[CQ-Contest] Is copying an exchange important on "the phone"?

[Jim White, K4OJ]

I was really hoping someone would bring this up - tnx WW3S...

In a CW contest incorrectly copying an exchange can be grounds for "zeroing"
a QSO (dunno if NAQP only looks at getting the calls right or if it also
looks at the correct exchange)...but...I know it is very important in
contests like ARRL SS.

As someone that us pro-CW operating I have always wondered how much
incorrectly logged stuff there is on "the phone" - maybe it is just that I
have been CW contesting for 30 years and the SSB part never really sunk in -
but - I spent a lot of Saturday afternoon listening while others made QSOs -
and yes I called a few folks, too...but...on callsigns and names frequently
I would hear someone come back and say thank you Al when I coulda sworn he
said his name was Mel...etc....

If it is as important to copy it exactly on CW (we are after all as
contesters perfecting our operating for times of emergency communications
when we will be needed, right) then it seems the same should hold true for
"the phone"...or is it that since CW is not important accuracy in general is
no longer important?  And if we want real accuracy we should depend on
digital modes [hmmm CW is the original digital mode, no?]

There was a seven I worked this weekend who was calling CQ - by his call I
gather he is a newer licensee...I deliberately came back to him phonetically
with what I knew to be a wrong version of his call...hoping to make a point
that when you call CQ or ID in general on SSB unless you have a very very
unique callsign phonetics are a must...especially for those of us with 500
cycle filters between the ears!  He seemed shocked when I got his call
wrong..."dude are you like deaf, you old senile Floridian" ....hmmm.

73,

K4OJ
(op K4 Fresh Cooked Gator)


"the phone" courtesy N2AA  [hence the quotes :-)]


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