WA7BNM, CW Sprint

[Bruce Horn]

NCJ North American Sprint - CW

Call: WA7BNM
Exchange: Bruce  CA
Team: S.Calif Contest Club #2
Low Power
All CW hand sent (it was painfully obvious)

Band   Q    Time
--------------------
 75   25     0:55
 40   33     1:18
 20   35     1:47
--------------------
      93  x  30  =  2,790

Comments:
  Yes, this score represents a full 4 hour effort. First time ever in CW
  Sprint. Horribly frustrating. Decided pre-contest that my goal was
  100 Qs. Five minutes into the contest, I wondered whether
  I'd finish with 20 Qs. Felt like a Fiat 600 in a Formula One race.

  The good news was there were lots of signals to choose from on all 
  three bands. The bad news was they all sounded like 100 wpm to me.
  I greatly appreciated those Sprinters (many with callsigns recognizable
  from the Contest and 3830 reflectors) who automatically QRSd to my
  sending speed. You guys are classy, and I hope all of you did well.

  Unfortunately, there are still a number of clueless contesters who
  would dump their call at 40 wpm after I'd just completed the exchange
  with a CQer at about 20 wpm. This only resulted in me turning the VFO
  dial and adding to my level of frustration. If they'd sent their call
  at a speed reasonably close to mine, we would both have had another Q.

73 de Bruce, WA7BNM   (bhorn at netcom.com)