[CQ-Contest] QSO B4

[Kelly Taylor]

I think this touches on an interesting topic: is any one station EVER worth
the amount of time it will take to figure out who the non-IDing guy is?

Take WW, for instance: 40 zones, 300-some countries. Unless you're gonna
work 'em all (As if!), no ONE multiplier is any more valuable than the
others, no? (OK, so maybe there are a few guys who are the only stations
from their zone and they're worth two mults -- maybe you cut some time to
catch them.)

So, what if you sit there for five minutes and it turns out it's just
another G3? (No offence, G3s, just making a point.) That's almost as bad as
waiting that long to find out he's a dupe. Also, following Doug's example,
what if you do "work" him, he doesn't ID and then you have to wait till he
does -- and he's still a dupe?! So you've blown five minutes of rate (at
decent S&P rates that could be 10 QSOs) and all you have to show are two
stinkin' QSO points (assuming he's not a dupe).

Granted, that's from a contest perspective. Your mileage may vary if you're
also as concerned about DXCC counts...

But from a contesting perspective, I just don't see the point in sweating it
out over any station that doesn't ID, even if it's Heard Island. Just tune
on by and work the next guy, who may very well also be a new mult. You might
come back and Mr. Bigshotdon'tneedtoID is in a better IDing mood and snag
him then. Chances are good that guys with that big a pileup will be around
for a while. If not, no great loss. It just seems that the points you
flitter away by waiting are at least as valuable as any you might gain.

Just some thoughts...

73, kelly
ve4xt


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenneth E. Harker" <kharker at cs.utexas.edu>
To: "CQ Contest" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 8:48 AM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] QSO B4


>      My copy of the September/October 2003 National Contest Journal
arrived
> yesterday (if you aren't already subscribed to this publication, you
should
> be!) and a comment in W9VA's article "ARRL CW DX Contest 2003 from
> Fernando de Noronha" touched on one of my pet peeves.
>
>      Bill describes a moment on Sunday morning when a packet spot was sent
> out with his run frequency, but spotting the call A35RK, resulting in
having
> to send "five or six" QSO B4 messages before the pileup subsided.
According
> to Bill, these were stations who "should know better" because they were
not
> "bothering to listen for [his] callsign."
>
>      I have no idea wheter PY0FF was signing every QSO, every-other QSO,
or
> what during that portion of the contest.  But, one of my personal pet
peeves
> is stations (usually DX) who sign very infrequently and then get indignant
> when you dupe them.  Let's say that I tune across a station running
stateside
> station in the ARRL DX Contest.  Once he makes two or three QSOs without
> giving a callsign, I'm faced with the following dilemma.  I could wait
until
> he signs (will it be 120 seconds? 180 seconds? who knows?) and risk
possibly
> missing it in QRM or static crashes or QSB, or I could call him and know
for
> certain in 15 seconds whether I need him (by asking for his callsign) or
> he's a dupe (because he says QSO B4 or somesuch.)  If I call him and don't
> get through, I'm no worse off than I was to sit there and listen.
>
>       So, when I do the calculations in my head, it seems to me that it is
> clearly in my best interest to just call an infrequently signing station,
> running the risk of an indignant QSO B4 or being thought of as someone
> who "should know better" than to sit there and wait.  If a contest station
is
> signing infrequently, it is assuming that S&P stations will be willing to
> waste their time in order for the run station to save a second or two
> here or there.  When that gamble fails, getting indignant about it seems
to
> me to be the really rude side of the QSO, not the other way around.
>
>      For all I know, PY0FF was signing every QSO, in which case the packet
> callers were clearly lids, but all too often with DX stations, it is the
> infrequent sending of callsign that is to blame.
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> Kenneth E. Harker      "Vox Clamantis in Deserto"
kharker at cs.utexas.edu
> University of Texas at Austin                   Amateur Radio Callsign:
WM5R
> Department of the Computer Sciences          Central Texas DX & Contest
Club
> Taylor Hall TAY 2.124                         Maintainer of Linux on
Laptops
> Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
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