[CQ-Contest] WW SSB - the corruptive influence of packet

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Tue, Nov 01, 2005 at 12:00:48AM -0800, Michael Tope wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kenneth E. Harker" <kenharker at kenharker.com>
> 
> > 
> > (d) The contests would be better off without packet at all.  One option
> >    is always to turn it off and tune the radio instead.
> > 
> > -- 
> > Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
> 
> The really annoying thing I found this weekend were the stations 
> who were only identifying every 5 or 10 minutes because they 
> had a steady diet of packet assisted stations feeding their pileups 
> who knew their callsign a priori. As a single-op unassisted, it's a 
> royal PITA when you are trying to make the most of your operating 
> time to have to sit on a frequency for 5 or 10 minutes listening to a 
> huge pileup and wondering if you really need that station for a 
> multiplier because he won't identify. 

If a station isn't identifying, it's almost always to your advantage as a 
caller to simply call them and ask for their callsign when you get through.
If you don't get through, you're no worse off than if you were just sitting 
there.  If you get through and it's a dupe, you've saved yourself some time
and can move on.  If you get through and it's a good QSO, you've saved 
yourself some time and you've got another QSO in the log.  It's pretty
much always in your interest to call rather than wait.

Yes - the DX station could be upset if you're a dupe and behave poorly as a
result.  But, they are already behaving poorly to begin with, aren't they?

-- 
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker at kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/