[3830] NA Sprint CW K8CC HP

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                    NA Sprint CW Contest

Call: K8CC
Operator(s): K8CC
Station: K8CC

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: MI
Operating Time (hrs): 4

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Op Time
---------------------
   80:   99        
   40:  123        
   20:  100        
---------------------
Total:  322    Mults = 52  Total Score = 16,744

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Team: MRRC

Comments:

While I agree with the near-universal sentiment that the Sprint is the best
contest there is, I've never been very good at it.  A lot of guys seem to have
become hams, discovered the Sprint and how to do the big scores all the while
I've been flailing away for 300 QSOs.  My hats off to the skillful ones.

Nonetheless, this Sprint was a personal best for me in QSOs and mults,
regardless of the month.  Hours were 86, 78, 75, 83.  SO1R - you'd think with a
multi-multi full of radios and a TopTen box I could have been SO2R QRV.  Maybe
next time...

The 40M start filled in a lot of close-in mults and got the adrenalin pumping. 
20M did not sound good.  My low (60') 5L 20 ripped it's coax off again so I was
left with the 120' antenna and a 204BA @ 80' fixed SE.  Signals were slightly
fluttery and not many were loud, which I attribute to the lack of a more
moderate height antenna.

Was surprised to have almost 40 mults in the log by the end of the first hour. 
By the end, the only ones missing were ME, AR, ND, VE1, VE2, VE6, VE7 & VE8. 
Yes, VY1JA answered a 20M CQ towards the end of the second hour, and VE9DX did
the same on 80M in the last hour.  Got NP4Z on one band, plus XF1K on all three
bands.

Man, when you can get into the "Sprint Couplet" rhythm, there is no better
feeling for a CW contest.  Congrats to everyone who has learned to do it
right.

My only complaint is that there are a LOT of people not confirming the QSO.  My
feeling is that at least some of the confirmations get lost in the VOX delay. 
Come on guys - not all of us have QSK at the KW level - give us a break and
pause more than a millisecond after our RF stops to sent your dit, "R", or
whatever.

I listened to the end of quite a few QSOs where both sides were S9 to me in the
clear and station #1 NEVER sent a confirmation.  It's pretty obvious that in the
push for big QSO counts, many people are tuning off for their next QSO once they
copy the number.  K9TM had the idea to thwart this by using a different name on
every band (correctly recorded in the Cabrillo file, of course).  It's either
that, or throw out every QSO where you had no confirmation and let the culprit
take the NIL penalty (rather drastic unless you're running QSK or
computer-controlled PTT with no delay).

OTOH, I want to publicly commend K4AAA for sending a clear confirmation for each
of our three QSOs.  If Bill can do it and make 400+ QSOs, you can too.

73,

Dave/K8CC


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