Hams more interesting than cops tonight

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For the first time my ham radio scan list is being put to use tonight for something besides a means to put me to sleep. For the first time it is better listening than public safety I must admit.

This weekend is a ragnar relay race in the Phoenix area you see, and the local ham guys have decided that they would act as the unofficial security force, although that is probably the wrong term. They really aren't doing anything but bothering the runners by telling them to watch out for trucks, and trying to convince the occasional runner with a scraped knee to go to their "command center" for treatment, none of whom do. They have tried to tell a few runners they couldn't run because they didn't have the right light on their shirt or the right reflective gear and the runners completely ignore them like they werent' there. Every few minutes you get a very official sounding report about a group of runners passing a checkpoint, though there is an official group other than the hams that monitor the progress, so it's all meaningless radio chatter really.

But the best part are their cool code names. Yeah, they still close with their callsign (which makes their code name seem silly), but they are calling themselves things like xray12, and support 71, and then there is "net commander 1", and bravo 511, and "team leader charlie". They are using "ten codes" and police codes for things and it is cracking me up. This must be a dream event for these guys, where they really get to act like they are part of something really important, and you can tell by how serious they sound. The "commander" has severely scolded a few old senile hams for clearing on the "restricted" repeaters, and possibly jeopardizing something important. A few guys were talking about turning their light bars on "for runner safety", of course. They have official shirts, complete with ranks. One group of hams spent 20 minutes trying to coordinate a ride for one guy who had long since called his wife with a cell phone and been picked up while they were playing with radios.

I listened to some of the guys trying to relay some useless tidbit of information, but who are having problems hitting their repeater properly, spending 5 minutes or more walking around trying to find the right spot to stand so they can be heard, repeating a sentence over and over, instead of just calling the other gun on his cellphone. But of course, the whole point of this is to play with radios really, so, no hurry. The runners are ignoring them all anyway. One guy spent ten minutes trying to get through on a repeater just to say he saw a van with a tire that looked low.

I'm pretty sure the runners who have their own officials and support staff think these guys are complete nerds, but this all makes for some very funny listening. I wish I could post some audio, because it has brought me to tears of laughter a few times. There is even a "special response team". Lol.

Finally, the big day they have all been waiting for. A day where local hams can do something "vital" with their radios instead of the usual rag-chewing about radio equipment.

As I finish this, the last "units" have been given permission to "secure" and return to "camp ragnar" for the night. Priceless.
 
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SkipSanders

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Using 'tactical identifiers' 'Xray-1, Camp Base, etc.) is standard for event communications by hams, because the SAME ham is NOT always at the same place/assignment. The hams aren't going to remember what callsign is doing what, by Ham callsign, but they CAN remember what 'Relay Control' is, when they're supposed to report things to it, etc.

The Net Control station simply keeps a 'current list' of 'This Tactical Callsign is currently this official callsign.' for reference. As long as they give proper ID when required, use of 'tactical calls' is perfectly legitimate under the rules.
 

kb2vxa

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What you heard sounds pretty off the wall to me like a bunch of whackers or a club for whackers, most unusual for an organized event. I suppose it happens but not around here during a sanctioned event like a marathon run or bicycle race where we monitor the event as additional eyes and ears for the official organization and local emergency services rather than tying them up needlessly with petty details. As the event passes through the state it is passed off from repeater to repeater along the way, everything being tightly coordinated. We do it every year but not quite THAT way, maybe the sun got to them and nobody had a bucket of water handy.

Tactical callsigns? We have checkpoint designations but nothing quite so corny. Light bars and funny shirts? Seems to me there were more flat tires around than the one on the van! Priceless? Wrong end of the scale there feller, more like worthless.

One last thought; Camp Ragnar is more appropriate than you think, in Norse mythology Ragnarok is Twilight Of The Gods. I can see it now as they drive off to Valhalla lights flashing and Flight Of The Valkyrie blasting from the stereo.
 

