[CQ-Contest] Re: copying weak signals was: K4OJ's problem

[Pete Smith]

At 03:19 PM 12/18/01 -0500, John Laney wrote:
>
>Someone should get the word out to Europeans that J is not a cut number
>for 1. A is the correct cut number for 1.  But, many Europeans seem to
>be sending J for 1 and I am always afraid it is really a 2 and I missed
>a dit.  But, all they will do is repeat J, so I have to eventually guess
>that they mean 1.
>
>I guess I understand ops who can't seem to count dots at high speeds,
>but it is amazing that there are so many who can't seem to count dashes
>at any speed.  Some (again mostly in Europe) even have their computers
>and keyers programmed to send their calls with impossible combinations
>of dots and dashes that don't add up to real letters or numbers.  After
>a few years, you can get so you recognize these guys and know what their
>calls really should be.  But, why do they create such problems for
>themselves?

I ran into a few guys this weekend who seemed to have a problem with their
T/R relays -- they seemed to start sending CW before RF was actually going
out.  Sometimes it was as much as a full dash's delay.  I know it wasn't on
my end because often I could hear band noise after turnover before they
started to send.

There's no excuse, though, for the self-proclaimed hotshots who go 35 wpm
with their weight set so light that the dots virtually disappear, or so
heavy that it's all one loooong mess.  Don't these folks ever listen to
their own sigs? 


73, Pete N4ZR
www.qsl.net/n4zr


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