[CQ-Contest] 2 letters, rates, etc....

[Trey Garlough]

Jon Ogden writes:
 > But Trey, both these problem happen with me regardless of wether I use a 
 > full call or not.  If I give my full call at the start of my transmission 
 > and he still gets it wrong, what can I do?  

Don't panic.  This happens often (let's say 50% of the time for a
"large piece of data" such as a callsign sent phonetically), but it's
ok because you get another chance to send your call phonetically on
the next over.

 > I guess that if I give my 
 > full call while trying to bust the pileup there is the chance that I have 
 > given it one additional time and that he'll get it.  But if he doesn't 
 > get my call correct while just he and I are talking, I doubt he'll get it 
 > correct through the pileup.  

At this point, the DX already has recorded your your call correctly in
50% of the cases (based on my assumption above), so you are now off
the hook, you can just send the exchange and benefit from the "subtle
implied acknowlegement" described in a previous message.

So for the remaining 50% of the cases, let's say you also have a 50%
chance of being stepped on by adjacent channel interference.  This
means that in 25% of the cases you will be obligated to go to extra
overs to communicate your call to the DX station.

However, using your method of waiting until your second over before
you communicate your callsign for the first time, you ensure that the
DX has copied your call correctly 0% of the time on your first over,
so for the remaining 100% of the cases let's say you also have a 50%
chance of being stepped on by adjacent channel interference.  This
means that in *50%* of the cases you will be obligated to go to extra
overs to communicate your call to the DX station.

The bottom line in this example is that you are going to extra overs
in 50% of your QSOs rather than 25% of your QSOs.  

 > Perhaps I've missed something in your 
 > analogy.  If I have please straighten me out.

Unnecessary extra overs result in wasted time.  Forgoing the subtle
acknowlegement protocol results in decreased accuracy.

--Trey, N5KO


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