[RTTY] WHY put CQ at the end?

[Larry]

OTOH, I used WPX W6NWS and only got spotted if someone manually spotted it. 
I changed to WPX W6NWS CQ and began to show up by the skimmers. I would 
never use CQ as part of calling someone when I am doing S&P or in the middle 
of a QSO. If I just caught your call sign without CQ or QRZ I would normally 
presume you are in the middle of exchange unless I heard the beginning of 
your transmission and knew you soliciting calls.

Some use it on CW as well to distinguish when looking for new calls.

73, Larry  W6NWS

-----Original Message----- 
From: Dave Hachadorian
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2015 12:18 PM
To: reflector RTTY
Subject: [RTTY] WHY put CQ at the end?

Several times during the WPX RTTY contest, I was called on my CQ frequency 
by stations who thought I was someone else, someone I had worked in the 
previous few minutes.  Apparently a RTTY Skimmer had misunderstood who was 
actually running on the frequency and who was the S&P station.  I can see 
how this could easily happen, because I was ending my CQ message, and also 
my TU message, with a CQ.  Here’s an example:
CQ WPX K7ZX KZ7X CQ
W7WW W7WW
W7WW 599 1025 1025 W7WW
599 945 945
TU WK7S CQ
AA5AU AA5AU

So the skimmer hears
CQ W7WW W7WW and thinks W7WW is running, and spots him on my frequency.

Or, the skimmer hears
CQ AA5AU AA5AU and thinks AA5AU is running, and spots him on my frequency.

I know the skimmer guys have spent a lot of time working to reduce this 
error, but it is obviously still not perfect.

The larger question that occurs to me, is “Why do RTTY ops put a CQ at the 
end?”  Nobody does this in CW or phone contests.  Now that RTTY skimmers 
have come of age, putting CQ at the end is causing identification issues. 
Maybe it’s time to stop?

Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, AZ

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