[CQ-Contest] Calls and such

[Harry Hodges]

Hi All,

Got my first call, ZP5HZ thirty years ago followed soon thereafter by my US
call of WN6YOO that later became WA6YOO and now W6YOO.

I am not an avid contester, entering contests mostly to give out a few Qs
and trying to nail a new DXCC entity here and there. Do like the California
QSO Party and Field Day using my own call for one and the club's call for
the other.

DXing is my real passion and I lack only two (7O and VU7a) to have them all.
I do believe that my call aids in my quest. On CW it has a nice rhythmic
pulse and Jim, W6YA who visits a Pacific Island once and awhile says that
the   da-di-da-da   da-da-da    da-da-da  comes right through the pile up.
Further, the Yankee Oscar Oscar is sort of a hard sound and seems to do very
well on SSB and the Whiskey Six is seldom confused.

Avoiding dits in the suffix seems a good idea. I am reminded of my first HB9
CW contact years ago with a weak signal and noise.  The suffix was all dits,
something like I E S or E I H, I don't remember for sure. However, I got his
name: Rene. So, I thought I'll go to the callbook, look up both
possibilities, and the one with "Rene" attached has to be the one. Well, you
guessed it, both were named Rene. Sent out two QSLs, got one back, never
heard from the one I hadn't worked. So, my advice is avoid the dits if you
can.

That's my 2 cents.