The AM Forum

We were in QSO with Tim early this morning and he used that expression to describe one of the groups signal strength.  I can't imagine a group of over sixty (me!) hams complaining about enlarged prostate in comparison to a weak AM signal.  I've heard this expression before and was wondering how it started, etc. ;-z

Bill   N4WC

 ;D ;D ;D

Enlarged prostate to describe a piss-weak signal... Now that's a different take on it!  

Actually the first time I heard it was in the early 70's (1972 - when none of us even knew what a prostate was) from WA1QIX describing someone he could barely hear.  Maybe he will mention where it came from or his take on the original meaning.

T

Or was it that famous right of passage when you have your first AM qso with the Timtron, and he tells you in his owm famous words: "I can hear ya, but yer kinda piss weak"  ;D  ;D  ;D

I seem to remember a report from Tim spring of '67 running HB 6146 by 6l6s

Actually, doesnt PW refer to a "peanut whistle" or low powered transmitter, then someone changed the meaning from peanut whistle to piss weak. At least that's the way I've always remembered it to be.  ???  ???                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Not sure whether it was "peanut whistle" or "p*ss weak" that came first, but it dates back to the days of Hiram Percy Maxim.  Also...along the same lines is the "PW law".  This is one of Murphy's Old Buzzard axioms which basically states: " the weaker you are, the longer you will talk".  

73, Jack, W9GT

I don't know if it really originated as a hammy hambone term or not. I've heard people say it from time to time that had nothing to do with radio. My grandfather used to say it all the time. A fast cruise thru google shows "piss weak" being used for everything except radio.

Wherever it came from, it's one of my favorite things to say on the air.

I believe it is a deliberate mis-pronunciation of 'pip-squeak'.

Jeffy.

Shows up in the early 1940s in the US... associated with "Piss-Poor"..

And before that in Australia Piss-weak, Piss-up, Piss-off etc...

may also be a beer term

aww, teh UAN. I got to meet him at his place, cant remember how long ago. his antenna was made up of maybe 5 segments of different kinds of wire with no solder joints, about 15 to 20 ft up. He couldnt see well enough to solder at that point. I think he was running the AL80 he had full time by then, the Globe King having crapped out.

I made fun of him at the time - now I have eaten a big dish of humbling pie from my own experiences.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=piss-weak

Some of you might not want to read all the definitions.

I heard one the other day on AM that reminded me of my Grandfather.. "Milk Toast".   I.E "Listen to that Milk toast SSBer trying to jam us"

Grandpa would say "That SOB Milk toast just cut me off!"  while driving.
C

http://www.hfunderground.com/wiki/Category:Timtron (http://www.hfunderground.com/wiki/Category:Timtron)

The comprehensive list.

What a vivid memory that brings back, same category as chalk dust smell instantly reminding me of grade school.....

-from early youth, hot toast in a bowl, milk, sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top.  -What mummy used to make when oatmeal and eggs ran out.

I recall my drill sergeant exclaiming "Yo mamma be 'shamed her boy such a piss weak soldja!" to anyone he thought was slacking off. Seems to have universal meaning throughout our culture. It also seems natural that it should appear in radio conversation where there is a bit of obsession with the creation of a strapping signal, unless of course you like QRP, which is the art of being PW. Out of curiosity, how did Joe IWQ become branded with the nickname PW? Now that he runs a 4x1 and straps it might not fit!
 

Partially correct.

PW & hyellowee always used in conjunction

Notice the fine symbiosis between the two terms.

Oh boy,  IWQ - he was the absolute king of Piss Weak back in the very early '70s.  Joe had some kind of rice box (I forget which one), and not only was his signal very weak, but his audio was really bad and somewhat undermodulated, adding to the PissWeak-Ness of his signal  :)  Hence the name, PW Fallon.

Nah, t was my poor mistreated junkyard dog Yahoowee 101 he was picking on. I'll try to improve on that PW status before next weekend. Maybe a little more ka-nuts with the GSB-101 behind it? 

