… one hears behavior on the air that reminds one that courtesy can still, occasionally, be heard on the HF bands.

I’ve made it a goal this year to earn a Worked All States (WAS) certificate working only the ARRL Centennial Celebration W1AW/portable stations using CW and QRP power levels. I’ve managed to work W1AW/portable stations in 27 states so far–I started a few weeks late and missed the first few states but will pick them up in the second half of the year–but I’ve heard some atrocious pile-up behavior while doing so.

This evening, while trying to work W1AW/1 (NH) or W1AW/2 (NJ)–I can’t remember which because I  eventually worked each on several bands before turning the rig off for the night–I neglected to put my KX3 back into split-mode after changing bands, so on my first call to the W1AW/portable station I was transmitting on his frequency, not up as I was supposed to be. Before I could even realize my mistake, I heard someone send a simple “IF UP”–the last two letters of my callsign and “UP”–just once, on the W1AW/portable station’s frequency. Not the “UP UP UP” we  hear far too frequently these days or even “UP UP UP LID“. Just one transmission of “IF UP” to tell me, WD8RIF, that I had made an error. One short, polite, courteous transmission.

I have no idea who this polite ham was. If I did, I would send him an email thanking him for his short, polite message to me.  Maybe he’ll stumble upon this posting on QRPer.com and learn how much I appreciated his simple transmission to me.