[CQ-Contest] Fills and repeats

[Rowland.Archer at gxs.com]

Hi folks,

While asking for "nr nr" over and over this weekend on WAE CW, it occurred to me that I didn't know any "standard" practice for asking for the JUST that one digit or letter I'm missing.  Nothing more frustrating than something like this sequence:

You:  K4XD ur 5NN 3<QRN>9
Me:  NR NR?
You:  5NN 3<fade>9, 3<static crash>
Me:  AGN NR?
You:  NR 5NN 3<fade>
Me:   3?9 3?9
You:  ur 5NN 3<crash>9 5NN 3<fade>

You get the picture.  I keep hearing the stuff I don't need, and not hearing that one bit of information I'm lacking.  Only once this weekend did I hear someone try to specify the single digit he was missing -- he sent "NR 3 NR 3?" to indicate he was missing the 3rd digit.

I would think sending 3?9 would indicate "please just send the number between 3 and 9" but it seldom works, people resend the whole sequence most of the time, or send 5NN very slowly just in case I missed that part!  It is frustrating to hear the parts you already know coming through clearly, knowing you would have the missing info if they were sending that instead of what you already copied.

Any advice from the brain trust? (Besides better antennas!)

73,
Rowland K4XD