Here is an Editorial worth repeating,
from the JUNE, 1947 issue of "XTAL" Magazine
published by the Canadian Amateur Radio Operators' Association.
(author not specified)
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. . . These QSOs of OURS . . .

"Once there was a ham who saved up all his money to build a big
rig with a pair of T40's in the final. He also acquired a 200-
watt modulator and a power supply that could kick him across the
room if it got a chance, which, unfortunately, it didn't. Every
night he rushed home from work and went on the air. He started
each QSO with a description of the weather, followed by a descrip-
tion of the rig. The only other thing he could think of was to
ask for a QSL card, after which he always explained that he had
to QRT. This was so he could work someone else and describe the
weather and his rig all over again.

        This ham had a neighbor who dropped in one night for an
educational evening. He falsely assumed assumed that anyone who
could build a transmitter must be intelligent. He'd never seen a
ham station in operation and was looking forward to it very much.

        It was a wonderful, hammy sort of evening. The ham had a
lot of QSO's and explained that "the handle here is Willie." He
shouted "Hi!" so many times that the man next door thought it was
a report on the altitude and he called so many people "old man"
that his neighbor got the notion that they were communicating with
a home for the aged. No contact lasted more than ten minutes so
that his neighbor mistakenly thought that there was a law against
long QSO's. He also came to the conclusion that ham operators
were obliged to start each transmission by repeating, word for word,
what the other operator had just said to them.

        It occurred to the neighbor rather suddenly that if the
amateur hadn't built the rig, he wouldn't have to describe it, and
if he didn't start his five-minute QSO's, he wouldn't have to spend
most of his time terminating them. It reminded him of the joke
about the man who said he worked for money to buy food to keep
strong so he could go to work. The neighbor nearly said this, but
he figured it would sound rude, so instead he went home and read a
good book.

        Seriously, fellows, an alarming number of amateur QSO's
serve no good purpose whatever. They would give any impartial observer
the notion that amateurs were more than slightly cracked. No intelli-
gent subject is discussed, they contain more repetitions and stodgy
expressions than the dullest every-day conversations, and many of
them are started with apparently no other reason in mind than
finishing them ... the "just thought I'd give you a call" sort of
thing. To put it rather unkindly, such hams are playing at radio.
They're in the same class as the amateur photographer who spends many
hours and many dollars, yet never produces a decent picture. He just
photographs the back side of a barn so he'll have something to drop
into the developer and puddle around with.

        Why not a campaign for intelligent QSO's? Talk about something
beside radio once in a while and when you are chewing the rag on radio,
avoid the hack, stereotyped stuff about "the rig here is, etc."
Another man's occupation or profession could easily be the subject of a
lengthy and interesting conversation. Find out if he has any other
hobbies, ask him what travelling he's done, try to discover what he's
especially interested in ... it ought to be easy to find a dozen things
to talk about. Amateurs have at their very fingertips, an opportunity
which no other group has ... and most of them do nothing about it.

        Amateurs know that their existence is justified. Most of their
QSO's would never convince anyone else of this fact."
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My note: When was the last time you tuned the band, and hung onto a QSO
that you found to be most interesting to listen to; even to wanting to
join in? YOU can be one of those amateurs that attract the crowd!

------- Histor16 -------- de Gil, VE4AG