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

[Zack Widup]

An anecdote -

In my first really semi-serious effort as a little pistol in ARRL DX
CW (n 1993) I had been inactive in ham radio for quite a number of
years and honestly hadn't encountered cut numbers other than 5NN. Many
stations were sending "ATT" for the exchange in the ARRL DX. I logged
on paper logs and wrote down just that, as I didn't know what it
meant. That's what the ARRL got on my paper logs.

I also didn't know what some of the prefixes were, as I had a DXCC
countries list that was many years old and it didn't have S5, T9 and
some other prefixes I heard and worked.

Even recently I have been thrown by cut numbers in a serial number
exchange when I get something like "ATET." I have to stop and think
about it, which slows me down.

I thought the generally-accepted convention was never to use cut
numbers in a callsign. Seems people are even doing that these days. If
I hear someone doing that I will probably just pass them by.

73, Zack W9SZ (not WNSZ)
:-}


On 5/31/12, W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu at w0mu.com> wrote:
> Cut numbers in the serial number threw me constantly.  Maybe the very
> good ops deal with it but I am geared up for number not letters!  Most
> of the cut numbers are from EU and JA.  Most people lost whatever time
> they thought they were gaining was lost in fills.......
>
> Mike W0MU
>
> W0MU-1 CC Cluster w0mu.net:23 or w0mu-1.dnsdynamic.com
> Http://www.w0mu.com
>
>
> On 5/31/2012 11:00 AM, Ktfrog007 at aol.com wrote:
>> The most egregious misuse of cut numbers I've ever heard was by 4T100MP
>> in
>> 2011. Some ops there sent 4T1TTMP as their call sign. No kidding.
>>
>> I always find cut numbers to be a problem. Europeans use  them more than
>> anyone else. I didn't know about N1MM's conversion of a cut  number to
>> the
>> real McCoy. I'll learn to use that feature. There are many  mysteries of
>> N1MM.
>>
>> Also, I quit sending leading zeros about 2 hours into the WPX this  year.
>> Just decided it was a bad practice. Never again.  For zeros  which are
>> part
>> of the number, I send a zero.
>>
>> 73,
>> Kermit, AB1J
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> In a message dated 5/31/2012 2:59:27 P.M. GMT Standard Time,
>> ve5zx at hotmail.com writes:
>>
>> During  the WPX CW while condx here were good on 15m they were not great.
>> Many low  power EU signals were marginal. I noticed that I asked for more
>> repeats  from EU stations that were using  cut number than from those
>> that
>> were not using them. I recall thinking that if the full number was sent
>> instead of cut number the request for repeats might have been  lower.
>>
>> Syl -  VE5ZX
>>
>>
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