Nice troll, Steve, but I’ll bite.
There actually is a problem in NA Sprint. It involves the exchange order. It
seems the Sprint format has evolved over the years, and that has been brought
into NA Sprint in the form of “unwritten rules”.
The NA Sprint rules, for the exchange, state:
"7. Exchange: To have a valid exchange, you must send all of the following
information:
The other station’s call sign, your call sign, a sequential serial number, your
name,
and your location (state, province or country). You may send this information
in any order.
For example:
N6TR K7GM 154 RICK NC
K7GM 122 TREE OR N6TR
Note that it fully states that either format (or any other) is perfectly OK.
But, in practice, this is not the case. The unwritten rule states that when you
send CQ, you must send the exchange as follows:
N6TR K7GM 154 RICK NC
and when doing the S&P role, your exchange must take the form:
K7GM 122 TREE OR N6TR
I used the second form for my exchange. Eight very experienced Sprinters
responded over the end of my call, so that I did not hear the beginning of
their transmission, including the serial number. I managed to get a fill from a
few, but the rest will look forward to a NIL.
One of the rules we push to new contesters is to read the rules before a
contest. In this case the rules lead you astray.
The SSB Sprint has the same rule, but they also have a tips section that
explains the format you should use for the exchange whether you are running or
S&P. That tips section is referred to in the exchange rule.
My suggestion is that it is time to take a good look at the NA Sprint rules and
bring them up to date with these new unwritten rules which have evolved over
time. If the order matters (and it is clear that it does), then the rules
should say so!
Otherwise we have a contest that is very unfriendly to new contestants who
don’t know the unwritten rules. This type of contest will eventually die…
73,
Jack, W6FB
> On Feb 4, 2024, at 5:02 PM, Steve London <n2icarrl@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> There's been some grousing about Sprint QSO's not being acked, or the ack
> getting covered by other stations calling.
>
> May I suggest we all use RR73 to ack in the September Sprint ?
>
> 73,
> Steve, N2IC
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|