Having recently passed my novice exam, I waited with great excitement to get on the air. Some non-Amateurs build up a picture of what its like on ham radio. My picture portrayed the operators as being most gentlemanly, respecting each other and making an effort to get on with all others following the same hobby. We've all had to take some sort of course and shown some proportion of dedication to be able to transmit on amateur radio. We have all had to sit, and pass an exam, which is an achievement in itself to everyone on the air whether they are G0, G7, M0, M1 or even us lowly 2E1's.

To some on the air a Novice call sign doesn't mean much, and we are often accused by some of not following correct procedure. Take for instance I was on simplex early one night and a full licence holder came on the side (can't you tell I used to be a CB'er), and told me that I needed to say my call sign more frequently. I can take criticism when it is founded, and after all, a much more experienced full licence holder should know more than me. I pointed out to the gentleman in question that I had given my call sign every 15 minutes as required by the BR68, if he had sat and listened for a while before jumping in with undeserved criticism, he would have noticed that this was the case. You may say "no big thing really" but this is the attitude of a lot of full licence holders. They are often too quick to knock people who are trying their best and are after all only partaking in what is supposed to be a friendly hobby!

There is also quite a lot of snobbery. You might ask why, and how could there be, after all we've all passed the necessary exams, but the Gs mostly, (I can't say all of them as some are decent sorts of people), seem to quite quickly jump on the 2E1's backs about trivial points, instead of helping them learn from their errors. They take great delight in putting us Novices in our place, which according to them is nowhere! However, let me say again, not all of the Gs are like this. Whilst on the subject of snobbery, the G7s are the same licence holders as M1s, but to hear them talk, it is them and us! Where is the logic in this, these people are supposed to be intelligent? Could some one please tell me the difference between the G7 call sign and the M1 call sign? If you could spare the time I would be most grateful.

Now to the next subject, I understand that there is a gentlemanly agreement as to how you operate on repeaters. My understanding even though I am only a 2E1, is that if you can speak to someone on simplex quite easily, then talk to him or her on simplex. If you have trouble in making contact with them, then this is when a repeater helps. Over the weeks I have found that this is not the case, the few that are above any gentlemanly agreement quite happily sit gassing like old women, not caring that others may need to contact someone that they can't hear on simplex. These few to me seem not to care that they are hindering the more needy!

It's a great shame really because if everyone treated others with the respect that they deserve, then life on air would be more pleasurable. Come on you frequency police, you know who you are, and so do we, stop doing what you're so good at, butting in and continuously picking fault, (too quickly when it's a 2E1)! Stop closing ranks, treat everyone alike. All I want from radio is to enjoy it, have a laugh and at the very least get some sort of respect for my achievement. Treat others how you would expect to be treated yourselves.

Thank-you for taking the time to read this, and bear in mind that the next time you key up on the radio we are all the same! Each one of us has achieved, just to different degrees that's all.

Ps. I am proud to be a 2E1(NIK)

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