For those with a difficult callsign I offer this advice

I’ve read on blogs more than a few retired professional radio operators say they would send at a speed appropriate for the conditions which meant they never (or rarely) had to repeat anything. I wish I had a pound [dollar, euro] for every time I’ve heard two high-speed CW stations having to repeat exchange of callsigns, etc.

I also wish I had a pound for the number of times someone on various SOTA threads has politely reminded a fellow blogger how activators have to be multi-tasking very often in adverse hilltop conditions. So, not matching the activator’s sending speed is not efficient nor clever. I realise the vast majority of chasers understand this but clearly a few don’t.

Hi Victor, I hope you’re talking ironically. I don’t think we need to take DX or contesting as our model for operating hilltop portable. I have many times arrived at the summit, raced to get the antenna erected, turned on the radio at spotted frequency, to hear someone (I suspect a potential S2S activator) going QRT. A final “G3ABC going QRT” or similar would at least give me the chance to call him/her or give me certainty that I was too late.

Andy, You should use my patented paddle-in-winter-jacket-pocket method. It’s worth the royalty fee for the sake of your arthritic fingers.

Former ships radio officer and good fried Dave G3UFO (sadly now SK) said all his commercial traffic was worked at just 15wpm. Then he emphasised, of course it was plenty fast because all traffic was sent / received accurately first time. NEVER needed to repeat anything.

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This conversation reminds me how ridiculous I found a chaser in my last activation when he was sending his own callsign much faster than he could handle and even when he did it wrongly everytime of the 5 or 6 times he tried it, he never QRSed. He kept trying it at that high speed and kept doing it wrongly.
I was working at 21 or 22 WPM and I did it that way, not because I can’t send and receive faster, but because I find it appropiate for a QRP SOTA activation. I have been a contester and have the ability to copy callsigns at a real fast speed and I could perfectly guess the callsign that this ham wasn’t been able to send correctly. He should have sent his callsign just once but correctly at a speed he can properly handle, instead of sending it 5 or 6 times too fast but always wrongly.
Sending morse faster doesn’t make an operator better, but sending wrongly fast morse does make an operator worse.
73,

Guru

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Hi Guru,

I’m guessing of course, but maybe he had been listening to your previous QSOs all at 21-22 wpm and felt he had to match that speed.

I know the situation myself when I hear a station calling CQ at a higher speed than at which I feel comfortable, and I’m thinking, Should I call him at my lower speed and hope he matches it or will he continue at that faster speed and I’ll be struggling to copy anything?

Considerate operators like you do slow to match but many don’t.

73 Andy

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Hi all
and what about an call sign ending in two K !
This is why I often send my call sign 2 times!
Sometimes the station called believe copy F5JK K if I call once :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Foxtrot Five Japanese with two Kilowatts :wink:
73 Éric

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Hi Andy,
I consider 21WPM a rather slow speed compared with the common speeds used by DX-peditioners, contesters and most of the daily traffic in our bands these days. At the same time, I consider it not too fast and relatively copiable by those who are working on their morse and usually work at speeds of around 17WPM. For those starting and working at around 10WPM, my 21 WPM will no doubt be too much, but I believe it’s not very practical to the vast majority running a SOTA activation at 10-12 WPM. It’s too slow.
The ham I was referring to had a 2 letters preffix and 2 letters suffix and I have been chased by him before. He probably feels like being able to send that fast (nearly 28-30WPM) will impress others going slower (like me that day and most of the days) but he produced the opposite effect due to making so many mistakes everytime he tried to send his own callsign.
Increasing owns sending speed should always be done very little by little and in accordance to ones receiving ability. If one produces many mistakes when sending at a certain speed, that means his ability to send at that high speed is not yet achieved and a slower one is still necessary, without that being something to be ashamed of, just the contrary.
It’s far more impressive when someone sends a slower but perfect morse than a faster but plagued with mistakes one.
I congratulated some days ago a YL I had a ragchewing QSO with on 80m, for the great quality of the morse code she was sending with a straight key. That was trully admirable and the speed wasn’t too hight, neither needed to be.
73,

