of posts lately about getting confirmation prior to
making the next QSO in a Sprint. There are some who apparently believe that
once they've copied a number (and they have the rest of the information in
the database) they are free to move on to the next QSO. This scenario played
out for me during the most recent CW Sprint, and has caused a dilemma in my
mind.
I worked a fairly strong and competitive station in the Northeast, logging
his complete exchange and then sending mine. I never received a confirming
Dah or tu, so I assumed he did not receive the exchange. I jotted his info
down on a sheet of paper, but deleted the QSO. About 20 minutes later, I
worked him again, and AGAIN there was no confirmation. I again jotted down
the information, deleted the QSO and pressed on. As I reached the end of the
contest, I was scrounging for QSOs, called him again, and he indicated that I
was a dupe. I took that as an acknowledgement of our most recent QSO, sent
him a new number (which he probably didn't copy) and logged the contact.
The common courtesy (sic requirement!) of acknowledging receipt of an
exchange can really cause a problem if it is not done. I would hope that
most would deal with the problem as I did, i. e. deleting the QSO if receipt
was not acknowledged, yet would feel justified in claiming the QSO, even
though times and numbers will not match. You're the referee...what's your
call?
If nothing else, maybe those sttations who are so anxious to make the next
contact that they fail to finish the previous one will realize that their
efforts are counterproductive. In my case, I made three "contacts" with the
same station, but may not get even one QSO out of it.
A lot of hype over one QSO, but I feel better now......
Paul, KB8N
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