I agree with the part about it being easier to find open spots on the bandmap
to run. It’s also a function of having panadapters that let you just point and
click to the empty spots.
However, there was no shortage of bug and straight key (or maybe they just
soldered a phone plug onto a piece of zip cord and touched the wires together
to send?) users who adopted the “a dash should be about 1.2 times longer than a
dot” when sending exchanges. I had one fellow who was S9+, but decided to send
serial number 9 as “009” with his straight key, and it took about five repeats
to figure it out. I sent “nr 9?”, and he sent “009” over and over, which also
could have been “090”, “099”, “090”, etc. This was hours into the contest, so I
couldn’t rule out anything. I sure won’t be surprised if the contact comes up
busted.
Then there were folks who when asked to repeat “PREC”, sent everything but
that. I got the entire exchange again twice, callsigns, “?” (probably a lot of
folks who don’t know what precedence is), and silence. I guess that’s why SS is
so challenging.
I still had a lot of fun. I could have won the whole thing if the sun hadn’t
gotten into my eyes. 😉
Eric NC6K
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2017 18:23:32 -0500
From: "Randy Thompson K5ZD" <k5zd@charter.net <mailto:k5zd@charter.net> >
To: 'Radio K?HB' <kzerohb@gmail.com <mailto:kzerohb@gmail.com> >,
"'CQ-Contest'"
<cq-contest@contesting.com <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com> >
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Be careful what you wish for
Message-ID: <008501d3568d$18529880$48f7c980$@charter.net
<mailto:008501d3568d$18529880$48f7c980$@charter.net> >
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
I was thinking the same thing. The bands just don't sound as crowded as I
remember them 20+ years ago. We sure miss all those 1x3 calls that used bugs
and had been doing SS forever.
Randy, K5ZD
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf
> Of Radio K?HB
> Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2017 4:39 PM
> To: CQ-Contest
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Be careful what you wish for
>
> Do you remember when you wished that it was easy to find a good clear
> QRG to run in SSCW?
>
> 73, de Hans, K?HB
> "Just a boy and his radio"?
>
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> CQ-Contest@contesting.com <mailto:CQ-Contest@contesting.com>
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