Personally I prefer that stations just say the state name. In most
cases it is quicker and clearer, at least to me. Perhaps people in
other countries feel differently however I do not recall ever having
an issue in the ARRL DX Phone contest when I operated from North
Carolina or Illinois and just said the state name. I find that "Mike
Alpha" and "Mike Delta" can sound very similar in contest conditions.
For me saying just the two letter postal code non-phonetically
sometimes threw me off, probably because it was unexpected and
sometimes not easy to copy. I recall hearing DX which made no sense
until it was repeated and I heard TX, in this case just saying "Texas"
would have gotten through the first time.
John KK9A - P40A in 2020 ARRL DX Phone
Art Boyars K3KU
Having listened to myself work V47T in the recent ARRL DX SSB Test (thanks
for the QSOs and for the recordings!) I had been thinking about cut
numbers, even before VE9AA raised the issue again. How so?
I worked V47T on March 8 at 0358Z on 80M. You can listen for yourself. I
could tell that Randy could hear me fine, because the first time I called
he got my prefix before a louder station covered me up. After working the
louder station Randy said (instead of a "QRZ"), "the K3?"
I responded without phonetics: "K 3 K U". Randy got it fine and gave me my
report. Then I got too cute -- I said "5 9 M D", without phonetics.
Randy had a little hitch in his "thanks". I think my saying "M D" instead
of "Mike Delta" was unusual, and threw him off for a second. (Or maybe he
was tuning the second radio or picking his bagel up off the floor.)
So, sending something unexpected -- cut numbers, in many cases -- causes
confusion, wasting all the time you saved.
QED.
But maybe we'll learn. I think we're all fine with "ENN K". But until we
all learn, using cut numbers can be chancy. And a pain in the receiving
op's neck.
73, Art K3KU
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