[CQ-Contest] re: QRL?

[Bill Fisher W4AN]

  >I prefer to listen carefully and then call a short CQ and identify
  >myself.  And yet this makes me impolite compared to the anonymous
  >QRL'er...

Let me pass on a scenario that happened to me some years ago...

I'm listening to a very weak signal trying to get a report.  A K3 station
starts a CQ on the frequency.  He immediately gets 3 answers to his CQ and
because he is back scatter to me, he can't hear me through the callers
while I'm telling him to QSY.  Ultimately he gets the frequency through an
extremely obnoxious practice of CQing before asking.

This possibility generally doesn't occur to people in an advantaged
postion, and why you will generally see stations who operate from
advantaged QTH's beating the drum of CQ first and ask questions later.

  >And, I hasten to add, I am NOT a practitioner of "SO2R" and never will
  >be.  Who wants to make contest operating a chore?  I do contesting
  >because it's fun, not because I pride myself in killing myself to beat
  >the next guy.

Perspective is everything.  If I had to use only one radio, I would find
something else to do because the contest would be too boring.  One man's
drudgery is another man's fun.

Since doing SO2R, I hardly ever step on anyone's toes.  I can patiently
listen on the 2nd radio for a frequency while still working people on the
first.  Panic is generally the reason for the too-quick-QRL's.  With 2
radios, I never feel panic to find a frequency.

73

Bill Fisher


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