John,

I agree about building recognition, and I've done a fair few contests now,
the CW portion is fine using my own name, I was just reading the rules
to find out if you enter the cw and then ssb, if you have to use the same name
in both, the issue I have is my English accent, (good job cw doesn't have accent :)
I normally have to say my name several times to the US stations in normal everyday use,
so it tends to slow me down a little...

Was just a thought, but I think I'll stick with Paul...

GL tomorrow...


On January 8, 2010 at 8:50 PM John Laney <k4bai@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> It my opinion, if you are known as a contester at all, it is probably
> best to use your own name.  You just confuse people by using something
> different.  Granted, AA4LR, Bill, uses George (his middle name, I
> think), but he has established that for some time and I think W4ATL,
> Sherman, uses something other than Sherman because Sherman is unusual
> and pretty long.
>
> I did guest operating for a couple of NAQPs at W4AN.  The first time it
> was on CW and I used "JOHN GA."  Bill, W4AN, had suggested that I use
> "Bill."  But, I used "John" and confused people.  Maybe it was not just
> that W4AN was "Bill," but on weak backscatter contacts, it may have been
> hard to tell if it was really W4AN, John, GA or maybe it was W4AU, John,
> VA (the same W4AU, John, VA who is on one of our SECC teams this weekend).
>
> So, I'd use my real name and continue to establish recognition of that
> name as being my name.
>
> Or, start with another name like AA4LR did and work to establish that in
> many future contests, so it eventually stops being confusing to people.
>   Maybe like Howie (SECC#1), N4AF, has done.  He uses "AL" in NAQP and
> NA Sprint.  I assume he does that because it is shorter than "Howie."
>
> Seems to me that "Paul" is a pretty good name for CW especially.  Hasn't
> hurt N4PN to use that name on either mode.
>
> Good luck to everyone tomorrow.  Let's make a lot of QSOs!  73, John, K4BAI.
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