[CQ-Contest] A couple of post-CQWW observations

[Robert Chudek - K0RC]

No Mike, you are not alone. I asked for many repeats as well. Sometimes I 
will listen to the DX station make several contacts before I am confident I 
know their callsign. I do not speak any foreign languages, so everything 
expect English sounds, well, foreign to me.

Not understanding a callsign is reciprocal as well. Many times the DX 
station thinks my call is K2RC instead of KØRC for some reason. Most fellows 
can "count the numbers"... like "four... one, two, three, FOUR!" You can't 
do that when you are a "zero"! So... in phone contests, there ARE language 
and accent problems to overcome. It is not a sign of disrespect.

I do know some words of Czech. That language has a sound combination that is 
unique to their language. A Czech word like "repa" (sugar beet) is sounded 
like the 'rzh' letter combination with a rolling 'r'. That phoneme is 
foreign to anyone not familiar with the language and would be difficult to 
understand until it was taught to you. Certainly you could use the charged 
word "ignorant" to describe this lack of knowledge, but that would be 
counter-productive in a civilized conversation.

73 de Bob - KØRC in MN


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike/Shelley Ritz" <micritz at comcast.net>
To: "CQ contest" <cq-contest at contesting.com>; "dx colombia" 
<dxcolombia at elistas.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] A couple of post-CQWW observations


>I want to apologize to anybody who was offended by my comments. They were 
>not meant to be disrespectful in any way towards anybody. The wink at the 
>end was supposed to signify that a joke was being made, but apparently it 
>was taken as something other than that. Again, I apologize to all our ham 
>friends down south.
>
> Still, some stations giving their callsigns so fast and without phonetics 
> so that they sounded like a single word was a problem, at least for me. 
> Maybe it wasn't for others.
>
> Mike, W7VO
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David J. Sourdis" <hk1kxa at hotmail.com>
> To: "CQ contest" <cq-contest at contesting.com>, "dx colombia" 
> <dxcolombia at elistas.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 7:25:56 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] A couple of post-CQWW observations
>
>
> Where was the moderator when this display of ignorance and disrespect came 
> on?
> The implications of the sentence marked in bold letters are clear and 
> reinforced by the wink sign.
>
> "The other thing I ran into were stations, especially in Central and South 
> America that gave their callsigns super fast,
> without phonetics, so it was just one brief unintelligible word with a 
> heavy accent.
> Maybe too much caffeine from the coffee down there was involved, I don't 
> know..... ;-). "
>
>
> David
> HK1KXA
> EC5KXA
>
> PS: "El ladrón juzga por su condición" .
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:57:30 +0000
>> From: micritz at comcast.net
>> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
>> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] A couple of post-CQWW observations
>>
>> Not acknowledging contacts is one pet peeve of mine as well! Some 
>> stations end the contact by moving on to the next contact, which seems 
>> rather rude and abrupt to me.
>>
>> The other thing I ran into were stations, especially in Central and South 
>> America that gave their callsigns super fast, without phonetics, so it 
>> was just one brief unintelligible word with a heavy accent. Maybe too 
>> much caffeine from the coffee down there was involved, I don't know..... 
>> ;-).
>>
>> Stations that don't identify often were another peeve. As a small gun 
>> "hunt and peck" station, having to sit and listen to somebody for 5 
>> minutes work a pileup only to find that they were a already somebody you 
>> worked the day before was frustrating.....
>>
>> I also noticed several stations right at the band edges for long periods 
>> of time. There was a W3 station that seemed to make a home at the very, 
>> very bottom of 20M for hours on end. (Although admittedly I did get 
>> within 1.5 kHz of the top end of 20 to quickly work a LZ yesterday. I am 
>> sure the Official Observer notice is already in the mail!.....)
>>
>> What I did not hear much of was deliberate interference, and I was glad 
>> to see that. There was some sort of news radio talk program in the middle 
>> of 20M that I am sure nobody could hear with all the CQing going on top 
>> of them. What the heck was that doing there?
>>
>> Had a great time, and thanks to everybody involved.
>>
>> 73'
>> Mike, W7VO
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Jim Reisert AD1C" <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>
>> To: "cq contest" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
>> Sent: Monday, October 26, 2009 11:27:03 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
>> Subject: [CQ-Contest] A couple of post-CQWW observations
>>
>> 1. For the most part, running stations were identifying themselves
>> often enough. 8P5A and PJ2T (and probably HC8A, I don't remember) were
>> the standouts here. Way to go, guys!
>>
>> Pet peeve:
>>
>> QRZ <dx call>
>> "AD1C"
>> AD1C 59 <zone>
>> "Thanks 5904"
>> <dx call>
>>
>> So I did work him or not? Did he lose my puny signal in the
>> QRM/QRM/QSB? Please say SOMETHING besides just your call. One
>> station repeated the zone back to everyone. I liked that, especially
>> since my zone doesn't match my callsign.
>>
>> 2. There were OH SO MANY USA stations operating too close to 7125.
>> You may have seen comments in my packet spots, or announces directed
>> at me, or from me on packet. If you don't know how LSB works, get
>> your license manual and study up! There was similar problem on the
>> high end of 20, but it was not nearly as bad as the low end of 40.
>>
>> I saw some unenlightened comments on the DX cluster about K3EST
>> "policing" the bands. Please visit http://www.cqww.com people!
>>
>> 73 - Jim AD1C
>>
>> -- 
>> Jim Reisert AD1C, <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.us