CQ-Contest
[Top] [All Lists]

[CQ-Contest] Can a call be too short?

To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Can a call be too short?
From: Ken Anderson <w0ett@msn.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:38:42 +0000
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
Hi John, AA5JG:

Here's my experience.

I received this W0ETT callsign 51 years ago and have had a variety of problems 
of folks getting it mixed up on CW over the years.  Since I retired in 1998 and 
have spent more time in a variety of domestic of CW HF/VHF contests, and DX 
contests, I've found that the E is the most common letter that folks mess up.  
When calling a station in a contest, I've had them come back with mostly the 
correct callsign. Thanks, guys!   But, I've had some of them also come back to 
the following callsigns:  W0TT, W0TTT, W0ET, W9ET, W9ETT, W0EET, W0EEE, W0ETC, 
W0ATT, W0ITT, W0W?, and somehow W2ETT, W4ETT, and a few N0ETT.  I've sent my 
call fast, I've sent my call slow... When I hear that they get it wrong, I've 
tried to make sure they get the call correctly by going back again to get it 
across.  If they keep trying, I keep trying...because I know if they log it 
wrong, they get a penalty.

The good news is that the regular contesters, after working me a lot over the 
years, usually get it okay even when I send it pretty fast.  Some of the 
contest DXpeditions ops do a great job picking up the callsign but, I'm 
guessing, that its probably because they've heard it before in a contest.  But, 
like Joe W9ET, I tend to send the E with a little more spacing when sending 
manually.

I've had my callsign for a long time and, at going on 70 yrs, I probably won't 
change it unless I move out of the Zero District and can find something a 
better.  But, if I was going to change it or modify it, I'd opt to change the E 
to something more readily, quickly understood like an A, K, M, O, T, and etc. - 
but, most of those are taken.  By the way, the TT on the end of the call has 
been a big help as it can be picked up pretty easily.  However, there are a lot 
of TT's around these days compared to a long time ago.

Thanks for being patient with copying my callsign!

73 Ken Anderson, W0ETT
Parker, CO


                                          
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>