On the 26.Jan.1993 they were finally there. The announced KH1-Expedition
was to be QRV. Being a longtime SWL I of course scanned the bands in
hope of hearing this rare "country". And indead, around 17:30 UTC the chaos
starts on 14.195 Mhz. A serious Pile-up develops, sounding more like a matter
of life and death than radio operating to me. After several minutes of yelling
around, the "bandpolice" appear on the scene, and start screaming:
"He is working split!!!". "Stand by!!!". "Shut up!!!".

In addition, the QRZ-stations show up. I am refering to those OM's airing the
same stupid "QRZ?" (who is calling me?) question every 10 seconds. From
now on, the "hobby" is persued on an international level. The Spanish OM's
see their main opponents in Italy, and try to silence them by means of
such creative expressions like: "Shut up makkaroni!", "Shut up spaghetti"
The Italiens assume these insults are of German origin and reply on the
same level: "QSY Kraut", "QSY Kartoffel". (=potato) As the "Kartoffeln"
aren't answering, they resort to their Spanish radio friends with a friendly
"go to hell spanish cretino", providing new impulses for a uniting Europe.

The whole chaos is completed by the unknowing repeatedly asking "what
is the DX please?". Thank God nobody is responding to them. After 20 min
of calling and insulting widly over one another, a short break of exhaustion
comes up. After all, one has to catch one's breath after all the dispute....
At that point, an American station pops up, asking what all the fuss is
about anyway. And of course, it all breaks out again. Ready for action
after the short break, one can indulge in the hobby again. "Shut up!!!",
"Stand by!!!". "QSY to 11m" yells echo back and forth. The american
OM QRT's with the adequate comment: "What a bunch of idiots".

Evidently, the OLA-stations aren't gonna let us down either. These
people turn on their rigs only to call "OLA, OLA, OOOLLLLAAA" for
minutes, no matter what is going on on the frequency momentarily.
Just the right time for the bandpolice again. These guys are never to be
heard with a callsign, which they think to compensate by loudness.
One is tempted to assume they are aliens wanting to order our wordly
chaos. But since they havn't learned our human manners, the situation
is worsened even more. With the QRM being around 10dB over S9 and
roughly 600 stations on the frequency, someboy suddenly asks "Is this
frequency in use?" and starts calling "CQ CQ CQ DX" 25 milliseconds
later. The situation explodes. In regard of possibly juvenile readers I
prefer not to quote any of the insults now aired.

The line of legality is now crossed as several OM's fire up their 3 to 5
Kilowatt amplifiers and begin calling "Please listen to QRP station".
The sheer volume makes the rack on which my receiver sits sway
dangerously, forcing me to shut down my station before my radio
loses all its knobs.

By the way, the expedition KH1A which this was all about had never
been on the frequency, their extremely weak signal was only to be
heard frequently on 40m CW. (...)

Moral:A Pile-up is a playground full of fairness, tolerance,
and understanding, you shouldn't miss a single one!

Author: Dr. med. Heinz Fuhrmann
Translation of the originaly German essay by DL5NEJ.