[CQ-Contest] Your Call?

[Ron Notarius W3WN]

 Steve,


I can't speak for any other little pistol or squirt gun out there, but over the years I've learned a bit of a distaste when someone asks me to QSY to another band.


I've had the request made on one of those rare times I have a run frequency going.  If I've got people calling me, I'm not leaving.  Worse, I've had people ask this, I would go and work the other band (and I don't always have propagation at the time), and on my return find that the station that asked me "as a courtesy" was now working my run frequency as his.
 
When I'm doing S&P, again, I may not have propagation to that part of the world on the other band at that time.  And I may have other reasons for not wanting to QSY at that time.


But the biggest reason I've come to dislike the requests... when (and this happens primarily on voice modes) I'm asked and I decline, the other guy starts giving me an argument.  I'm in the middle of a run, I have a half-dozen people calling, and someone wants me to stop cold and discuss why I want to stay put, or don't want to go to another band right then and there?


Now, I don't mind if, while doing S&P, the op of a M/2 or M/M tells me that their other station is on, well, whatever frequency.  Especially during the Sunday "doldrums".  As long as they simply mention it.  Again, though, when the other op demands to know why not... I mean, really.  It's not like a W3 from PA is exactly rare, and I get that they'd like to maximize the number of Q's on each band.  


So please don't take it personally if I don't QSY to another band.  


73, ron w3wn

On 02/26/16, sbloom at acsalaska.net wrote:

I'm not sure changing the exchange is realistic (though man that *IS* a 
great idea) ...but I will comment that I find it increasingly difficult 
to communicate *anything* other than the contest exchange with most 
folks. I always try to get guys late in the contest ..if/when things 
are slow ..to QSY to other bands ..and I'm probably down to 1 or 2 in 
10 ...giving me any answer at all ..yes or no ...no matter how much I 
QRS. Probably not much that can be done ..as code readers become more 
popular ..but it does suck. 
 
73
Steve KL7SB
 

On Thu, 25 Feb 2016 16:09:21 -0500, Jeff Clarke wrote:

 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