Jim, and others,
Nice to see someone express this side. Contesting is
a sport, and you have to have the necessary skills to
compete, and one of those skills is CW (for a cw
contest). CW skills are learned by practice, and it
is possible to learn to copy 30 wpm or more
(regardless of what the ARRL and FCC believe). At one
time 20 WPM CW proficiency was required to operate in
certain parts of the CW band. Now that you can get an
extra class license with 5 wpm skill, don't expect
everyone on the CW bands to be running at 5 wpm.
Jim, you are exactly right about needing to USE cw to
get your code speed up. When I was a novice (before
the ARRL killed that license in favor of the shack on
a belt) I wanted to upgrade to general. I tried code
tapes, and failed the CW exam. How did I finally pass
the 13 WPM (no I didn't wait until 2000 and get
grandfathered in), I got on the air and made CW QSOs!
After doing that for around a year, I received a 25
WPM code certificate at the 1982 ARRL convention, and
that was before I even upgraded.
Yes it would be nice if we all slowed down for
everyone who calls us, and I try to do that, but you
need to have perspective on your skills and maybe work
on them. I don't have the loudest signal on the band
by any stretch of the imagination. In any contest
there will be stations that can't hear me. Do I take
my rig and go home, and write messages to the
reflector whining about how unfair it is? Well I
could, or I could figure out how to improve things at
the station to be better heard, and try to learn more
about propogation to improve my chance with certain
areas, or I could be content that I am not going to
work everyone and get over it.
BTW, why is it the big bad US that everyone runs to
when they cannot defend themselves against aggressors?
We're the bad guys until it comes to liberating
Kuwait, SOuth Korea, or stopping Nazis.
73s John NE0P
--- k4oj <k4oj@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> I been holding back...and it ain't been easy!
>
> Ya' know in the past day or two this thread about
> how some unknown guy
> SUPPOSEDLY unpacked his key and tried to work SS but
> got disgusted so he
> put it back in to the box and into the closet...well
> its hooey in my
> opinion.
>
> This is no different than the same crud I hear all
> day long on the cable
> news programs - about how Americans should feel
> sorry for causing other
> countries to act in a viscous and inhuman manor
> towards us in the Mean
> Olde USA and golly gosh it must be our fault as
> Americans that they do
> these terrible things...
>
> GET REAL
>
> This guy is not a CW op, he can barely copy CW and
> you believe that
> someone told him to "go awy" - I wonder if he could
> copy that much CW.
> He will show us though he is not going to operate
> CW so there...someone
> tell to take his ball and go home.
>
> a) I do not believe this person exists but is a
> figment of someone's
> imagination designed to voice a point of view
> without them having to say
> that they cannot handle SS CW because it is too
> fast.
>
> b) I made over 1300 contacts this weekend and NOT
> ONCE was I asked to
> QRS. There was one station high in the band who I
> called over and over
> again on Sunday lowering my speed 4 WPM at a time
> his response was
> clearly embarassment as I know I am loud into his
> area - he paniced.
>
>
> Does this mean we need to change CW contests? HELL
> NO! This is one of
> the few times we get to exercise our gray cells! If
> a CW contest is too
> hard for you - and you have tried going high up in
> the band so you are
> the highest frequency participant and you call CQ,
> and you have asked
> others to QRS (that means slow down) and still have
> no luck my guess is
> you are not transmitting on the same frequency as
> you are listening.
>
> Does this mean you, the nebie, give up on
> contesting, no - you get
> comfortable with the code first - how do you do that
> USE IT FOR CHRIST
> SAKE! Don't take the key out of the closet on
> contest weekends and
> expect that since it sitting on the operating table
> you are given
> copying ability!
>
> I refuse to believe a contester would not slow down
> for a slower guy -
> scores depend on making QSOs, if you throw away that
> QSO you are a jerk.
>
> I feel bad for all you guys who got sucked into this
> crap - then again,
> most of this audience is the easily impressioned
> American one which gets
> all its knowledge from the boob tube...therefore it
> must be true!
>
> New CW ops - work on your CW....
>
> Contesters - don't buy into this Politically Correct
> crap....
>
> REMEMBER ANYTHING WORTH DOING, IS WORTH DOING
> WELL...and that does not
> mean it is necessarliy easy to do - when you do
> learn it however you
> will feela sense of pride having mastered something
> that you had to work
> for.
>
> Contesting is not for cry babies, or guys who blame
> others for all their
> short comings!
>
> 73,
>
>
> Jim, K4OJ
>
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
>
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
=====
John Geiger
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Cameron University
Ham Call NE0P, active 160-23cm
Yaesu FT100D, Icom T81A, Clegg FM73 (220 MHZ FM)
Now on RTTY, PSK, Hellschreiber, MFSK16, JT44, and HSMS with WSJT
SMIRK 5768, 10X 67581, 6 club 497
5BWAS, DXCC, 2 VUCCs on 50 mhz (Iowa, Illinois)
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/
|