A few days ago I was on 14.325 MHz with the group from Malawi and the UK. I've been meeting them on the air there for several weeks. They tell me they have been meeting at that time on that frequency for several months. We chatted for about an hour then heard a call from Qatar, a ham who had been listening in and wanted to join. We all gladly welcomed him, exchanged signal reports and call signs. He was keen to work the Malawi station but Harry had already signed off. So I told him when we would be on the air again, time and frequency.

Then the log jam broke and a pile-up began from stations wanting to work my 5X station. This went on for quite awhile. Suddenly, another station spoke up saying the frequency was in use and we should QSY. I replied that I had been on the frequency for well over an hour. The pile-up began again. In another five minutes or so the same station broke in saying the frequency was occupied and we should QSY. I again stated I had been using the frequency for well over an hour.

Now, common, courteous usage of the frequencies says one should listen on a frequency for a few minutes to see if it is in use, then ask if it is in use. If it is, then find another frequency. To break in on a frequency in use and say it is in use trying to move the users off is not courteous use nor is it fair. It is, however, rude. There was no explanation from the break-in station, just a command, not a request, a command that I go somewhere else. If there was a net about to begin, the caller could have said so. He didn't.

There really is plenty of space on 20 meters. It seems to me that if a frequency has been in use for a good long time, and if I want to get on the air, and if I am not a "REGULARLY" SCHEDULED NET, I should just go elsewhere on the band. I suppose my nature comes out here, but I don't give ground easily especially when I am pushed. Being ordered to move doesn't provoke a positive response from most people, myself included. We are not paying for every word we transmit so complete, friendly sentences are no more expensive than short, curt instructions.

We learned it in kindergarten but in these days of faceless communications seem to have disregarded it, be polite. It seems that the more "invisible" the speaker, the more he or she resorts to boorish behavior. They will say things over the phone or, in this case, over the air or they will use a tone of voice and manner of speaking they would never say or use to your face.

• Fair frequency use is fair, allowing participation by all. Some operators treat a frequency like they possess a deed to it.
• Fair frequency use means accommodating shared use among several operators.
• Fair frequency use means not trying to bully someone off a frequency because you want to use it.
• Fair frequency use means that propagation may change and you might be able to hear someone on "your" frequency that you could not hear before and it just might be that they were on that frequency well BEFORE you heard them.
• Fair frequency use means being polite and courteous even when someone infringes on the frequency you have been using. Reasonable people can work things out, well, fairly.

So, let's be fair. Give way when we are infringing, find another frequency if the one we want is in use, always consider propagation, speak politely and completely. We all encounter too much boorish behavior on the streets, we don't need more of it on the air.