.
For example, in 1912, the morse requirement was 5 wpm, but changed to 10 in 1917. How mad were the first hams that their traditional 5 wpm requirement was changing? In 1922, the gov’t started assigning call signs instead of getting to make up your own. Plus, there was a written essay required to get your “first grade” license! How upset were those folks when the written essay was eventually dropped from licensing? In 1934, written notice to the FCC was required to operate mobile or portable. Did these guys get mad when that requirement was dropped? In 1945 license terms were extended from 3 to 5 years… what a change from the 30 year tradition of 3 years! 1951 saw a whole host of changes including new license levels and name changes. How mad were the sad hams from earlier years!? In 1954, the tradition of license testing through the FCC was turned over to volunteer hams. Such a break from almost 40 years of tradition!
I’m sure you get my point… in my humble opinion, ham radio is an evolving and changing hobby. Can you imagine the state of the hobby if we simply stayed with ‘tradition’ and were still using vacuum tube radios? Sticking with something, often times stubbornly, simply because of tradition can be detrimental, especially in a hobby where innovation and evolution of technology is SO important. Being a dick, and scolding someone for simply saying 10-4 over the radio, especially when you knew what the meaning was, isn’t being a welcoming ambassador to your hobby. Luckily, my skin is WAY thicker than that, and I don’t care whether someone objects to my using 10-4 or not. As a matter of fact, I just might go back for the net next week, and see if I can work it in. However, hearing such scolding on a frequent basis would eventually wear on anyone, and make them wonder whether this is a hobby worth investing in. There’s jerks on CB who tie up the airwaves with their nonsense, and to me the sad hams who grumble over silly things are no better. Without constant changes to tradition, to keep things modern, interesting, and accessible, I’m pretty sure ham radio would already be dead. Ham radio is losing tech licenses every year, and If the gatekeepers aren’t careful, they will run off the future of an already stagnant or dying hobby.
I would say 73… but isn’t that slang?
A timeline of ham radio changes: A History of Amateur Radio License Changes – Eastern Massachusetts ARRL
Here’s an article about the loss of amateur radio operators: Static On The Airwaves: Understanding The Drop In U.S. Amateur Radio Operators | Minnesota Ham Radio