[CQ-Contest] To cut or not to cut?

[Richard Thorne]

I'm not a fan of cut numbers.  I like using T for leading zeros in the serial number.  After the first hour or so in the beginning of a contest everyone is in the grove.  After serial number 99 I no longer use cut numbers.  Cut numbers screw me up in the middle of a contest.

I guess bottom line are we sending/receiving numerical serial numbers or alphanumeric combinations?  I think theres a difference.

Rich - N5ZC


Sent from my iPad

On May 31, 2012, at 8:23 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR <n4zr at contesting.com> wrote:

> There's nothing like a CW serial number contest to get you re-thinking 
> about the use of cut numbers.
> 
> For situations where first-time intelligibility is important, I think 
> use of cut numbers probably costs more time than it saves.  Here's why:
> 
> The basic Morse Code 0-9 character set has two important characteristics 
> - each number is five code elements long, and each one gives you two 
> chances to copy correctly or confirm that you have done so. If you hear 
> the first dit of 1, or the last 4 dahs, then you know what the number 
> is.  This is because, with the regularity of computer-sent CW and the 
> presence of "5NN" as a signal to expect the number to begin at a certain 
> time, you can often infer from the length of the "lost" portion of a 
> number what it must have been.  Even if you only get the two dits of 8, 
> depending on when you hear them, you can have pretty good confidence 
> that it was, in fact, 8, and not seven with one unheard dit.
> 
> How much time is saved by sending A instead of 1?  How much time is lost 
> by responding to "AGN" or "NR?"
> 
> Opinions?  I bet there are a few out there.
> 
> -- 
> 73, Pete N4ZR
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