For heaven's sake, people... If you hear someone get their call into the bird, TAKE A PAUSE!!! I heard like five or six stations give their calls one after the other, after the other and gave absolutely no friggin' room for him to answer anyone! Give the rare station a chance to work the guy in front of you instead of constantly calling. This is getting to be a real problem... I heard two stations call the same guy one after the other on a pass not long ago a total of 4-5 times each and there was no way the guy they were calling could ever answer!!! It was the proverbial urination contest. - And yes, I got my callsign in there a few times on that pass as well... but I did my best to be brief and wait for an open window. I try to always pause at least a few seconds if someone else manages to get their callsign through the chaos.

Simply put, the ME, ME, ME mentality is NOT helping ANYONE. The VUCC gives credit for a successful QSO whether it's the first one during a pass, or the last.  We could have ALL worked him in on that pass, there was more than enough time... This competitive crap is getting out of hand. BE SPORTSMANLIKE... it's the best way for YOU to WIN a QSO.. AS WELL AS everyone else.

For anyone that needs a refresher course on the best winning etiquette, I refer you to Stephen Covey's 'Seven Daily Habits of Highly Effective People'... WIN-WIN is MORE effective than WIN-LOSE... if you focus on only yourself to the detriment of others, we lose. But if you try to operate in a way that gets everyone a QSO and not just focus on YOU... we all win  That's what the station who went to all the effort to go set up in a rare grid that we are all trying to work wants, if we cooperate with that sentiment, it just might happen.

Ham radio is supposed to be fun... I have a trip planned to Western Nevada later this year to operate from rare grids. It's part of a vacation I am taking with my daughter. I plan to have fun. If I encounter this kind of crap attempting to work passes, I am going to shut off the radios, stuff them in the trunk, tell the daughter to get her camera and go sight seeing. Life is too friggin' short. 73, N4UFO