| | Back in the day when most hams used crystal controlled transmitters, | and would tune 10-25 kHz either side of their CQ looking for answers, | the practice of answering a CQ with W5TVW W5TVW W5TVW DE AA4LR AA4LR | AA4LR AR made sense. | | However, these days, operating zero-beat on a single frequency, the | long call is just a waste of time. You call CQ DE W5TVW K. I'll | answer AA4LR on the same frequency. Where's the confusion? |
Perhaps no confusion to you, the sending operator, but a possible bit of confusion to the operator who called CQ! Firstly, let's assume you have imperfect propagation conditions: fading, static, whatever. You might miss my call or get it confused if I sent it just once. I am not privy to local man made noise, static generated by local storms, or other conditions at your location. Why not call at least a 2 X 2 format at least if you want to shorten things? Anything else might likely lead to asking you to repeat your callsign, which takes up even more time? Just a one time sent callsign IS bad operating practice and operating manners. I would compare it to saying your name once to a crowd of people standing on the corner! Who, sir are you addressing? If the people around me were talking to each other, I may have to hear it two or three times to get it right. I might have a slight case of deafness. All good reasons to AT LEAST send my callsign once and repeat your callsign twice. i.e.: W5TVW DE W4ABC W4ABC K. | In contest operation, we'll dispense with the DE and K altogether. | Millions of contest CW contacts are made this way each year, without | sending both calls. | Contest conditions are usually frantic, crowded and many times plain RUDE. It is kinda like a cat fight with thousands of cats involved. Even in contest conditions, there are times for repitition. A typical example is "my kind of contest: a QRP event". Such things as sections/states and unique member numbers are exchanged. In the peak of the QRM/QSB I usually always send State and my number TWICE. This makes things perhaps run a few seconds longer, but it makes the exchange much smoother, especially if you are trying to operate a key and the rig with one hand and a logging program keyboard with the other hand. Otherwise, you have to ask for a repeat which wastes more time. Abbreviated operating techniques are the norm in a free-for-all,pushing, shoving contest. I am always amused by the guy who is sending everything at 50 WPM thinking he will get a higher QSO count by doing so! Not everyone can do that speed with consistant accuracy. | The old "Novice Accent" advice was to do 3x3x3 - CQ CQ CQ DE W1ABC | W1ABC W1ABC repeated three times. Again, that was with a lot of guys | still rock-bound. These days, a single 3x3 with a few seconds of | listening seems more appropriate. | I agree LOOOOOONG CQ calls or doing a 3 X 3 format three times IS...repeat IS a waste of time and "overkill". Do the 3 X 3 and wait 15-60 seconds and repeat the call. We still have a few people who have "vintage" transmitters that are crystal controlled, but sadly very few people who "tune around", even a couple of kHz. with the RIT control. Anyway, the sum of it is, nobody seems like they are teaching ANY really good operating practices anymore. ARRL has dropped the section from the "Handbook". They either don't give a damn, or they want to sell you an additional book to cover that subject! Having not taught a "ham class" for many, many years, I don't know what is being skipped over these days. I do remember there were some "Tech" class operator prospects that wanted to rush out and buy a 2 meter HT to work their buddies on the local repeater and not be bothered with any "protocols". Kinda like a budding journalist whose English grammar was terrible and he wanted to become the writer of a serious column, but didn't want to brushup on his English usage! 73, Sandy, W5TVW _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com