I do that on FM repeaters and on the birds when I'm working with people who recognize my call sign or are likely to. I'll switch to phonetics if there is someone new to me or when I'm calling CQ
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Samudra Haque N3RDX Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 2:11 PM To: Tony Langdon Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org; Gary Lockhart; Eric Knaps,ON4HF 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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