QSK (Break-in)


   From 1969 copy of ARRL "The Radio Amateurs Operating Manual"


  They ain't no doubt: Break-in's about the handiest thing since
the invention of the ham sandwich.  Only thing I can think of would
save more wasted effort would be a law against callin' CQ DX.
Unfortunately, they is some aspects of break-in that's about to give
me apoplexy.
  One is the guy which proudly tells ya QSK an' then drops into a
short fade in some part of the message.  You hit the key - he keeps
on sendin' - You hit it again - he keeps on sendin'.  By this time,
you done missed to much of the message, you pratically gotta ask him
to send the whole thing again.  Life would be simpler if this kind
would keep you in the dark about the up-to-dateness of his gear an'
operatin' ability.
   Another maddenin' case is the guy who ain't gonna waste no time
lissenin' to you send stuff he doesn't know what it means.  Let him
miss a letter an' BLAM! he's in there breakin' you.  It don't make
no difference that what he woulda copied was "R OSEVELT".  He breaks
when he misses the first O.  Even if it was gonna be a hard name
like, mebbe, "CZIERNUWICZ", he ain't willin' to copy as much as he
can an' then try again when I repeat it.  He breaks me after the
first Z.  Put me together with one of these apes, throw in a little
QRN and in about two minutes, if I had a radio matter-transmitter,
like in them science fiction novels, I'd give him a fat lip.
                   W4DVT,  "The Mud Turkle"
                   NCN Bulletin