[RTTY] RTTY Contest Operating

[Michael Adams]

I am by no means an expert....but I have my macros set up in the form:

TEST R1UN R1UN CQ
     S2NP S2NP
S2NP 599 123 123 S2NP
    599 456 456 S2NP
TU R1UN CQ

I send the exchange twice for verification (I'm low power, so I assume I'm not loud more often than not). Thrice feels too long, and I get too many AGN?  NR?  responses when I've tried sending the exchange only once.  

When running I'll send the calling station's callsign before and after, so it's clear who I'm calling if there was a mini pileup and to reduce the risk of a garbled single-call making it unclear to whom I'm responding.

When S&Ping I never send the run station's call, but I do resend my call at the end of the exchange partly to offer one last chance to make sure my call is correct in their log (e.g. to reduce the risk of a busted call due to complementary garble), and when running I appreciate that last bit of verification (for similar reasons).

The two exchange overs feel a little long to me in situations where I'm attempting to run on two radios.  I haven't decided yet whether the risk of appearing lagged/delayed on the other radio and loss of rhythm is enough to offset the added repeats or busted calls for the reasons described above.

I could say that, for those of us overseen by the FCC, giving a callsign at the end of the calling station's exchange makes the transmission blatantly compliant with regs saying we need to identify at the end of a communication.  But the lack of such final ID in most phone and CW exchanges had me wondering if I ought to revise my macros for consistency and brevity, in light of the apparent regulatory tolerance.

I figured I'd just share the above thoughts instead, and see what kind of reaction resulted.  :)

-- 
Michael Adams | N1EN | mda at n1en.org