Now that bad signal quality is a potential disqualifying event in certain
contests, is there a simple way to alert somebody, especially on CW, that
his signal has a quality issue?
I can't find a Q signal for such in the ARRL list of Q-signals. I recall
having seen somewhere a Q-signal for "Your keying is defective", which
sounds more like a "You need to check your keyer weight setting" than "You've
got spurs", but I can't find a reference to that one.
Yesterday, while playing around in the CQM contest, I encountered YT1A who
had a very strong signal, with spurs +/- 400 Hz and various phase noise or
the like mixed in as well. I don't know if that would have risen to the
level of a DQ in CQWW, but I would have been very unhappy if he dropped in 500
Hz away from my run frequency in CQWW. But there was no simple way to let
him know that he had a problem. (I was tuning at the time, so I simply
chose to not to reward his bad signal with a QSO).
Any suggestions?
One other thought on Q-signals, not contest specific:
QRN: "I am troubled by static". In practice this now means "I am troubled
by noise". I think it would be good to split the two uses. Static is a
pretty random thing: try again in 2 seconds and I might miss that static
crash.
But the bad power line noise is going to be a problem for me for quite a
while, so it's probably hopeless. But some other guy a few miles away will
likely not have the same problem, so don't hesitate to call him.
Is it time for a Q-signal for "I am experiencing non-natural RFI?"
73 - Jim K8MR
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