[CQ-Contest] SS Op Quality

[Pete Smith]

At 12:58 PM 11/8/00 -0500, Bob Kellogg wrote:
>...One thing that I couldn't understand, and maybe some of you know the
>answer.  Several stations had trouble with my section, NC.  They
>couldn't copy the C, and would often send "NR?".  I'd reply "NO NC NC
>NC", and they would still come back with "NR?"
>
>I'm sure they were trying to copy my weak signal in the middle of a
>lot of QRM, etc., (And, I really appreciate that effort)  but, I'd
>think that NC (to an AE4IC call) would be an obvious choice over NR.

Are you sure they weren't trying to tell you they hadn't copied your serial
number?  Since it could be anything from 1 to 001 to 1029, that's one of
the hardest parts of the exchange to copy. Also, when I need fills, I tend
to start with the leftmost missing element first... 
...
>In the meantime, is there some standard or better technique that I
>should be using to insure better accuracy on the fills?  I've heard
>"CFM", "C", "R", "YES", "NO" used during fills.  I'm a little afraid
>of the "C" --  What is the wisdom of this group?

On backscatter and other rough copy situations, I use "RRR" when asked to
confirm a particular exchange element -- there's nothing in the SS exchange
that looks like that.  If the other guy has it wrong, I'm torn between "NNN
NR 123" and just "NR 123."  I do know that you should NEVER resend an
exchange element when the person on the other end has it right.  I also
believe in using the name of numeric elements (e.g. reply to "CK?" with "CK
54" rather than "54", but reply to "SEC?" with "WV").  And finally, I'd
advocate minimum extraneous stuff and repeat only if needed.  To me the
ideal fill would look like this:

"CK?"
"CK 54"
"SEC?"
"WV"
"WY?"
"WV"
"WV?"
"RRR"

Sometimes (once is too often) it looks like this:

"CK?"
"N4ZR DE <call> CK 54 CK 54 BK"
"SEC?"
"DE <call> SEC WV WV WV BK"
...and so on.

73, Pete Smith N4ZR

Contesting is ... Extreme Radio

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