Rag Chewing for Non-Hams

Rag chewing is ham-speak for chewing the fat, or flapping your gums; in other words, just having a conversation. Almost all conversations start with the exchange of standard information such as your name, your location, and a signal report.

Your name is an obvious requirement; without it, the other person would be reduced to calling you Old Man or some other non-descript name. Your location is also important because it may give the other person an idea for something to talk about. He may have visited your area before, or even lived there. He may know nothing about the area and may ask for further information. Finally, the signal report tells the other person how well you are receiving him. From this, he knows if he will have to repeat important information and it may give him an indication of how long you may be able to rag chew.

The conversation then may progress to describing your transceiver and antenna and then to the weather (boring, unless it involves a hurricane or tornado, or similar). Sometimes the conversation ends there but often you and the other person will bring up other topics to be discussed. This could be something simple such as how long he has been a ham, or what your interests in ham radio and other hobbies are. or what he does for a living. In this way, you may find that you have common interests or that he does something you have been interested in but have never been able to persue. Then again, you may have nothing in common at all, except an interest in some aspect of ham radio. In any case, you will have made a new friend.