Yes, it's kind of a sad state of affairs but on FD you get a lot of ops,
not just contesters. It seems the VHF+ contesters generally are more
willing to work CW.
This FD our club station (K9CU) was in 4A category and I was the only CW
op there! We had no VHF SSB/CW setup. We did have an AO-40 setup and I
tried working some CW on it but without a sidetone on the rig or keyer it
got difficult.
As an anecdote, I worked Mike KH6ND on 20 CW and sat back to listen for a
bit. Mike generally goes at 40+ wpm. People were copying his call as
K5BND and one asked what state PAC was. It was good for a chuckle.
73, Zack W9SZ
On Fri, 4 Jul 2003, Mark wrote:
> I couldn't agree more!!!!
>
> I ran the VHF/UHF station for several hours during field day. After every
> Q, I asked for other bands and for CW Q's.
> Out of 150 q's on 6/2/432, I was able to manage 8 CW contacts as none of
> the stations had CW capabilities. Often times, when I asked for CW, the
> ops didn't respond or just ignored me and went back to CQ'ing.
>
> Historically, the VHF station is where the groups hide their weaker ops or
> the non licensed visitors. I understand not everyone knows or uses CW, but
> why have a great field day setup including VHF/UHF and no paddles at the
> station? Furthermore, I was not trying to move FM people, these were
> groups who set up beams and were all mode (except CW)!
>
> I was very surprised!!!
>
> Mark
> N9UM
>
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