Been reading the mail and comments about the sprint, and am
relieved to hear I'm not the only one humbled by the format of the
contest, or alone in verbally shaking my head about it.
This was my first sprint, and it certainly is different from
the other (mostly CW) contests I've participated in before. It has
its own rhythm, and requires a high level of focus continuously. One
cannot enter this one fatigued and expect to do well.
I used the NA logging program, which I like but had only
limited experience with previously, and the pace of the contest very
quickly brought home my inexperience with it. I have always used
a key or keyer for contests, but can appreciate that using the keying
feature of the NA program or a memory keyer could be a real advantage.
The pace of this contest keeps the neophyte unbalanced, and for me
that translated to a lot of QLF CW, which was personally embarassing,
as well as a couple of duped calls late in the contest, which I again
am usually able to avoid. I apologize to those stations for wasting
their time and thank those who were patient with me along the way. I
also tackled this in the low power category, and that probably cost me
several Q's, not that I was ever a challenge to anyone. I think I'll
give high power a try next time around.
I really did marvel at the smooth efficiency that so many of
the top scorers displayed. This is certainly a venue which displays
mastery of contesting technique dramatically, and I came away most
impressed. It was a super opportunity to learn by observing - in
fact, listening to a really polished operator in this contest is a
bit like listening to a Mozart symphony - the technique is so dazzling
that you get caught up in it until half a dozen stations have passed
across the frequency and several precious minutes have passed and you
suddenly realize that - oops - you too are in the contest and you'd
better get back to it.
At any rate, a good experience. I'll look forward to the next one.
Vy 73, Don W4ZYT
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