[CQ-Contest] CQ pattern in contest - what's your vote?

[Tim Makins, EI8IC]

Only if your timing is bad. With hand keys and paddles you can put in the
space that identifies the difference between the next letter and a new word.
When I was taught CW in Merchant Navy school, this was drilled into us as
standard. With CW keyboards, it gets a bit more difficult. I understand that
some logging programs allow you to put in extra little spaces, though I'm
sure that others don't. When typing CW, who would hit the space bar ?!
hahaha - so things run together and cause the problem you describe. The
answer is to use a logger where the CQ string can have spaces added in.

One thing to think about, in the various replies to this thread: It seems to
me as if many are assuming that they hear the whole string of characters
when tuning the band ' CQ CQ W7DRA W7DRA TEST' or whatever. But in real
life, that rarely occurs - we hear a call, or part of a call, and have no
way of knowing just what is happening unless certain 'keystones' are
identified, with 'spaceDEspace' and 'spaceK' as the main ones. There's
nothing to achieve by sending on top of the calling station, thus, at the
end of a callsign, we are left wondering if that's all there is, or if there
will be more. Only the use of 'spaceK', 'spaceBK', or spaceKN' definitely
tell us to go ahead, so I can only assume that someone who always ends with
K in his CQ string would notch up a higher rate than someone who had a
string of identical length but without the K.

73s Tim EI8IC
www.qsl.net/ei8ic
Free zone maps, and contest bandplans

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Baugh" <tombaugh at discoverynet.com>


> I disagree with the use of K.
> For those of us with 2 x 1 calls is throws a wrench in the mix.
>
>
> AE9B K
>
> Food for thought.
>
> Tom
> AE9B
>
> -----Original Message-----
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Tim Makins, EI8IC
>
> I believe that time is wasted with 'CQ TEST DE , because
> subconsciously or not, ending the transmission with 'test' or callsign
does
> not give the receiving operator 100% assurance that you are about to start
> listening. If you tune across a signal, and hear either a callsign or the
> word 'test', what does that tell you ? Nothing definitely - you will
wonder
> if more is coming. The only way to be indicate your intentions 100% is
with
> the use of 'K'. I also like the use of 'DE', as it tells the listener that
> what follows is the callsign - no quibble or question about it.
>
> So, my money goes on: TEST DE W7DRA W7DRA K
>
> 73s Tim EI8IC
> www.qsl.net/ei8ic
> The home of the Global Overlay Mapper
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>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "mike l dormann" <w7dra at juno.com>
> To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
> Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 4:33 PM
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] CQ pattern in contest - what's your vote?
>
>
> > CQ TEST DE W7DRA W7DRA TEST
> >
> > everything there, the De, the two times of the call, all say "W7DRA
TEST"
>
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