When I got back on the birds a few years ago, I was surprised as to the exchanges commonly made while a 'rare' grid was on.
Here's the format commonly used when a 'rare' grid or country, etc. is on:
"CQ W4AS Echo Lima 84" W4AS, W4AS this is W1ABC" "W1ABC this is W4AS in Echo Lima 84" Roger W4AS, thanks for Echo Lima 84, I'm in Fox Nancy 20 "QSL W1ABC in Fox Nancy 20, this is W4AS in Echo Lima 84"
First, there is no reason why anyone should repeat the call sign of the station in the 'rare' grid during a pileup. And sending the grids phonetically over and over is a waste of time as well. The only grid that's important in the above exchange, is the 'rare' grid, the others aren't.
Why don't we use a modified form of the exchanges that are commonly used on HF?
"CQ W4AS Echo Lima 84" pileup "the station with ABC come again" W1ABC FN20 "W1ABC thanks, QRZ" pileup "W2ABC I have you, QRZ" pileup "W3ABC you're in the log; W4AS Echo Lima 84 QRZ" etc.
These exchanges are common on HF. When the station in the 'rare' grid is on, they need to take control. If that person calls a particular station, and doesn't hear them, ask for a repeat and say you are only listening for that call sign. If that call sign isn't heard, then say "sorry no copy on ABC; QRZ". At no time should the 'rare' grid station acknowledge someone else when they are specifically calling a particular station; that just leads to chaos.
Comments?
73 de Sebastian, W4AS
On Oct 2, 2011, at 11:48 AM, N0JY wrote:
Being a "rare" grid (FL66) at the time everybody wanted to work, but a lot more people got to work because everybody was courteous and waited for the short QSO exchange to be completed. Even though my callsign VP9/N0JY/MM felt like about a 10 second mouthful... :-)