HT-220

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i'm surprised they're not checking everyone with any two way radios to make sure no F.C.C. rules
are broken. after all they are also the unofficial self appointed worldwide radio police!!!!!!
 
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HAM bashing threads, don't they belong down in the "Wasteland"? ;)

It isn't a ham bashing thread, because these guys are acting like whackers so it makes it actually a "whacker bashing thread".

It's like the whole hamsexy thing, the guys are hams and don't hate hams, but laugh at the goofballs.

And tactical callsigns? Ok.......
 

Paulsan

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What's really funny are the guys with GMRS call signs that are nothing more than ham wannabes. Talk about whackers. ROTFLOL!!!
 

W6KRU

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And tactical callsigns? Ok.......

I can tell you've never had to do anything like this. If you had to call people with their callsign, it would make controls job much harder. You would have to keep an up to the minute accurate list of who was performing each job. With calls assigned per post/job, you just call the post.

When I chase desert race vehicles I might be Chase 1. It doesn't matter if I or my passenger answer the radio, we are Chase 1. The pit knows where Chase 1 is and when the race car is down and needs our help they just call Chase 1 and make sure that we are on our way. Likewise if I am calling the pit I have no idea who is working the pit radio at that point in time. I just call the pits.

It seems that you are pretty easily entertained.
 

SLWilson

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No use....

Using 'tactical identifiers' 'Xray-1, Camp Base, etc.) is standard for event communications by hams, because the SAME ham is NOT always at the same place/assignment. The hams aren't going to remember what callsign is doing what, by Ham callsign, but they CAN remember what 'Relay Control' is, when they're supposed to report things to it, etc.

The Net Control station simply keeps a 'current list' of 'This Tactical Callsign is currently this official callsign.' for reference. As long as they give proper ID when required, use of 'tactical calls' is perfectly legitimate under the rules.
No use to try to "explain" what that guy was hearing to him....He's just "in" to complaining. He doesn't really "care" to have it explained to him. And, it'll just lead to more crazies adding to his "list" of things that were "wrong"....

Locally the Amateur club assists with the annual 5 & 10K runs in the summer. They hand out water to the runners, are posted at the turns in the run to aim the runners in the right direction, help with traffic control. All of it approved by the police department and sheriff's office (of which there aren't enough to go around already)...

The runners are grateful for the help. Local LE is grateful for the help....

I'm sure that there some that listen and have something silly to say....

Steve/KB8FAR
 

ki4rvh

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Phoenix,

Maybe you and your GMRS buddies can volunteer to help out next time and show them how its done. :)

73

Chris
 

kayn1n32008

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Maybe you and your GMRS buddies can volunteer to help out next time and show them how its done. :)

73

Chris

ROTFLMAO

ya right, never happen.

the ham club that i used to belong to does comms for atleast 4 major events, and for 3 of those events they also do marshalling/comms. you cannot get a better bunch of people to do these kinds of events.

i think Phoenix is just jealous, too technical for him.

lol had to say it

Phoenix;

ya you might think it is funny, and ya they might be geeky, but who the hell are you to judge them????? *try* getting your liscence, and then go and organize an event of that magnitude... and we will all sit around with our scanners and make fun of you.
 

blinddog50

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Maybe you and your GMRS buddies can volunteer to help out next time and show them how its done. :)

73

Chris

Take it easy on the GMRS Chris.
Ever tried opening one of those blister packs?

phoenix,
Most of those guys were pounding keys before you were around. Show some respect.
 
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62Truck

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This phoenix I don't really care for, if you think its so silly to listen to, then why listen, first you start bashing security guards and now your bashing hams, whats next?
 
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What's really funny are the guys with GMRS call signs that are nothing more than ham wannabes. Talk about whackers. ROTFLOL!!!

