[CQ-Contest] Your Call?

[Jeff Clarke]

A simple solution. Make the callsign part of the exchange like SS. For example if I work P40W he would send KU8E P40W 5NN 5.

There were several stations this past weekend in ARRL DX that wouldn't even send their call until they weren't being called by anyone anymore. Some others would work between 5-10 stations before they sent their call.

I blame alot of this problem on the dumbing down of DX contesting (and DXing in general) caused by packet spotting. Most casual DX contesters like SOA and just click on packet spots and work people. No skill needed anymore to copy a call or have any knowledge about propagation to know which band to be on to maximize your score. To me it's similar to catching fish in a barrel. Those on the other end of the pileup know this and this is why they don't ID frequently. It's very frustrating for those who still like to be unassisted.

 It's obvious to me that many of these people also can't copy CW other then their own call. I had a situation on 15 CW Sunday morning in ARRL CW that I had a bunch of dupes that started calling me. Someone had probably spotted my call wrong. It was amazing to me that many of those that called were well known contest calls. They still called even though I was sending my call every QSO. I checked the spots of my callsign after the contest and that's exactly what happened. It wasn't until someone spotted me with the comment "call correction" that the dupes stopped.

BTW, I'm not against SOA. I guess I'm just old fashioned because it's just not challenging to me.  I like to find stations and band openings on my own. That's more thrilling to me.  To each his own. If you get a thrill from clicking on spots all weekend long, more power to you.

Kudos to guys like K3WW and AA3B  who have good stations, are great run operators and they know how to interleave spots between their runs to maximize their score.

Jeff KU8E