I have recently had an email from David, GW0OGI, complaining that his XYL had found out that his callsign had been spotted in the SOTA database on days that he was supposed to be in work! David is not currently a SOTA activator so he was a bit surprised!
Checking against my log, I realised a chaser had entered my callsign incorrectly, changing the 8 to a 0, thus saving his marriage
Last week I did a surprise activation near Edinburgh as GM8OGI/P. I was a bit put out when a couple of stations called me John, but hey, my memory’s not what it used to be either. When I got home and looked at the day’s spots however, I realised that in fact John GM8OTI/P had been on an hour earlier.
Sometimes I get called Gerald (G4OIG), GW8OIG, etc etc.
So please bear in mind:
GW0OGI is not currently a SOTA activator.
There are now several similar callsigns with O,I and G in them, please check which one you are working!!
Apologies to Monty Python… Would it cause less confusion if we were to call you Bruce? That’s you (OGI), Gerald (OIG), Roger (OWG) and John (OTI) that is!
It’s not an uncommon problem, I remember some confusion when I used to join the net after the 5 megs RSGB news, as another regular was G8ABB which without phonetics sounds like G8ADD.
You can imagine the number of times I have activated from a summit on 2m FM and been called “Alan” by the calling station! Especially in the early days of SOTA when Alan M1EYO (who sat his RAE in the same room as me in Harrogate) was the leading SOTA activator and the G Association Manager.
In reply to GW8OGI:
Hi…
We have the same problem here sometimes…
DL1DVE…Tom
DL2DVE…Andy
so sometimes if someone call me Andy i know he has the wrong call
In reply to M3EYP:
I have the same problem when on hf, my call is m0sgb name is steven, but a lot off stations get me confused with steven g0sgb, who a lot will know who is into lighthouses,
