[RTTY] Why Send The Exchange In This Manner?

[Bill Turner]

On Sat, 15 Feb 2003 19:28:50 -0500, Bob Wanderer wrote:

>
><my call> 599 - 121 - 121 de <his call>
>
>The logic has nothing to do with serial # repetition.  It
>has to do with why the spaces surrounding the hyphens.
>Isn't that wasteful of time?  Consider how many extra FIGS
>and LTRS characters are sent.  This exchange was received
>from a European station.  Maybe they don't have USOS there?

_________________________________________________________

I suspect the person just wanted to set off the serial number from the
rest of the info to make it more distinct.

What he didn't realize is that sending the additional characters only
adds to the possibility of error.  If the space character gets corrupted
due to noise or whatever, the message would be less readable, not more.
The best he could hope for is to break even.

Sending additional characters for purposes of redundancy often helps,
but redundant spaces doesn't really add much.

Bill, W7TI