Great post Bob..thank you for stating So well
73,
Gary K9GS
-------- Original message --------From: "Bob Shohet, KQ2M" <kq2m@kq2m.com>
Date: 11/30/17 10:01 AM (GMT-06:00) To: Adam Mercier <adam@kenbrio.com>,
Gerry Hull <gerry@yccc.org> Cc: cq-contest@contesting.com Subject: Re:
[CQ-Contest] CW slow? No problem
The best and most-experienced contesters adjust their sending speed to the
conditions, activity level and number of callers depending on where their
antennas are pointed. Their energy level is high and their senses keen and
they adjust constantly as necessary to maximize their score. They are not
looking at getting EVERY single qso but rather making decisions on getting the
greatest number of qso’s at a given point in time and within a given time
interval. The super fast pileup callers and/or “showoffs” will be too
impatient with a slow DX cq speed and the slower paced guys will be miffed with
a faster speed. That’s life – you can’t please everyone.
The best ops are aware of all of this and are making these decisions constantly
even if you and others are not aware of them and their thought processes. Just
like they have operating decisions to make constantly, so do you. You can
improve your skill and speed up, you can choose to call them or not, or you can
call them at a speed with which you are comfortable and take your chances; or
not. You have all of those choices.
I was once a slow speed op (back in my very early Novice days). I looked upon
the big and fast DX ops with awe at their skill. I made a decision that it was
up to me to improve my skill and speed until I was as good as them or better;
not that they had to slow down for me. I spent the time and made the effort
necessary to do that. Were they initially irritated with me and my slow
speed? Sure, some of they probably were; but they best ops were not because
they knew I was trying and they were happy with the qso. Was I irritated with
them? Sure, I didn’t like the attitude of some of the speedy guys who
intentionally were sending too fast for me, but I realized that working DX was
fun and that the more I operated the sooner my speed and confidence would
increase – I quickly got over my irritation by channeling that energy into
improving my skill – just the same way that you or anyone else can, if they
want to.
One of the most interesting things that I have learned after making some
900,000+ contest q’s over the past 44 years, is that often the copying ability
of a particular station has almost no correlation with the speed at which they
send – especially with EU ops. Back before code readers and keyboard sent cw,
I would call cq between 32 – 40 wpm and often a weak EU station would come back
at ~ 20 wpm. I would send the report at 32 – 40 wpm and they would almost
always copy it – the first time. No asking for repeats or “QRS?”. I would
have been happy to oblige but it was not necessary. They simply either did not
want to send at my speed or could not send that fast but they could and did
copy my speed. :-)
Now, for me currently, the greatest advantage of speed is to thin the pileup.
With the majority of packet tuners zero beat on each other in a massive audio
blur, I simply turn up the speed until the pileup thins and then I turn it back
down as I work some of the loud guys off the top. I want to encourage slower
ops to call but I won’t hear them through 50 louder zero-beat callers. The
SMARTEST ops know think about HOW and WHERE the pileup is calling and do the
opposite. If the fast, loud guys are zero-beat, the smart guys call more
slowly at the edges of a pileup, especially at the low edge where there cw note
is lower in pitch and stands out better. When I use my 500/2000 cw filter
split (I only use cascaded 500hz in crowded cndx) I hear them first EVERY
time! I listen for them! Sure – not every listens the way that I do, but the
best ops often do.
If cndx are marginal and/or there are few callers, I will slow down to ~ 24 –
28 wpm. But that is from stateside – in CQWWCW with an almost endless stream
of callers to someone who maybe the only opr. in the country in the contest,
slowing down is silly 98% of the time, even if it offends someone.
Please take this reply in the spirit in which this intended – as educational
and instructional. I hope that you will work to improve your cw skill and
speed – we want and need everyone to participate – and I hope that DX ops will
likewise think about slowing down more often as their operating conditions
permit.
73
Bob KQ2M
From: Adam Mercier
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2017 10:01 AM
To: Gerry Hull
Cc: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] CW slow? No problem
Does high-speed CW have a place in contesting? Absolutely! I don’t think
anyone would argue that. However, I think you’d agree that CQing with no
answers (which happens to even the mega-stations later in the contest) is, in
fact, unproductive points-wise. I’m not suggesting that you’re “doing it
wrong” or even that you need a major strategy adjustment. My position is
simply that it’s mutually beneficial to QRS and complete the QSO with the
slower stations when your rate is low. How much time does that take? If you
log a QSO when you otherwise wouldn’t, does it matter? A fact I CAN claim is
that there are several fast stations who do not have my call in their logs
because they wouldn’t QRS. At the elite level they are working at, when the
scores are tallied and competitors are close, those single missed Qs make a
difference. Maybe my Q is only worth one or two points on its face, but with
the loads of multipliers already in the log for the 20M+ scores, it may
actually be worth more to your score.
From a philosophical standpoint, your assertion that us slower ops essentially
need to keep up or get out of the way is interesting...If there is no place in
CW contests for us average Joes, eventually it might just be the powerhouses
that all work each other in the first few hours of the contest and you’ll have
a perpetual tie. Where’s the fun in that?
Just my observation...
Adam, KM7N
Sent from my iPhone
> On Nov 30, 2017, at 05:49, Gerry Hull <gerry@yccc.org> wrote:
>
> While 45 might seem a bit excessive, guys like ZF2MJ and TI7W, known
> World-class contesters, were using speeds like that. As a run op at an M/2,
> I spent 95 percent of my CQ time at 40 WPM and backed down to 38 at times.
> I did not feel it was non productive.
>
> Fast CW is impearitive to make 20 to 30 million point scores. Also,
> To make those scores, the operators on the other end of the pile must
> Be able to copy.
>
> So. if your CW speed does not cut it, listen to QSOs until you copy.
> Fast CW can and will be a part of these contests. Attempting to claim it
> is non productive is disproven by the facts.
>
> 73, Gerry W1VE
>
>
>
>
>> On Tue, Nov 28, 2017 at 1:34 PM K9MA <k9ma@sdellington.us> wrote:
>>
>> I completely fail to understand why so many operators insist on calling
>> CQ at 45 wpm, when no one is coming back. (There were lots of them last
>> weekend, especially from zone 33.) This seem entirely
>> counterproductive. Not only does it discourage operators who aren't
>> comfortable at that speed, but it also makes the call impossible to copy
>> under some conditions for even the best operators. Isn't a slow QSO
>> better than no QSO?
>>
>> 73,
>> Scott K9MA
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