[CQ-Contest] Weird Calls and RBN

[Fred Kleber]

Might we want to let him know about VC3J?

F

> 
> Gee, does this mean that folks will actually have to tune the radio, 
> listen to the station, and copy the "ingenious" prefixes correctly 
> rather than just clicking on a spot...:-)
> 
> 73 - John, W4AU
> 
> 
>> On 4/18/2018 8:46 AM, N4ZR wrote:
>> 
>> This may be old news to many of us, but VE3NEA's CW Skimmer Server 
>> determines how "skeptical" to be about a callsign, based on a file of 
>> all expected callsign patterns. This assessment in turn affects how 
>> many repetitions of a callsign it must "hear" before issuing a spot.
>> 
>> From time to time, this causes problems for contesters who have gone 
>> out of their way to get a truly unique callsign for use in contests 
>> like CQWPX.? For example, normal Belize callsigns are V31@@ (where @ 
>> is an alphabetic wild card), but I have recently been told about the 
>> issuance of a V3@ callsign for contest use.
>> 
>> Revising the callsign pattern file in a truly systematic way involves 
>> getting data from QRZ.COMon the number of "hits" for each callsign and 
>> massaging the data with exotic techniques (exotic to me, anyway) to 
>> turn callsigns into patterns and aggregate the numbers of hits to 
>> determine how common the pattern is.? It's a lot of work.
>> 
>> With a little time remaining before CQWPXCW, I'm offering an interim 
>> fix.? If you have received what you believe to be a unique prefix and 
>> have not used it before March, 2017 (the last systematic overhaul of 
>> the pattern file) e-mail me by May 1 and I will incorporate the new 
>> pattern in the RBN's pattern file distribution, which will be made 
>> available to all RBN nodes by May 10.? I can't promise you that all 
>> node-ops will download the new file before the contest, but the server 
>> will at least "nag" them to do so.
>> 
>> 
>> 73, Pete N4ZR