Learning from your mistakes ...

Foundations of Amateur Radio

To do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome is the definition of insanity; so how do you avoid making the same mistakes on-air in Amateur Radio?

During the week I was wading through some old photos and videos on my phone to make some space and I stumbled on some old videos taken by others and sent to me whilst I was on-air. It was a lovely look back at some previous activity, but they also made me cringe. Here's one example, the very first time, back in 2011, I did a local contest, using the club callsign VK6AHR:

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One One. My number to you is uh, one zero four, uh V K Six Alpha Hotel Romeo to V K Six Alpha Romeo, my number to you is one zero four.

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It's only that I know I was using the club callsign that I know who I am and who the other station is, in this case the other station was VK6AR. My exchange was 104, but clear as mud and twice as thick.

These days I'd say something much less convoluted, something like:

VK6AR, 59104 from VK6AHR

Here's another attempt from me in my early days, calling DX using my own callsign:

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"CQ DX, CQ Delta Xray, this is Victor Kilo Six Fox Lima Alpha Bravo calling CQ DX"

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CQ Delta Xray, what was I thinking? Actually, I was emulating another amateur. So what you say, while there are new amateurs in your shack, matters. Also, I noticed that I started the bad habit of saying Fox instead of Foxtrot. Fortunately one of my listeners wrote in to nip that in the bud early on.

My point in sharing these evolutions of my on-air style is that you might experience me as a practiced amateur, but just like you, I had to learn by making mistakes and being told I was making mistakes. Fortunately there was some video evidence to help in my innocent education stages.

So, from your perspective, next time you get on air, try and record some of your activity and have a listen back. I've done this with new amateurs and old-hands and it's absolutely staggering how much you learn from having a listen to yourself.

So, when you get on air to make some noise, record it for education purposes and listen back.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB