Yet another peril of a "confusing" call sign

Activation Reports Issues/Errors
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As I have previously posted, I have been “ICQ” since the U.S. Federal Communications commission gave me WN8ICQ in 1970, changing to WB8ICQ when I upgraded my license. It’s been previously remarked on the Reflector (I can’t find the post, of course) that a callsign with “CQ” in it can be confusing to other operators, especially with a weak signal or adverse conditions. I now have another danger to report.

On Saturday, October 21, I was activating Fishhawk Mountain, W4C/WM-050. After working 20m and 40m, I moved to 30m. I spotted myself by SMS at 1711 UTC, and RBNhole spotted me at 1713. Meanwhile, far away and without any coordination with me, WC1N was activating W1/NL-019 on 20m and was spotted at 1712:

Screenshot 2022-10-25 first

When I was finished on 30m, I started chasing other activators for S2S QSOs. Seeing WC1N’s spot on SOTAwatch, I tuned up on 20m and gave him a call on his frequency, 14.063 MHz.

Apparently propagation wasn’t in our favor because Bob had trouble copying my callsign, and kept responding “?” to my calls. Finally I sent my callsign four times in succession: “WB8ICQ WB8ICQ WB8ICQ WB8ICQ”. That did it, Bob copied me and we were able to complete the S2S QSO.

But here’s the thing: apparently sending multiple repeats of a call containing “CQ” can confuse the software, too. When I was calling WC1N, somewhere a skimmer also copied me and the RBNhole system assumed I was calling CQ, because it spotted me about the same time it spotted WC1N again, and on almost the same frequency:

Screenshot 2022-10-25 2nd

Apparently it is not enough to worry whether another operator can decipher my callsign. Now I have to worry about the skimmers, too? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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I have learned that the station calling CQ in the pile on my frequency is actually WB8ICQ looking for an s2s. Haha.
73! Mike, WB2FUV

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Yep, Mike was another S2S contact that day. Hope to do it again, Mike!
73
Scott WB8ICQ

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I guess a callsign ending by BK or SK could also be confusing… :grinning:

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Who’d want a Swedish club call SK1CQ :wink:

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At the risk of boring you:-

There is an American naval ship with the callsign" KKUI = I’ve heard a recording of the ship passing traffic - it takes a while to work out which letters are the start and/or finish.

A number of RN coastal stations along the south coast had callsigns which could be confusing"-

MTI, MTN, MTO & MTK - all of these worked on the same frequency too.

And when I worked in Gibraltar my callsign, GYU was sometimes mistaken for GYX which was across the Med in Malta. Big ‘fun’ (not) if we were both transmitting/receiving at the same time!

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