The recent thread on CW speed is an interesting one.
When you are running in a contest, you are marketing your station.
"Hey, please come work me. In and out, fast and efficient.
I am a competent operator and we will be done as quickly as possible."
How do you get that message across? Here's some of the techniques
I use. Probably old news for 90% on this reflector, YMMV, IMHO, etc...
- Call CQ in short bursts.
If your doing S&P, you should be tuning quickly for stations. If you
hear "CQ TEST CQ TEST CQ TE..." hopefully you've tuned by that station!
- Find the "sweet spot" of CW speed for the contest you are in. Somewhat
contrary to the opinions here, I tend to keep my speed fairly
high, typically 35-37 WPM. Too slow (say below 27 wpm) and you'll run
into the same "long CQ" problem. Too fast, and you'll limit the
audience. However, I believe the top end of speed is somewhat open.
If you're a DXPedtion or rare QTH, you can use speed to modulate the
depth of a pileup. Faster is very good in you're managing a
packet-spot pileup.
Rarely do I slow down if a station is QRS. If they ASK for QRS, sure.
Otherwise, I assume they can copy me. Typical contest exchanges are
pretty simple, other than SS. Even that is not bad -- they can listen
to prior QSOs to get static information. It is a rite of passage for
a new contester to sit and listen to a station and figure out the call
which is above their current copying speed. Also, I get stations
responding to my 37WPM CQ with a straight key... copying me perfectly,
and replying with the technology they have.
Years ago, as a newbie, I remember listening for 15 minutes in an SSB
contest before I could get the callsign "KP4AST". A rite of passage,
the cost to get a new multipler.
- Send exchanges using your computer, if you have it. Nothing turns off
S&P stations in a hurry like mistakes. Even if you're a perfect
sender, use the key for fills only. Use the CQ time for other
tasks. We are all human, that's why we use computers!
Always remember you are marketing yourself. Have you ever noticed that
many of the perennial top 10 finishers in contesting work in marketing
in their professional lives? (Oh Oh, I'm an engineer :-( )
73 & HNY,
Gerry, W1VE/VE1RM
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