[CQ-Contest] Where Do We Get Off Doing This?

[Dale Martin]

Stateside hams: Where do we get off giving the full names of states to DX
hams in a contest?  

What makes us think that DX hams we contact know that Michigan is MI and
Missouri is MO and Mississippi is MS?  

I had time to listen to a number of QSO's in pileups (more than I liked)
this weekend...as I'm sure most of us did.  

I heard essentially the same refrain repeated in many of them:
"Tennessee...now that's TE, right?"  and another exchange had to be made to
clarify it for the operator.  

If the stateside operator had used Tango November in the first place, some
time could have been saved on everyone's part: the stateside station, the DX
station, and the stations waiting to work the DX. 

So, stateside hams, please use two letter phonetics for the state
abbreviations for our DX ham friends. 

There... I feel much better now...

73,
dale, kg5u