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

[Mike N1TA]

I held K1KAA for a time (imagine that suffix without perfect spacing).
Actually, it was a decent contest call, only because it had a "ring" to
it. In regular DX'ing where nobody recognized the call, it wasn't so
good - suffix was long. Then I moved to 0-land and took N0HI. Lots and
lots of dits, often busted as N0SI. Moved back to 1-land and was lucky
enough to get N1TA (dah. dit dah.) and am very happy with it. Before I
selected this one, I did some investigating and decided...

-Trailing dits get lost; I wanted one that ended with a dah
-W -calls are nice, especially in 1-land, the W1 has a nice ring. None
were available at the time, however
-"Mirror characters" are also nice, i.e. FL/LF
-Semi-mirror letters are good also, i.e. LR

When I found one I liked, I sat there and sent it a few times to get the
feel. There is that intangible rhythm aspect. A club that operates from
my place regularly holds the call WA1J and it has great rhythm to it.

What is too short? Well, I knew a guy who held AA1TE (he is now KO1D)
and was oft busted as AA1N; my only thought is to avoid E and T back to
back (probably even I).

Mike N1TA



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Can a call be too short?
From: John Unger <w4au at verizon.net>
Date: Wed, February 15, 2012 7:35 pm
To: Al VE1AL <VE1AL at eastlink.ca>,'Contest List'
<cq-contest at contesting.com>

On aspect of a call, either short or long, that hasn't been mentioned
and 
that I have found to be helpful is its "rhythm". Certain letter 
combinations just seem to flow together in CW better than others. I
think 
that's one reason why folks don't have much of a problem with Al's call.
It 
is also one of the reasons I chose my new call in 1996.

73 - John, W4AU


At 18:19 2/15/2012, Al VE1AL wrote:
>Since 1970 I have used VE1AL and before that VE1JN. I can count the number
>of errors using a call ending with a dit on the fingers of one hand.
>
>73
>
>Al, VE1AL

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