Nothing Grinds my gears more then some AMer on a Rice box with crappy audio.  We have two in our normal group.  Low crappy muffled audio and they go on and on old buzzard key down.  You miss about half of what the guy is saying. I have heard Rice boxes that had great sound. 


C

That was my take, for cheap beer. i.e. "piss weak" when sent
out for recycling :)

Miller lite, yellow in, yellow out

It all depends on the way you look at it. I'm sure that everyone one here at one point in time was piss weak or had crappy audio. I'm also sure that most even had the luxury of an Elmer. Huh, what's that?! Give them time, I'm sure they'll get it all ironed out; myself included. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a strapping, nice sounding tx. that is full of scarce parts. It takes time; and a little help wouldn't hurt either. On the other hand, worst case scenario is they could become totally disgusted with it, give up, and become a macaroni.

Phil 

Oh, we have some folks here in the East who excel at PissWeakNess.  One is good old Piss Weak Bob (K1REC) who has more rigs than just about anyone, and insists on only using his weak rice box.  Then there's Piss Weak Tom (N1HCI) - who posesses a good sounding and functioning 813 modulated by 811s rig, but NEVER uses it - and insists on using the rice box.  There are several others also.   Bob and Tom are really good guys and I like talking with them, but sometimes it gets a little much  ;)

Maybe they'll read this post and be spurred on to use their better-then-the-rice-boxes transmitters that they both own.  8)

Regards,

Steve

Yeah.. Its ok.. We have all been there.. But we recently had a bunch of guys join the net and normal rag chew. Thats great. The more the better.  But talking on an SSB Rice box with a Hiel headset with Crappy muffled audio really just erks me. 


Clark

Consider making a recording of these guys. Have a good sounding station on the same recording. Send them a copy.......

I have a more recent rig, a Yaesu FT-897D. The only reason why I have it is to take it portable on trips, vacation, etc. I've never used it for AM, and probably never will as a main station op position. There are way better choices for that.

Maybe they need to really hear themselves and are too afraid to hurt each others feelings to be honest with each other about how they sound? Record them and let 'em hear it firsthand. They should want to try and better their equipment unless they are just doing it on purpose.
Phil

Yeah.  I wont say anything and others prob wont either..  We are all having fun and its a hobby..

C

Geezeeee........... What about 51w Fred (KA2DZT) He gives new meaning to "The weaker they are, the longer they talk". He's fun to "squash like a bug"  ;D  ;D

Yeah, I usually flinch everythime I first push the PTT, but even though the truth may be brutal, I gotta know how it honestly sounds. Kinda like the guy who has a bugger hanging out of his nose and no one wants to say  "Hey dude, you got one hangin'."

I really need to get some tx. monitoring set up for myself. It's one reason why I been frugal on the power levels; I didn't want to trash the band with anything that wasn't up to snuff at lower power. I have a few days off now before the weekend, so maybe I can get on with it and set everything up properly.

Phil

Right !  Although we do definitely tease these guys (on a fairly regular basis) about their signals and audio.  Piss Weak Bob is really called Piss Weak Bob directly on the air....and numerous people have teasingly "threatened" to go and remove Bob's rice box so he HAS to put one of the other transmitters on the air  :D  The situation has persisted for more than 10 years, so the likelyhood of resolution is probably rather low... oh well !!!!  Not really a problem on the overall scheme of things.

<<<He's fun to "squash like a bug"   ;D ;D >>>

uhm you guys in the east are so  sadistic  :D

<<<Yeah, I usually flinch everythime I first push the PTT,>>>

I don't like it either so I use the MOX button to make me think I'm running a BA with a toggle tx switch or something

I've managed to learn how to buzzard some but now that I've read about Fred and Bob I'm tempted to get a T368, put it on the air once and then go back to the Yaesu forever  ;D

One of the more objective ways for a group to monitor and comment on a station, including the station himself, is for that group to also tune in to a single receiver on globaltuners.com

The site has tuneable receivers with streaming audio that you can select among a variety of geographic regions.  I've had as many as four people with me listening to an AM QSO via the W1TXT receiver in Connecticut. 

