Samudra, I think that typically on FM repeaters, you should be able to understand the letters being spoken as easily as phonetics since there is usually so little noise on a local FM repeater as compared to a satellite signal where you are dealing with fading and QRM much of the time. BTW, thanks again for all your help during the Symposium.
Dave, AA4KN
----- Original Message ----- From: "Samudra Haque N3RDX" n3rdx@amsat.org To: "Tony Langdon" vk3jed@gmail.com Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org; "Gary Lockhart" gary_lockhart33@yahoo.com; "Eric Knaps,ON4HF" eric.knaps@telenet.be Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 5:10 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: FM satellite operations again again over Europe
I asked as I am still puzzled why in the US on local FM nets hams just use "n,3,r,d,x" instead of "november three romeo david x-ray".
On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 4:59 PM, Tony Langdon vk3jed@gmail.com wrote:
At 07:30 AM 10/14/2009, Samudra Haque wrote:
on a satellite QSO, is it traditional to say "A, B, C" instead of "Alfa Bravo Charlie" for brevity when referring to call signs and grid locators ?
That can backfire and waste time, due to people not understanding the letters. For example, my callsign under adverse conditions could be mis heard as (heard most of the following on terrestrial repeaters or IRLP/Echolink, let alone on the birds!):
VK3JEB VK3JD VK3JB VK3JEV VK3JV
And the list goes on.... ;) The overhead in asking for clarification or getting a correction outweighs the overhead of using phonetics in most cases. Once callsigns are confirmed, you can drop the phonetics (though usually by then, the QSO is over, so someone else can have a go ;) ). Phonetics are also more likely to survive brief bursts of QRM or brief fades.
73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL http://vkradio.com
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