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VOTA

ToddDubya

ToddDubya

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Has anybody worked the Volunteers on the Air (VOTA) stations, operating with W1AW/ call signs? I've worked a few and only one seemed like he was enjoying it. A few I've heard calling and calling and calling, and I answer and try to have just a little back and forth. Nope 59 State, back to calling. Geez, sorry to interrupt your voice keyer.

Then yesterday I was in a pileup and suddenly a VOTA station started to come through, light at first. Someone said the frequency was in use and the guy sounded like he wanted to start a fist fight. A. Don't kill the messenger. B. Dude, conditions changed and you guys were probably both on frequency for a while, but now you're interfering with each other. It happens, work it out. I don't think either calling station could hear the other.

Anyway, for guys acting as ambassadors for ARRL, they're rubbing me the wrong way.

/rant
 
I got him, 55 both ways. He was giving mostly 59s but I heard some non-59s so I believe 55 was accurate-ish. I get when people are running a pileup it's easy to just 59 everybody, but I like when DX stations give you real signal reports. Of course it could be that the 59s rise to the top so that's whose calls they take. Either way, 55 into Hawaii at 10PM on 20m, about 5.5 hours after dark, 5000 miles away is pretty good. I don't know what his station was, but I was running 100w into my DXCommander.
 
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