Guru

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Hi Éric,
I agree with you. Callsigns ending in K have always been a source of doubts and possible mistakes. Should I ever had such a callsign, I would have applied for a different one :wink:
73,

Guru

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Yes, that is what I was told in 1969 when I was issued with G8CXK, but of course at that time this was a “lowly” “B” licence and for use on 144MHz and higher frequencies and phone only. How times have changed in the UK licencing system with those of us that have moved on to “A” licences through the taking of the 12wpm morse test being permitted to buy back our old callsigns. I now use my old call on CW with the potential of the receiving station thinking that I have passed the transmission over, but this has never happened to me… and why? Well portable operation to the rescue. The /P quite literally puts that concern to an end! :grinning:

73, Gerald G4OIG / G8CXK

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Yes, but only as long as one is activating, not when chasing with a callsign ending in K.
Cheers,

Guru

I empathise Andy. I have Raynaud’s syndrome and using a paddle on the hills would be a nightmare. It is hard enough handling a straight key operating in sub-zero temperatures sheltering from horizontal driving sleet! I am forever grateful for the patience of chasers when I make a mash of sending.

I never chase with my G8 call Guru. It is only used for special activities such as 70cm and 23cm contests and activations where I have already activated the summit with my G4 call.

73, Gerald G4OIG / G8CXK

Hi Guru, you and I discussed Morse speeds a while ago and I agreed with you then that activators should go at whatever speed they want for the conditions and that gets them the contacts. Obviously, high speed has the advantage of getting through a lot of QSOs. I operate CW mainly on 30m and 60m where pile-ups are the exception and my slower speed doesn’t increase my on-air time by much.

I completely agree. And it’s a pleasure to listen to. The worse thing I find is where the sender leaves no gaps between words.

When I took my Morse test (mid 1990’s) the examiner complemented me on the accuracy of my SK sending. I put this down to lots of listening to Morse Code cassette tapes (showing my age here!) and unconsciously imitating it. After 15+ years of using iambic paddles, my SK sending is not good. I’ve been practising a bit on a straight key recently and it’s starting to come back. But I can’t imagine using a SK again very often – it’s so much more effort.

Smart move, so you don’t have to worry about the final K.
Cheers,

Guru

Gerald,
Did you really have to pay money to re-use your old callsign?

When I got my Class A licence (M0ALC) I continued to pay for the old licence (G8CPZ) as well for many years until OfCom made them all free-of-charge. Which is one reason why many like me and Andy (MM0FMF) resent calls to scrap holding of multiple licences.

Indeed Andy… all of £20 to cover admin costs; the date 10th December 2009. When I got my “A” call in 1982, you had to give up your “B” call… and if memory serves me correctly, the licence documentation had to go back to the licensing authority, backed up by the fact that I don’t have it on file.

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I got my “A” in 2002 I think. Back then they still cost money each year (£15) and “B” licences were VHF only. I used to use both as there was no longer a requirement to give the “B” up, just pay for it.Then I found I was only using the “A” and was going to give the other up as it was 2/3rd the cost of a bottle of Scotch being wasted. But they became free for life. I must dig about in logs to find when the “B” was last on the air… maybe 2008. I hold 2 club calls… one was an old friend who is SK. By having it as a club call, a number of his friends can use it when they want to “keep him alive”. The other is MS0TA which is a club call to allow an S inside it for obvious reasons and so I don’t have to key MM0 which sounds rubbish in Morse. (As is my sending!)

I was living in Scotland when I got my MM0ALC callsign and would nearly fall asleep at my straight key by the time I had sent MM0

It could be worse - there’s a M0OOO in the callbook.

And even worse if this ham goes to live in Scotland and one day decides transmitting from a yatch off shore: MM0OOO/MM :scream:

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This is about people keying to fast to send the appropriate cal?
Hey I can do that via Voice!!!

Yeah: speak too fast, use non-standard phonetic alphabet, speak too quietly / too far from the mic, or not shield the mic from wind noise.