Failing to make contact

But what if you to make a contact and your call doesnt get answered with a respond? Your signal may be too weak to hear or the station may have strong noise or interference that u cant hear. in this case, you find another station to call. assuming that your signaal is strong enough for another stations to hear it however, several other things may happened. this happen to my friend...see this

video and study it...

1. Other hams are calling at the same time. you can either wait around until the station you intented to contact is free and try again, or you can tune around for another contact opportunity. the most important thing is not to get discouraged.
2. The calling station can hear you, but cant make out your call. the hams may either ask you to call again or respond to you, but wont have your call sign correct. the station may say: "station calling, please come again." or " QRZed?" or "who is the station calling?"

QRZed? is the interntional Q-signal for "who calling me? Hams often use the British pronunciation, Zed, for the letter Z. At this point, just repeat your call 2 or 3 times, using standard phonetics and say, Over when you wish.

the station gets your call wrong by a letter or two. first stand by a few seconds to be sure another station with that call sign isnt on the same frequency. for example, 9m2zak and 9m2zae. then respond with : 9m2zak this is 9m2get ( repeat twice more), do you have my call correct? over

If repeated attempts at making contacts arent producing results, check out your equipment. the easiest way is to locate a licensed friend and have him or her make a contact with u. that way u know your transmitter is ( or isnt) working and your signal is understandable. if u dont have 9m2 friends, run through the following checklist to be sure you are tx what, when, and where you think you should be:

1. Are you sure you are tx on the right fre? press the ptt or press the morse key, and wacth the radio display very carefully. the indicators for the fre and sideband should stay exactly the same. you may be tx on different sideband or fre than you think you are!
2. Are you sure that your rig is producing power? wacth the rigs power output meter to be sure the output power varies along with your voice or keying.
3. Is the antenna connected properly? You should be receiving signals that are moderate to strong, indicating 4 to 9 S-units on the radio meter. If the signal are very weak, you may have an antenna or cable problem. This problem also shows up as an SWR reading of more than 5:1 on your rig SWR meter.

after your call is received correctly by the another station, proceed with the rest of the contact. failed contacts and errors are handled very similarly on cw and digital modes. dont be BASHFUL about correcting your call sign. after all, its your radio name.

see u down the log!

de 9m2zak 73