On Mon, Nov 04, 2002 at 10:23:39AM -0600, Ford Peterson wrote:
> I've been working with a local fella on getting into "contesting."
> Everybody needs an elmer, so it seems. After much encouragement and proding
> on my part, he gave it a go on CW during SS. Below you will find his
> comments. I've scrubbed his name to eliminate any embarassment. Comments?
>
> Ford-N0FP
> ford@cmgate.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> > Well, that was fun. I tried tonight to make a few cw QSO's, just to get my
> > feet wet. Most of the stations were going way to fast for me. I did
> finally
> > find a couple that, after listening for a while, I was able to get their
> > call sign down. So, after they finished their CQ, I sent my call. I
> couldn't
> > get them to slow down enough to copy the other stuff, my repeated QRS's
> were
> > ignored. I finally quit when one guy slowed down enough to send "go awy".
> > Great group of hams out there. I hope others had better luck. Anyway, I
> > stuck my key back in the box.
I've operated the CW SS for several years from N5XU multi-ops, and it's
about the only CW contest operating I do all year, aside from occasional
CW QSOs in the VHF contests or hunting states in the ARRL 160. I can
go pretty comfortably at 17WPM now, but beyond that I get into trouble.
My experience is that trying to S&P is a complete waste of time. The
exchange is so long that the amount of time necessary to try to copy
enough bits and pieces to make the whole thing and have any hope of
getting the serial number right is too much. So, I always climb way up
to the top of the band and call CQ at 15WPM or 16WPM.
My experience calling CQ at 15 or 16 WPM in the CW Sweepstakes is that
almost nobody will slow down to meet my speed. Usually, I'm facing CW going
at over 20WPM, and at best someone will come down to 18WPM or so. This
year, I made very few QSOs because I had too much else going on over the
weekend, but I had one station call me at well over 30WPM. I called CQ again.
Again, he sends his call at well over 30WPM. We did this THREE TIMES before
he gave up. I had but one station answer my CQ at my own speed, and it was
the one station I didn't need to ask for a fill on the exchange.
I've done this for several years now, made several hundred QSOs in total,
enough to know that this year is no fluke. CW contesters in the Sweepstakes
will generally speaking not QRS, and when they do, they will not QRS all
the way down to match your speed if you're going under 20WPM. They will not
do this even if you are the one calling CQ and setting the expected speed.
They will not do this even if you are the one calling CQ and you explicitly
asked them to QRS.
Other contests may be less like this. The ARRL 160 Contest, for example,
I think is quite different. But CW SS is not a good contest for a QRS CW
operator - it is quite hostile.
--
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Kenneth E. Harker "Vox Clamantis in Deserto" kharker@cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin Amateur Radio Callsign: WM5R
Department of the Computer Sciences VP, Central Texas DX & Contest Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124 Maintainer of Linux on Laptops
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
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