Tom himself, the receiver owner, has joined us and powered up his TS2000 to participate in an ongoing AM QSO, announcing there was an additional group listening in.

A station op who suspects his audio might be a little sour can hear for himself, or, someone can use the site, record off their computer, and email the MP3 just like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48pBTykFVN4

Geez are you HR?

Let all talk to kb3ahe or hlr....you'll get the real deal

I finally got curious and looked at the global tuner thing.  You have to have an account to use it.  To get an account you have to provide all kinds of personal information--DOB, occupation....it reminded me of having to give my addr. and phone no. at Radio Shack to buy a battery.  It looks like you can't use a tuner for more than a few minutes either.  I was hoping I'd be able to use one in New England and listen to Tron while I do chores.  Tim should record his QSOs for podcast. 

I'm hearing the Tron here in Louisiana presently 5 and 9.  No globulatuners needed.

The site duration is set by the receiver owner, and some are unlimited. As for the registration, I didn't find it particular irritating, especially since it's free, and I feel the same way as you about disclosures.  Where I didn't want to, I didn't. There's also a 2-week "probation" on there, when you first sign up, so you get to listen but have restricted control.  That apparently dates to some "hijackers" who came in and were messing around to bother other users.

I find the site useful for checking whether I'm likely to be heard in a given area on 40m, and, for the time being, allowing me to listen to 80m since I don't have an antenna there or on 160m.

The aircheck concept is a nice bonus for people who don't have a recording setup at home.

HR? ? ? You lost me on that one, Dave. You gotz to splain dat wun fo me ???  ???

Maybe:

"HAM" Radio.

The acronym does not stand for anything.

It's like OB / GYN

I assumed HR stood for Human Resources.

I've tried registering for global tuners.  Have to wait to find out whether I get rejected or not.  The "aircheck" thing, has me interested.  I hope it can be set up to record some frequency at a certain time, and send me a mp3 file or something.  That would be cool for an audio check among other things. 

Everyone gets approved. It's what you do after that. Too much misbehavior and I guess the miscreant gets kicked out.

I have not found any automated or timer-based functions.

But you could hit REC and probably go all day or night considering the duration and storage capacity of the hard drive on which you start your MP3 recording.

One problem, if you're not there and monitoring the screen, it's possible a second user could think you've left.  If they come on and ask to tune, and there's no answer, after a polite period of time you may lose the receiver.

Several people on there have wanted some receiver or other that I've been on, to use for monitoring college ball games out of their area. Otherwise it's a very polite bunch.

As mentioned, I've had folks join me just looking for something to listen to, and they stick around as I tune the AM miscreants here and there.

I've found it great to get to know the California AMers on 3870Kc.  They just don't get through the congestion in the eastern region.

okay i can probably set up the rx, then run downstairs to the shack and make a test xmission B4 anyone grabs the tuner.

Human Resources - an office/division (or whatever) in most companies previously called Personnel. The morons there  changed their name since most everyone knew they were idiots.

My understanding is that the term originated in England during the Second World War when food was rationed.
The English are big tea drinkers and instead of making a fresh pot, thereby consuming scarce tea leaves, they would top up the tea pot with boiling water and therefore the strength and colour of the tea was diluted until it resembled the consistency of piss.

Bob  VK7ZL

Ah yes,  When they stopped calling it Personnel, they started looking at people as "resources" similar to machines and buildings. It also was coincident with endless government regulation and intervention in personnel matters.
 
I have tried to use the Global Tuners site, but seems that I can never get connected to a receiver.  I finally gave up in frustration.

73,  Jack, W9GT