I worked a whole bunch of Europeans in the 160 meter contest along with
UA9's and even 4Z1UF who had a good signal. My pet peeve is that when I
hear only a weaker stations prefix but miss the suffix and ask for a
repeat and request for example "HB9 ? AGN" all I hear is the prefix
before the suffix is in the noise. The station knows i have the correct
prefix and number but how do I get them just to send the missing portion
which is crucial to completing the QSO? Even if I send HB9??? they
return with de HB9### and the process repeats. If in such circumstances
once the calling station realizes I have the correct prefix all they
need do is send the two or three letters of the suffix several times.
Resending the prefix is not helpful in high noise or qrm situation. I
have tried SFX? SFX? but many stations are confused by that and keep
sending their whole call. So here is my advice in just difficult
circumstance:
Do *not* repeat your whole call if the other station has the correct
prefix and all they need is the remaining portion. I just wish more
stations on TB would do this as it would enable them getting in the log
correctly and save time. Time length of an opening to some parts of the
world is everything in a crowded contest. Why waste it?
73,
Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
On 12/4/2012 7:11 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
On 12/3/2012 8:26 PM, Augie "Gus" Hansen wrote:
as in "CQ TEST KB0YH", with about a 1-2 second loop delay.
I have NEVER found a CQ repeat interfal less than 2.5 seconds to be
adequate to actually LISTEN for callers, and I often use 3 seconds.
I strongly agree with the need to keep CQs short. I always have three
CQs programmed. The shortest, automatic on F1, is "TEST K9YC" The next
is "CQ TEST K9YC," and the longest is "CQ TEST K9YC K9YC." I start
with the shortest, then the middle one, then the longer one when
things are slow and I need to beat the bushes.
When a QSO is finished, it's TU, a long space so someone could tail
end, then K9YC. No "73, GL in the contest, no "QSL," "CFM,"etc. If I
think there might be any confusion about callsigns, I'll use F5 (his
call) then F3 (TU K9YC) at the end of the QSO. All that extra crap
takes time, and when I'm in S&P mode, I'll tune past the guy who's
wasting my time with it. I can average 80 Qs per hour in S&P mode,
but not waiting through that blather. :)
I've contested with N6RO at his place. He's a top scoring guy (he's
won SS nationally, doing it from the west coast), so I have a hard
time finding fault with him! What Ken does is send YOUR call at the
beginning of an exchange, when in S&P mode. That's smart -- it makes
sure both guys know who's working who under crowded band conditions
when there can often be two stations running a few hundred Hz apart on
different coasts, and callers answering both.
BTW -- another good way to make sure that the other guy is working
YOU, not someone else on your frequency, is to ask for a simple repeat
of a short part of the exchange. If he responds, you know he's
working you.
As to "being weak" -- I strongly agree with N6RK's advice. I'll add
this: never send ANYTHING again that the other guy has copied
correctly. If he has your call, don't send it again. If he doesn't
have your call, send it until he does. If he needs your report, send
ONLY the report, over and over again until he gets it. If he asks for
confirmation of something, send R R R R R R, and nothing else. At the
end of QSO and I'm the S&P guy, I'll send TU TU TU TU if I need to let
him know I copied his exchange. When your signal is "vapor" on the
other end, anything beyond the bare minimum confuses things.
And QSK is a wonderful thing, especially if you're weak. I don;t use
full QSK at 1.5 kW -- the vacuum relays wear out too often -- but I
always do at 100w or less.
73, Jim K9YC
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