I'll second Chris' comments. I can usually handle 30 and a little plus in a
contest, but I don't do much CW ragchewing anymore and I never could handle
much over 22 wpm in general conversation. And at I my age of coming up on 80,
I'm not inclined to practice much anymore. I don't do 2 or 440 on repeaters
anymore either so that is not the excuse even though I still have a dual band
handheld -- don't even remember last time probably at least a couple of years
ago.
Being very limited with antennas if asked to go to 40 when I've been on 10, 15,
and 20 means a trip to back yard to change the whip on my tripod.
Still enjoy giving another contact to "the big boys" as I S&P around the bands
in a limited fashion.
73,
Byron, WN4R
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Plumblee <chris.plumblee@gmail.com>
To: Georgek5kg <Georgek5kg@aol.com>
Cc: fcg <fcg@kkn.net>; CQ-Contest <CQ-Contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Sun, Feb 24, 2013 4:56 pm
Subject: [FCG] PSE QSY - Deer in headlights
Speaking only for myself, I'm one of those ops who is not ready for
conversational cw at 30+ wpm. I'm not really ready for it at 24wpm in the
middle of a contest, if I'm being totally honest.
Many ops today who are relatively casual are not ready for non-standard
requests when s&p. some don't have antennas readily available for all
bands. Others don't want to bother breaking good s&p rate for a move (s&p
on a virgin band can easily yield 100/hr rates, assisted or unassisted).
The best way that I've found in NAQP is to simply send something in place
of TU that goes something like
{HisCall} QSY 28030?
Those who are going to get it will get it from a short message (I concur
with Lu that the percentage is 10-15% at the high end). Sending more and
being prepared to explain things with the paddle doesn't result in more
successful moves, just more frustration.
As for the more philosophical question of why it's the case that more
people aren't prepared for QSY requests, I think the answer is in the
efforts to bring young people and non-cw ops into cw contesting. Younger
people do not have the history of novice-band cw chats to build their
conversational cw, and I'm loving proof that it's possible to copy cw fast
enough to handle 32-36wpm exchange elements while still being hopeless at
rag chewing at much slower speeds.
73, Chris WF3C
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