[SCCC] Two-letter ARRL Section Abbreviations?

[Leigh S. Jones]

I'd like to voice my agreement with Dick in this issue.  My feelings
are very
strong in this matter.  This was one of the issues that led me to stop
contesting
for the 1980's decade, and has left me a strong critic of the ARRL for
a
quarter of a century.

Humorously, I'd like to suggest the following: the Connecticut section
should
be required for the next quarter of a century to send the full name
(no
abbreviations, please) of it's section as a penalty for the disservice
that it has
done to the amateur radio service in this matter.  This shoud apply to
the
state for the ARRL DX Contest as well.  Maybe then ARRL HQ will begin
to understand.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard J. Norton" <ae327 at lafn.org>
To: "SCCC" <SCCC at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 10:41 AM
Subject: [SCCC] Two-letter ARRL Section Abbreviations?


> The Poles do. The Japanese do it. Why can't we do it?
>
> Back in the old days, the number in our American callsigns denoted
our
> geographic area. If you had a 6 in your continental USA callsign,
you were in
> California.
>
> In ARRL contests, like the Sweepstakes, those of us in the Los
Angeles section
> used LA for our section abbreviation. San Diego was SD.
>
> When the FCC eliminated the necessary connection between location
and callsign
> number, the ARRL changed the CW abbreviation for Los Angeles to LAX,
and that
> of San Diego to SDG, to avoid confusion with Louisiana and South
Dakota.
>
> The 2.5 times as many ARRL members in the Los Angeles (compared to
the number
> in Louisiana) section got saddled with sending an extra X. There are
4.2 times
> as many ARRL members in San Diego as there are in South Dakota, and
those
> members got saddled with sending an extra G in each exchange.
>
> On CW, if one makes 1200 QSOs, the 1200 additional Xs sent by a Los
Angeles
> competitor (when compared to one in Louisiana) will eat up 20
minutes of
> operating time!
>
> The Poles and Japanese have crafted two-letter abbreviations for the
> multipliers in their CW contests. Why shouldn't we?
>
> Questions:
>
> 1) Is it desirable to change the 3-letter abbreviations to 2-letter
> abbreviations?
> I agree there will be a slight transition time where we have to
learn something
> new.
>
> 2) If yes, what should the abbreviations for the Southwestern
Division sections
> be?
>
> Los Angeles - LO LS LX AN?
> Orange -  OG NG?
> San Diego - SG DG GO?
> Santa Barbara - already SB
> Arizona - already AZ
>
> Although I have a pretty close relationship with the present ARRL
Southwestern
> Division Director, and there is an ARRL Board meeting in two weeks,
I don't
> believe this will be brought up at the meeting. I am not sure this
is something
> requiring Board action. It may get mentioned informally for
consideration in
> the future.
>
> What are your views?
>
> 73,
>
> Dick Norton, N6AA
> SCCC President
>
>
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