cqww dx contest exchange

[k5jyd]

Next week end is the cqww dx contest and I will attempt to make a few cw contacts with my simple station on the low bands for the most part.What would be the best exchange to use when making a contact? Once I hear my call sign should i come back with his call followed by 5994 de k5jyd, tu or just the 5994 de k5jyd or perhaps just 5994 tu ?What would be best to program in my memory keyer if i choose to use one? Any tips?
tu de K5jyd http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[WA3KYY]

The station you are answering is going to send "your call 5nn xx" where "xx" is their zone. A lot of stations will just respond with "5nn xx" but "their call 5nn xx" would also be appropriate.

If you are going to program your keyer, I would have two messages

tu 5nn 4

5nn 4

The latter if you are asked for a repeat although most often they will only just need your zone repeated, so you may want

04 04 04 04 instead

73 es gl,
Mike WA3KYY

[dj1yfk]

I have to second what Mike says. Just send report and zone, do not repeat your callsign, unless the other station copied it wrong.

If you put yourself in the situation of the station you have just called, you'll see that repeating your own callsign (although copied correctly) on the one hand is a waste of time (and in a contest every second counts), and on the other hand it might make the other station think, he miscopied your callsign. If your signals are very weak, that might lead to confusion, the other station might copy your callsign with an error on the second try, etc..

Hope to see you in CQWW, I'll be SOAB HP with SO2R.

[NN3W]

5NN 4

[K3STX]

YFK makes a very important point! If the DX station thinks he has your call right, by you sending your call AGAIN signals that he might, in fact, have it WRONG! This does indeed cause confusion. So just send "tu 5nn 4". If, on the other hand, he DOES have your call wrong, you have to correct it. When he turns it over to you, send "de K5JYD 5nn 04". By sending "de K5JYD" (maybe a little slower and with extra spaces between the K5JYD and 5nn) he will have time to edit your call in his computer.

With low power on the low bands you can make dozens of contacts. Include 20 meters and it can be hundreds.

Have fun.

paul

[cu2jt]

If you work me (and you will if you hear me...) I'd prefer something like

CU2JT 5NN 4

so I am sure you're working me.

This is not a big problem on CW but it could be on SSB on 40 and 80m. Suppose I call "CQ contest listening 7263" and there is a German station somwhere else giving the same listening frequency. If the station responding is not mentioning my call sign, how can I know if he is working me or the German ?

[n0iu]

When in S&P mode, I send TUDE NØIU 5NN4. Yes, seconds do count but this does not release you from your obligation to identify your station.

Scott NØIU

[K9STH]

Actually, under the present regulations you MUST send your call at the end of the exchange (this is one of the reasons that I petitioned the FCC for a rule change). Now most stations "forget" to do this, but it is definitely a violation of the present 47 CFR Part 97 section 97.119 regulations not to send your call at the end.

My exchange would be (to comply with present identification regulations):

599 04 K9STH

I have found that it is best to send "04" insteal of "4" as the zone. It takes less than a second more but also results in fewer requests for repeats.

Actually, like most stations, I would probably send

5NN T4 K9STH

which uses the "shorthand" "N" in place of "9" and "T" in place of "0" in the actual exchange.

Glen, K9STH

[NN3W]

Ya know, I was waiting for this post to appear, and sure enough, it appeared.

Aren't there bigger issues in amateur radio to worry about? How about illegal operators? How about the encroachment of BPL operators? How about illegal sales of amateur gear to CBers?

No. We're concerned with a wholly insignificant issue of IDing after every exchange.

Did you know that under Glen's rationale, every time you sent "dit dit" after completing a QSO, you're violating Part 97?

Did you know that under Glen's rationale, every time you say "OK John, see you at the meeting, N1XYX, 73," you're violating Part 97?

Did you know that under Glen's rationale, every time you say "This is K4LTT calling CQ and standing by," but you don't get an answer and you just spin the knob, you're violating Part 97?

C'mon. Waste. of. time.

[WB2WIK]

I prefer "599 04" to "5994" or "599 4."

The zone is two possible digits, and when the first one isn't used, I prefer to hear and send a 0 there instead of nothing.

It might seem this wastes the time of sending the leading zero, but I've found over years of contesting it probably saves time with fewer requests for repeats.

This is especially important when a station is operating from outside his "home call" CQ zone, such as I am! And lots and lots of others. Stations operating portable just for the contest can be almost anywhere and copying the zone correctly is important. The contest logging programs will often just "fill in" the other station's zone based on either his last known location or the presumption that the station is really in his home zone, neither of which may be correct and then that field must be overwritten.

WB2WIK/6

[K9STH]

3W:

It is my interpretation that sending your call during your last transmission complies with the present regulations.

As for sending "dit dit": Frankly, this is a carry over from the late 1950s when some Novice Class operators started sending the CW equivalent of "shave and a hair cut, two bits". Some stations would send only "dit dit dit dit dit" and wait for someone else to send "dit dit" before sending any call sign at all. Sometimes the original station would send this numerous times before someone would reply. This was illegal back then and is still illegal today. Now for sending "dit dit" at the end of a QSO after sending your callsign is NOT illegal, at least in my opinion. However, it is still, again in my opinion, not the best practice. But, there are definitely those who do this on a regular basis. I don't comdemn them for doing so, but I never send "dit dit" (and never have in over 47 years of operating).

As I keep saying, the primary reason that I submitted my petition for changing back to the "olde tyme" identification regulations is to legalize what has become routine in DX and contest exchanges. That is, the failure of stations to identify during their last transmission. No matter how you interpret the present regulations the requirement to identify at the end of the exchange is now required and that means during your LAST transmission. The old regulations did away with the requirement to identify at the end of the exchange so long as the entire series did not take more than 3 minutes. This definitely takes care of the VAST majority of DX and contest exchanges.

Glen, K9STH

[cu2jt]

How about all those tuner-uppers that don't identify themselves when they are satisfied with the settings ? Most likely, they are not even listening on the frequency they choosed to tune up on.

[K9STH]

JT:

Similar complaints have been being made since at least the 1920s! Take a look at the letters to the editor in QST over the past 8 decades.

Glen, K9STH