[CQ-Contest] Spotting Errors

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 04:51:14PM -0000, Andy Faber wrote:

>   There is probably no good answer.  But I do get annoyed when the station 
> duping you is a big gun who should be listening to you before making blind 
> calls.

I hear this complaint (mostly from CW ops) a lot.  Let me offer a different 
perspective.  As a single op unassisted, if I dial across a station working 
people without giving a call sign, it is often faster _for me_ to call in and 
ask for the call.  Who know how long I might have to wait for the other 
station to give their call?  And what if the one time out of five QSOs that 
they do give their call, it's covered up by QRM or something?  Do I wait 
for another five QSOs to pass?  It is usually optimal for the unassisted op 
to just call in and if it's a dupe, oh well.  The time saved _by me_ is 
worth it _to me_.

If the station is giving out their call with every QSO, this is not an issue.
So, if you are _not_ giving out your call sign with every QSO, you need to 
understand that some other operators will prioritize _their_ contest time
ahead of _your_ contest time and call in even if they turn out to be a dupe, 
and accept a certain number of those events during the contest as normal,
reasonable operating behavior for top contesters.  

If a station is IDing with every QSO and big gun contesters are still 
calling in frequently as dupes, then you know they are packeteer lids
and you can feel free to hold them in low regard.

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