[RTTY] USOS FIGS

[Bill, W6WRT]

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

On Tue,  7 Jul 2009 09:24:47 -0400, Phil Sussman <psussman at pactor.com> wrote:

>After all, if less errors is the goal, then (-) is the way
>to go.

REPLY:

With more than a hundred RTTY contests in the log, my experience says otherwise.
The issue is't the number of errors, it is the number of requests for repeats.
That may sound like the same thing, but it isn't. If you take the exchange
599-017-017. one error (a missing figs shift at the beginning) will make it
print as TOO-PQU-PQU and most ops will ask for a repeat. By comparison, with 599
011 011 and USOS, that same missing figs shift will print as TOO 011 011 and
most ops will get it.

I grant you that the more experienced ops will figure out the "PQU" but the
newer ops won't, and there are always lots of newer ops in any contest. Just one
request for a repeat will burn up more time than you save with hundreds of
hyphens.

But as AD1C observed, this has a religious aspect to it. :-)

73, Bill W6WRT