[CQ-Contest] Can a call be too short?

[Collins, Graham]

Good question.

Personally, I find some of these types of calls to which you are referring to be "cute" and immediately recognizable if I am familiar with it, that is I hear it as a word or name rather than a sequence of letters and numbers.

A good example would be something like EI5E - all dits and has a nice rhythm when sent in CW - BUT if the op hearing it does not immediately recognize the call it tends to get lost in the noise.

These calls have their place and their proponents but they can also be counter productive under some conditions. Sometimes taking the middle road is the better compromise.

Cheers, Graham ve3gtc
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of John Geiger
Sent: February 15, 2012 10:49
To: DX-IS at yahoogroups.com; cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Can a call be too short?

I am helping with some research about ideal calls in terms of DXing and contesting, and was rereading some of the old posts about ideal letters in a callsign. I wonder if some combinations can be too short for CW?  Do the single character letters like E and T tend to get lost in pileups and require repeats a lot?  Would a suffix like EET or TET be problematic?  Or does it help that they are shorter to send?

73s John AA5JG
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