1. Draw up a list of 5 callsigns from recent QUALITY QSO from your log: this means that the log contains info from QSO which included at very least honest RST(N) exchange, and two other info such as name, QTH, PWR, ANT, WX or etc. Those QSO in the log qualify for QUA use in Chinese Whispers (CW). You can mark such QSO in the log at the start of end of the row with a “Q” for easy use in Chinese Whispers.
2. Write these five callsigns from such recent Quality QSO from the log onto a sheet of paper followed by VIA (YOUR CALLSIGN). You will send these to the first station you contact participating in Chinese Whispers, preceded by “QUA”. They will also send you their own list of 5 callsigns. These are called “QUA (List) Exchanges”, and form the basis of Chinese Whispers.
3. Send the QUA list of 5 callsigns that you have noted on the paper, to admins@no5nn.org with subject QUA LIST. LIST them in the body of the email like that in one row with VIA (YOUR CALL) at the end.
3. At your next Chinese Whispers QSO you will send the 5 callsigns you received from the last QUA exchange, including any VIA CALLSIGN(S) which should end with the callsign you received the list from. Example, if you are VK5GG and you received the following from G0FOZ in the previous Chinese Whisper QUA exchange: “QUA HB1BC LX2AB 5Z3AN VM4ZU SU7BF VIA G0FOZ <AR>” you will send that adding your own callsign at the end: “QUA HB1BC LX2AB 5Z3AN VM4ZU SU7BF VIA G0FOZ VK5GG <AR>”
4. Note that the list will get longer: It will have (hopefully) the same original 5 callsigns from 5 recent Quality QSO from the log of the first station callsign after the “VIA” followed by every callsign in the chain of relay.
5. Note that you only use your own 5 Quality QSO calls from your log on the FIRST exchange you send, after that, you will also be relaying EXACTLY (hopefully) the QUA list you received in the previous exchange, on to the next person, adding your callsign at the end.
6. This Chinese Whispers activity starts on the first of each month, and ends on the last day of the month. On the last day of each month (or as soon as possible thereafter), send the last QUA list you received during that month along with all the VIA callsigns contained in that message, again by email to admins@no5nn.org. These results will be published.
7. At the beginning of each month, the process begins again.
8. When and where Chinese Whispers takes place? On the QSX frequencies, call CQ CW or CW CW CW (at any time, but for focused chances especially during the first three minutes at the top of any hour on higher bands or on the 30 minutes past the hour on the 30m Calling Frequency). Others not knowing what Chinese Whispers is will still reply thinking you want a CW QSO, and that’s fine, have a QSO! If a participant wants to exchange QUA List for Chinese Whispers, they’ll reply to your call with QUA – or you can ask “QUA?” to see if they want to also engage in a Chinese Whispers exchange — always QSY off Calling Frequency (or go up 1 or so) for exchanges.
For increased focus of “CW” try during the weekend CW Bash times and you may also use these same times during the week for “CW” Chinese Whispers activity. You can also organize via your national CW groups to hold Chinese Whispers at a time suitable to your time zone, ideally choosing the 30m QSX/Calling Frequency 10100.1 as a starting point.
9. The fun is to see at the end of the month how long the lists get, and whether they remain intact and accurate as to the callsign contents!
10. The objectives are rewarding Quality QSOs with callsigns appearing in these lists and circulating around the world, improving techniques and accuracy in sending and passing on messages, hearing callsigns of active Quality CW stations and knowing they are still active, seeing the paths that these Chinese Whispers take (they may, for example, be relayed around the world several times during the month or stay within a region). As the activity generally only takes place only on 30, 20, 17, 15, and 12m, this encourages longer distance exchanges.
Historical Note
The English idiom “Chinese Whispers” originates from Chinese being a distant foreign language to English speakers and the passing on of information becoming foreign and thus “Chinese” instead of “English” after passing through several intermediaries, exemplified in the popular childhood game of Chinese Whispers, in an age long before the internet and smart phones took over entertainment.
Children would sit in a circle and whisper a sentence to the child to their left or right and this would be passed on from child to child until it reached the first one again, completing the circle. It was fun because more often than not, something completely different would arrive after having passed through whispers through the ears and mouths of many children in the circle.
As “CW” is the popular abbreviation for “Radiotelegraphy” it was a no-brainer to use CW also to signify Chinese Whispers in this new fun activity which tests the accuracy skills and abilities of CW operators to pass information reliably through several relay points.
Radio Amateurs are in general notoriously inefficient at the accurate passing on of messages, since this does not constitute any significant part of their operations. The notable exception to this are QTC (“Traffic”) Nets which use formal message formats and procedures to ensure accuracy.
This is not new to professional radio services from the Post Office, to the Police and Military, Maritime and Aeronautical to all manner of other professional radio services which had to absolutely ensure 100% reliable onward transmission with or without relays.
In an age of exaggerated “political correctness” there have been worries that the English language idiom “Chinese Whispers” is in any way racist or discriminatory toward Chinese. This is not at all the case, and other such idioms as “It’s all Greek to me” (meaning unintelligible to the average English speaker who is not likely to speak Greek) are in similar vein.
This is not to say that there have not been English idioms that were not racist or discriminatory, there certainly have been, but this is not one of them. However, we thought it best to dispel any potential doubt by including this history of the idiom for new generations and non-native English speakers who may not be aware of its meaning and take it literally as whispers in or of Chinese!