[PaQSO] QRP & Pleasantries

[Larry G]

 Greetings All
              and thanks for bringing up some fine points.   My old call was
long and bad but when on paper it reminded people of someone else in this
wild world.    Then I finally decided on getting in the vanity frenzy and
submitted my list of calls.   I got my fifth choice and now I am glad I did,
N3CR.    Unfortunately,    CR also sounds like ZR and that isn't bad either
since on of my friends is W5ZR.   Anyway,  I am a believer in the "standard"
phonetics for clarity in moving messages.   And of course,  CHARLIE works
most of the time,   but for clarity (again)  I use  "CARBON RADIO"  (I can
feel people shuddering already).   Most would say egads he's back but at
least you know who you are talking to and what county you may expect.  Sorry
to say that may not be the case next year.   I am attempting to make plans
for one of those hard counties as a rover.   I often have to repeat my
callsign when not using phonetics  but I don't mind.   It used to be more of
a problem when K3CR was on the air,  I would get bounced as a dupe when I
was not.   Courtesy is giving your call often during a pileup.  If you have
one of those iffy callsigns,  make it unique in some way.  Years ago people
would have begged to hear a station like N3 Carbon Radio.
              Though my cw numbers are down,   this was my personal best.
I didn't  have long runs of pileups on 40 SSB and never did attempt running
a cw pileup this year ( I am not a cw contester) but the contacts are coming
a whole lot easier.  I did call CQ a few times but I am not quite up to 35
wpm yet!  This year my low antennas worked better than the ones at 40 ft.  I
have a whole arsenal to take on the road.    I am open for suggestions where
to go.  Somewhere where the number of Q's are way down,   perhaps ELK ??
Sometimes it's tough being Pa Dutch.
73s de Larry  N3CR
ex ka3afy
Carbon County

Good Day