[SCCC] Two-letter ARRL Section Abbreviations?

[Michael Tope]

On thing to consider, Dick, is that if you shorten the W6
section prefixes, you will need to shorten a number of
others:

WWA = WW?
EWA = EW?
STX = ST?
WTX = WT?
WNY = WN?
ENY = EN?
NNY = NN?
NFL = NF?
SFL = SF (oops)?
WFL = WF?
EPA = EP?
WPA = WP?
NNJ = NJ?
ENJ = EJ?

Perhaps another approach would be to force everyone to
use three letter abbreviations:

OH = OHI?
MI = MIC?
IL = ILL?
MO = MOI?
NE = NEB?
ND = NDK?
SD = SDK?
MT = MON?
MB = MAN?

etcetera.........

Of course, if either one of these standards gets implemented,
somebody may come along and complain that certain areas
have an advantage by virtue of the fact that their two or three
letter section abbreviation takes longer to send than another
sections abbreviation. For instance in a two-letter system,
Eastern New York might be  "EN" which is quite a bit shorter
than say Quebec Province which might be "PQ" :) :)

On the positive side, the only competitive SS entrant that I
can think of from the "LA" section of has a fairly long callsign
which probably does a good job of equalizing the time handicap
caused by that extra "X" that we are saddled with here in the
"LAX" section :)

73 de Mike, W4EF....................

P.S. Regardless of what abbreviation standard is adopted, I think we
should make a general exception for KP4 operators in the CW SS.
Anyone operating from that location should be required to spell out
"Puerto Rico" instead of sending "PR" each time they make a QSO :):)

----- 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,