More appropriately stated proper speech and SSB technique is in the speech
pattern, microphone technique, appropriate phonetics and audio processing
I don't agree that a "bad accent", sloppy speech pattern or overly processed
audio is a problem in the EAR of the beholder...I'll explain in a moment.
I don't recall hearing anybody bust my call last weekend whether I used
"Golf" or "Germany".
The much more frequent problem I encounter is operators who copy my call
area as "five" when I'm a "nine". I frequently give the call as "Kilowatt
Niner Germany Xray". This usually happens when the other guy is hearing me
at S5 or worse (low band situations where the band is just opening or
closing) or under extreme QRM.
If replying with "niner" and the DX still wasn't getting it, last weekend I
tried counting to nine. That seemed to do the trick.
I find that overly processed audio (very prevalent with many southern
european stations in Zone 15 with a prefix starting in "I") greatly reduces
the intellegibility on SSB. Combine that overly processed audio with a thick
accent, sloppy enunciation and at some point correctly copying that call
becomes more of a challenge. The weird part of this is is that most of the
multi/multis I worked this weekend were CQing with voice keyers. Many of
these guys sound like they have mouths full of mashed potatoes. Surely
there's got to be at least one guy on the team who could record clean,
crisply enunciated audio files and be done with it. This is analagous to a
sloppy fist on CW.
The next three or four items on my "Top 5 List of Poor SSB Contest Operating
Techniques" would be:
Partial call in a pile up....
Partial call in response to my "run" CQ (usually casual stations who are not
contesters)
No phonetics whatsoever...."kay one bee vee dee" "double-u seven cee emm
gee"
Goofy phonetics "nancy six screaming yellow zonkers" (although some of these
can be hilarious)
Stations who are CQing (running), especially DX, and giving their call about
every 5 minutes...
Ops who are simply poor listeners...sometimes I think some of these guys are
listening on a speaker that's sitting on the floor behind the operating
desk..pointed at the wall
I think you're going to be hard pressed to come up with a list of phonetics
which are better than the ITU standard list. Look the list over carefully.
There's nothing on it that vaguely resembles "Golf"
Finally, a personal antecdote from last weekend.. I was on 15m Saturday
afternoon CQing along at a fairly steady pace when along came a 6 which
sounded like a kid...a kid with an obvious and very heavy speech impediment.
I got most of his call on the first go round, it was a two by three. We
really struggled with the second letter of his prefix...for about 3 minutes.
I just couldn't get it and he was making some gutteral noise each time I
asked for a repeat which was impossible to make any sense of. I acted as
though the problem was on my end..."try it again, I'm having trouble copying
you" We kept at it until I got it. I could hear the smile coming from the
other end. The rate suffered, but somewhere out there is a kid who had the
courage to get on the CQWW SSB with the challenges he has to deal with. That
QSO was worth working for... it was not a mult and zero points.
The other good one was the guy who called me "Eric"...I corrected him and
told him he was thinking of K9GY.
73,
Kilowatt Niner Golf Xray
Mark S. Williams
K9GX
Elizabeth, IN
k9gx@n4gn.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "k7qq" <k7qq@netzero.net>
To: "CQ-CONTEST" <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Phonetics
> NOt a bad Idea, however a bad accent is in the eyes of the holder.
>
> That VU might just think a W6 K6 or better yet a W5 with an Okie accent
> has a bad accent. I have a hard time with some South American speaking
> english and then sometimes the JA's have a few difficult pronuncments or
> the letter R remma or lemma , just a couple of examples of what is
> difficult for One doesn't fit all
> NO easy solution.
>
> Quack
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eric Hilding" <dx35@hilding.com>
> To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 12:16
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Phonetics
>
>
>> It is obvious that Phonetics are a pain-in-the-butt for a lot of
>> contesters. Whoever came up with the "official" list must have been a
>> golfer. "Golf" simply sucks...I found this out during Field Day with our
>> local club (W6GGF). After wayyyy too many people NOT getting the
>> callsign
>> correctly, I reverted to the time-proven use of "GERMANY" from my old
> DXing
>> days, and had no further problems.
>>
>> Here's a concept...
>>
>> Why don't WE as contesters come up with a UCP (list of "Universal
> CONTESTER
>> Phonetics") that can solve most of the problems? Contest Sponsors can
>> publish them along with their event rules.
>>
>> Yes, more than one syllable phonetics will slow down an exchange, but
>> much
>> less, IMHO, than the wasted time asking for multiple repeats.
>>
>> One person reported a problem with "Mike". I don't think I have ever
> heard
>> anyone have a problem with "MEXICO"...or DENMARK...or AMERICA, etc.
>>
>> WE have an opportunity to improve things...if WE want to.
>>
>> Regardless of any changes, after reflecting on last weekend's CQ WW SSB,
>> I
>> think *some* "DX" SSB ops need to slowwwwwwwww down their verbalization
>> of
>> ***ANY*** phonetics if they want to be understood (especially those with
>> H-E-A-V-Y accents).
>>
>> 73...
>>
>> Rick, K6VVA
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
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