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Re:The Rich History of Ham Radio Culture by 0xEF on Monday July 29, 2024 @05:07AM (#41099013)
That's not in keeping with my experience, even ignoring the fact that I am in North America. I've made hundreds of contacts in the EU during contests and only English was used. Do they perhaps use their native languages on local repeaters? If that is the case, I would not hear it since contesting is done on HF.
Re:The Rich History of Ham Radio Culture by wkat4242 on Monday July 29, 2024 @05:16AM (#41099064)
Ah ok yes I'm never on HF. On HF it's more English only due to the many languages here in Europe. Especially during contests of course.

However people do have local chats and ragchews in the local language. It's more the contests that are English only (but that doesn't go any further than "59 good copy. Next."). Which is why I hate contesting, I find It so boring that nobody has time to speak. I have no drive to be a "winner" so I never care about the number of contacts.

In fact most people in the ham demographic here would speak very limited English anyway due to not learning it at school in their days.