SprINT and Sprint procedure question

Wed May 1 16:43:55 EDT 1996

OK, so on FD, the new ops call cq and a strange progression of questions
and ACK'ing follows.  i.e.,

cq field day this is KF6XXX

KF6XXX, this is W1A (crash, static, qrm etc)

W1A question mark, GO.

KF6XXX this is W1AW 257A north north new york

W1AW this is KF6XXX.  I roger your 257A north north new york...

Blah blah blah

(hours later)

"Good luck in the contest"

CQ FD this is KF6XXX

flash forward to last Sat. nite's SprINT.

cq int nv6o

(3 - 4 stations call, zero beat with each other, incompetent operator on
receive end hears only last letter of one of the calling stations - say
"N").

Do I go through the exchange using just N?

N? de NV6O NR111 butthead (had to) ca

     or do what I did

just send N? and wait for the callsign of the station with the "N" ( if
he has any patience left at this time) to resign his call.

N?

WN4KKN

(oops in my mind)

WN4KKN NV6O nr 111 beavis (this feels good) ca

etc .

This latter procedure sure reminded me of the young ops at FD.  How do
you other guys handle this situation.  Besides getting a better receiver
and operator that is.

Eric, NV6O
edwoods at pacbell.com

>From Larry Tyree <tree at lady.blindchicken.com>  Thu May  2 00:25:38 1996
From: Larry Tyree <tree at lady.blindchicken.com> (Larry Tyree)
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 16:25:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: What to do...
Message-ID: <199605012325.QAA18713 at lady.blindchicken.com>

NV6O wonders - 

> (3 - 4 stations call, zero beat with each other, incompetent operator on
> receive end hears only last letter of one of the calling stations - say
> "N").
>
> Do I go through the exchange using just N?
>
> N? de NV6O NR111 butthead (had to) ca
>
>      or do what I did
>
> just send N? and wait for the callsign of the station with the "N" ( if
> he has any patience left at this time) to resign his call.
>
> N?

Well, what you did may not be as bad as you think it was.  I have found
myself sending a ? more often now that I use a computer for logging.  

If you send ? or N?, then they send their call, you don't have a lot of 
messy editing in store for you.  Also, you really haven't sent any more
characters than sending the exchange the first time (assuming you later 
send the callsign when you know it).

I feel that keeping hte normal rhythm in the QSO pays off, especially
in the sprints.

One of my secrets, is to send the ? when the FIRST station is done
sending so that he is the only one who hears it, and thus is the
only one who resends his call.  This is better than using the last
letter you heard, as that is probably the guy who is either sending
slow, or has a really long callsign (eg: WN4KKN).  You can only get away
with this being better if you can time it well, and know you can copy
his call the next time.  I use a ? even if there is only one station 
calling and I missed a letter.  Compare these two (UPPER and lower case
used to identify which station is sending):

DE JE1?KA  je1?ka 5nn ca  DE JE1CKA 5NN 500   cka tu nv6o test
DE JE1?KA  ?  DE JE1CKA  je1cka 5nn ca  5NN 500  tu nv6o test 

Surprise!!  Not only have you kept the normal rhythm going, eliminated
nasty editing of JE1?KA, perserved your ability to check if this guy
is a dupe and call him by name, but you might of saved some time as well.

The trick is doing it so only ONE station is calling you.  If you can
separate them with timing instead of having to send a letter or two of
their calls, you will increase your rate.

Tree N6TR
tree at contesting.com

PS: Waiting for someone to make this post to cq-contest:

"I seem to have forgotten my e-mail address.  Can someone who knows what 
it is please post it to the list for me?  Please don't flame me."

>From Stephen F Merchant <merchant at silcom.com>  Thu May  2 01:45:49 1996
From: Stephen F Merchant <merchant at silcom.com> (Stephen F Merchant)
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 17:45:49 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: SprINT and Sprint procedure question
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.960501173722.13253A-100000 at beach.silcom.com>

On Wed, 1 May 1996 EDWOODS at PACTIME1.SDCRC.PacBell.COM wrote:

> (3 - 4 stations call, zero beat with each other, incompetent operator on
> receive end hears only last letter of one of the calling stations - say
> "N").
> 
> Do I go through the exchange using just N?
> or
> just send N? and wait for the callsign of the station with the "N" ( if
> he has any patience left at this time) to resign his call.

I agree with the technique Tree has suggested.  Another consideration is 
that most of the carnivores who operate Sprints and SprINTS want the Q 
badly enough that if you let more than 500ms go by, they'll send 
their call again.  If you don't come back the second time, they're gone.  
This involves a judgement call on your part -- go for a fill or sit there 
for a split second to see who hits F1 first.  Hard to say if this really 
disrupts your rhythm or not.  If you're cruising at 35wpm, an extra half 
second here and there may not be too big a deal.  Then again, using F9 
<?> isn't too hard either, as Tree points out.

Ooops, where it says carnivores, read "ladies and gentlemen."

73, Steve     N4TQO
merchant at silcom.com <<<New ID>