[CQ-Contest] Best SS exchange yet!

[hgreeb at one.net]

When I was a novice and then general, back in the sp*rk daze, there was a
fellow in zero land who was given WØSOS - yup, SOS!  He used it for
several months before the FCC sent him a new call and they apologized for
the error of their ways.

When I first got n8xx in early 1978 folks accused me of being a pirate,
because there were no "n" calls, and "x" calls were reserved for the
experimental class licensees.  Once I was using it on a local repeater
where I typically didn't operate - folks kept asking me about it, so I
made up a story about buying the rig at a local truck stop along I-75, the
fellow selling it told me to listen a while, and use "n8xx" as my call
letters.  I was very careful to identify correctly every 9 minutes.  This
dragged on for quite a while - the troops were even organizing a DF hunt
for "this impostor."  Finally, a control op came on, and asked "is that
you, Hank?" - to which I replied, "Yup, why did you spoil everyone's fun?"
 But, I was about to ID with my real name to call off the impending fox
hunt. :)

n8xx was used by a radioclub to which I belonged during a Phone DX
contest, (February or March 1978 I believe). The folks who operated the
club station said it was sometimes like being on the DX end of a pileup. 
I probably could have applied for DXCC had I sought the QSL cards.  They
kept dribbling in for months afterward.  I only replied to the folks who
sent me cards.

73 de n8xx Hg

---------- Original Message Follows --------------
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:28:44 -0500
> From: Pete Smith <n4zr at contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Best SS exchange yet!
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
>
> Anyone remember NV6O?  He had all sorts of fits with that call on CW.  I
> remember once in a *phone* NAQP calling him as "N4BO."  There were about
> 3 seconds of dead silence on the frequency and then the sound of
> strangled laughing.
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> <snip>