I don't have ANY interest in being a ham. I don't have that much free time or money on my hands. I use GMRS for an actual purpose, to save money on cell phone bills, and to communicate with my wife and children in a cost effective way when it is practical, which it usually is.. I don't see the point of a radio service where people sit around talking about their latest radio equipment for hours, or trying to be something they are not. For those who pursue the hobby for technical knowledge, I have full respect. Most hams I hear talking have less radio science knowledge than I have by a fair margin.

The runners are grateful for the help. Local LE is grateful for the help....

In this case the runners ignored them, and the Sheriff's deputy who was forced to endure a "briefing" as they put it, from one of these clowns was probably equally unimpressed. Cops don't care for wanabees as a rule (people walking around in public in pseudo-uniforms talking in apco code on radios).

Phoenix,Maybe you and your GMRS buddies can volunteer to help out next time and show them how its done. :) Chris

I can tell you don't know much about GMRS. GMRS is a FAMILY RADIO SERVICE, not one designed for rag-chewing about radio equipment among a bunch of bored guys. The idea of GMRS is that FAMILIES can communicate without having to use a phone service, saving money along the way. My GMRS "buddies" are my wife and my children. I don't make "friends" over the airwaves. I already had good friends, and when I want to talk to them I call them on a phone like a normal human being, or drive over to their house. I don't have to invent a purpose for the radio service I use, it already has a logical purpose.

i think Phoenix is just jealous, too technical for him........*try* getting your liscence,

Too technical for my small brain, yeah, that's it. By the way I do mechanical engineering for a living, you didn't list your line of work in your profile. But I'm sure you are much more intelligent and educated than I. I could pass physics and calculus, but passing a ham technicians exam is just too much for me, busted. You really showed me there.

By the way, you might want to *try* learning to spell correctly, especially when it comes to your vaunted ham LICENSE [sp].

And FYI, it actually takes more money to get a GMRS license than it does to get a ham license, in case you weren't aware. But then again $15 o $20 might seem like a lot to you, I don't know what you do for a living.

This phoenix I don't really care for, if you think its so silly to listen to, then why listen, first you start bashing security guards and now your bashing hams, whats next?

Why listen? Entertainment. Even hams like those at hamsexy laugh at the whackers amongst them. So what?

Maybe GMRS geeks? :roll:

You people really don't get it. GMRS guys use their service for an actual purpose, not to sit around rag-chewing about radio equipment. GEEKS are people who obsess over something, we don't.

Take it easy on the GMRS Chris.
Ever tried opening one of those blister packs?

phoenix,
Most of those guys were pounding keys before you were around. Show some respect.

Not that I don't own blister pack radios, but the ones I mostly communicate on are ICOM portables, along with a midland 45 watt base with a high-gain ground plane antenna that gives me a range of around 12 miles, without having to use a repeater.


As far as this respect issue....

I'll be 50 years old soon, am mostly grey, and worked my fingers to the bone for too may years to bow down to a bunch of old geeks, sorry. I am way past being young, and paid my dues as much as anyone. Try again. Respect is EARNED not given.

And to be perfectly clear to my friends here who are hams, I don't mean to make a joke out of amateur radio on the whole. I know that a lot of very intelligent people get into this hobby to expand their mind and knowledge of radio science, and for this, again, I have full respect. However, among every group in life you have those who act silly. In this case we have bunch of people who are trying to make themselves feel important, and looking like whackers along the way. I will continue to feel free to laugh at such people, especially when they choose to involve light bars.

If you want to make fun of me you can do so for the fact that I am a scanner geek, and have been so for about 20 years. That would be a legitimate criticism, since to many it would seem just as silly as many hams seem. At least I don't go out in public making a spectacle of myself like this though.
 
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kayn1n32008

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gotta be smarter than the blister packs

Take it easy on the GMRS Chris.
Ever tried opening one of those blister packs?

phoenix,
Most of those guys were pounding keys before you were around. Show some respect.

well said blinddog, on both points.

Guess i forgot to add disaster comms that those annoying hams do...
 
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