[CQ-Contest] Re: Short contest calls.

[Leigh S. Jones]

I'm afraid that comments like this just don't reflect an understanding
of
reality.  While it's presently possible to do the things that you
suggest,
it hasn't always been and it may not be in the future.

In the US, a government agency that is manned by workers who are
not necessarily steeped in the culture and customs of amateur radio
make day to day decisions regarding us all.  For decades in the past
a decision that was intended to make it easier for these workers
to complete their tasks dictated that amateur radio operators must
take their old callsigns along with them to new locations within the
country when relocating.  There was no mechanism for changing
the callsigns.  Honestly, the level of understanding regarding issues
relating to DXers within our government was at an all time low.

Now a mechanism exists, but it is inadequate and quite costly.
Some one with a nice 4 letter callsign who changes call districts
will be faced with the choice of keeping his old callsign or paying
hundreds of dollars in a gamble with hopes of getting a new callsign
that has equivalent ease of use, but more likely he'll get a clinker.

The present system of paying big money to enter a lottery for
callsigns hasn't always been with us.  I personally held a nice call
that I didn't really find workable many years ago.  I was N6NT,
and I'd chosen that callsign only to discover that 80% of the time
when I answered a CQing station he'd respond "N6?" or
"N6NT?".  There were unnecessary repeats as hams wanted to
hear my callsign three times before they understood it.

Probably today people wouldn't have that problem.

But I had to let my license lapse for a time just to get a new
callsign.  You shouldn't have to do that.  But those are the kind
of obstacles we face in the US.

KR6X

----- Original Message -----
From: "Vladimir V. Sidorov" <eu1sa at belsonet.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 11:05 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Re: Short contest calls.


> "Jan Erik Holm" <sm2ekm at telia.com>
> >
> > > Talking about US calls, can you people explain this to me, it?s
> > > been puzzling me for years.
> > > There is a K6 guy operating from KH6, he doesn?t sign /KH6
> > > or KH6/ just his K6 and two letter suffix. I have asked him on
> > > the air and he says it?s perfectly right. How can it be?? Does
> > > not seem to follow international regulations which also are
signed
> > > by the USA.
> >
> > The "K6" suffix is assigned to the USA.  Hawaii is part of the
USA.  There
> is no
> > international regulation which says Hawaii stations must sign
"KH6".  In
> fact,
> > Hawaii was originally "K6" and California was "W6" only.  Within
the
> borders of
> > a country there is no international regulation how the prefixes
must be
> > allocated.
> >
> > o?o  73, de Hans, K0HB
>
>
> Gents,
>
> Let's don't take it so easy...
> Fine, there is no international regulations on the USA prefixes. But
there
> is something else, let's just call it, status-quo, with prefixes.
For
> whatever reason there are still prefixes like KL7 and KH6 and people
knows
> very well what such calls mean. The moment something else is coming,
we
> might be faced problems.
>
> Examples.
> 1. OK, K6 can mean any part of the USA. Let's imagine, I work K6XXX
who is
> located in Hawaii, he gives me 599 31 and DOES NOT sent in his log.
Without
> his log in hands the log checking system does not know his location
and can
> only ASSUME that either his location was KH6 (but I don't think, a
log
> checking program will go for assumptions about actual locations of
> particular stations), or I just messed up zones 31 and 3, because
most of
> "normal" K6's are in the zone 3. In any case, most probably this
contact
> will not count at all and I will miss a double mult and can even be
> penalized. But if he signs as KH6/K6XXX amd makes a few more
contacts even
> without sending in the log, I will get the double mult...
> And what if we are talking about a double mult on 160?
> Quite a difference, no?.
>
> 2. The same K6XXX  situated in Hawaii works in the WPX contest. How
many
> poins per QSO he gives to Europe, to North America, etc? Any idea?
With his
> call he looks like he is in Noth America. Very recently he was
looking like
> a zero-pointer for the USA stations and he might be just ignored by
some of
> them. Signing KH6/... he would be very much welcomed everywhere.
>
> So, pls do your best to make your calls clear and understandable at
a first
> glance.
>
> 73,
> "Walt", EU1SA
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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