[CQ-Contest] The battle of the callsigns

[dennis o'connor]

So anyone with a 2x3 call might as well take up stamp collecting, eh... 
OTOH, not is all as it seems...

Over the years I have been working on recruiting new contestors into 
the hobby... I have watched as I let them use my station on their own, 
and wade into a contest scrum, with all of the noise, confusion, and 
fear...  One thing that has struck me over the years is that for the 
low experience contestor - that is first contest on his own or only 
casual operating in the past - is that these supposed advantage calls 
1x1, etc. totally throw the low experience contestor...  They hesitate 
because they 'know' they are missing part of the call...  I have 
watched as they listen to the 1x1 at 35 wpm, or HC8N at 45 wpm for 
example, over and over, and finally look at me with fear and confusion 
in their face,  and ask what they should do...    I aways tell them 
that if they cannot copy the call after three times, turn the dial and 
move on as they are losing points by sitting there...  I can see the 
light bulb go on in their head, they move up the band a couple of kc, 
and voila there is a Q they can copy and suddenly they are having fun 
again...

Now remember, that the majority of calls in the log of a flagship 
station are part time or casual contestors - guys that get on for three 
hours on Sunday afternoon, etc..  So by cranking the speed way up the 
big guns are losing Q's even as they reducing their F1 total time for 
the contest...

Denny

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