Short is not always good, especially on cw if "short" means ending in an
"E". Deadly.
Any letter can be loused up on phone, but the ones that have
similar-sounding phonetics will give the most trouble. I have a terrible
time with "Juliet" being heard as "Zulu" and "Foxtrot" being heard as
"Oscar" or "Papa" (or even "Boston"?????).
Be prepared to use different phonetics depending upon the part of the world
you're working. There are too many examples to list here.
Operate a lot. More important, operate more than anyone else with the same
suffix! I have trouble staying ahead of K9JF, N4JF, OH3JF, K8JF, K2JF,
AA5JF, AH6JF, KK4JF, W7JF, W0JF, DL1JF, DH4JF....well, you get the idea.
Be loud.
Two-by-ones are fine if you put them on the air often enough so that at
least a portion of the crowd has been exposed to the call before.
Accept the fact that a good cw call may not be a good phone call, and vice
versa.
N9JF is just fair on phone and cw, but it's "me". KR9L is pretty good on
both. The kids love it, as it incorporates their school name "Kids Radio
Nine Liberty". W9AWE is awful on both. The Quincy club pretty much just
uses it for Field Day anyhow, so what do we expect?
In the end, try not to worry about it too much. It's still a game....
73, Jim N9JF, trustee for KR9L and W9AWE
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