I'm not a fan of cut numbers. I like using T for leading zeros in the serial
number. After the first hour or so in the beginning of a contest everyone is
in the grove. After serial number 99 I no longer use cut numbers. Cut numbers
screw me up in the middle of a contest.
I guess bottom line are we sending/receiving numerical serial numbers or
alphanumeric combinations? I think theres a difference.
Rich - N5ZC
Sent from my iPad
On May 31, 2012, at 8:23 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR <n4zr@contesting.com> wrote:
> There's nothing like a CW serial number contest to get you re-thinking
> about the use of cut numbers.
>
> For situations where first-time intelligibility is important, I think
> use of cut numbers probably costs more time than it saves. Here's why:
>
> The basic Morse Code 0-9 character set has two important characteristics
> - each number is five code elements long, and each one gives you two
> chances to copy correctly or confirm that you have done so. If you hear
> the first dit of 1, or the last 4 dahs, then you know what the number
> is. This is because, with the regularity of computer-sent CW and the
> presence of "5NN" as a signal to expect the number to begin at a certain
> time, you can often infer from the length of the "lost" portion of a
> number what it must have been. Even if you only get the two dits of 8,
> depending on when you hear them, you can have pretty good confidence
> that it was, in fact, 8, and not seven with one unheard dit.
>
> How much time is saved by sending A instead of 1? How much time is lost
> by responding to "AGN" or "NR?"
>
> Opinions? I bet there are a few out there.
>
> --
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at www.conteststations.com
> The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at
> reversebeacon.blogspot.com,
> spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000 and
> arcluster.reversebeacon.net, port 7000
>
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