On Sun, 16 Feb 1997, Charles L. Stackhouse wrote:
> Greetings from Idaho,
> I used this weekend's ARRL DX contest as a chance to improve my code
> speed. I am just about ready to take my 20wpm test. I worked up to about
> 32-35 wpm contest exchanges (that is what my CMOS II keyer said it was set
> on) and noticed improvement in my copying ability after a few dozen QSO's.
> Then I heard a station (?VP2EV) really ripping along. It took literally
> dozens of times before I copied his call and worked him ( I confess that I
> wasn't running QRP). Any hints on how to copy a call in a contest when it
> is just too fast? How about tricks with a tape recorder or whatever? Or
> should you give up after a dozen or so tries? 73, Charlie
> WA2IPZ qrp-l 362
>
This is where I add my 2 cents worth! Along the lines of VP2EV ripping
along, I too worked this guy. Believe me, he had to have smoke comming
off of his fingers!! But what I noticed was, he wasn't making a
tremendous amount of Q's. The name of the game in a contest is SCORE!!
To achieve that score, you must make a massive amount of Q's!! When an
operators sending speed exceeds the level of the average ham, he
sacrifices alot of Q's that could be in the log. I suppose the average
contester sends somewhere between 25 to 35 wpm. If you listen to these
ops, they are making alot of Q's, WITHOUT alot of repeats! When an
operator exceeds that speed of the average op, he puts himself into a
different catagory. That is a catagory where only the really
mega-high-speed ops can work him comfortably. The others have to sit
back and just try to copy his call! I must believe there are tons of
average ops, compared to the few mega-ops! Please don't misunderstand
me. I have nothing against high speed ops. I just feel, if a high speed
op wants to make the most CW Q's in a contest, he needs to turn the speed
down a bit! As proof of this, we had a VERY good CW op join us for field
day. He was very capable of sending and copying high speed CW. The only
problem was that those trying to work us, were having trouble. We were
having to give too many repeats of info. So, we told this op to turn his
speed down (much to his reluctance) and the Q's started to flow into the
log! I will be anxious to see VP2EV's final score. It may be
impressive, but I am positive it could be a trophy winner if he turned
down the heat a bit!!
73,
Randy - KD8JN
P.S. If you must flame, please flame directly to me so as not to clutter
up the reflector! TNX!! :-)
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