[CQ-Contest] 30000 Sections and Slow Folks

[Ward Silver]

> You should get a coffee urn for working 30000 sections.  Along that line I 
> always thought a great contest would be on in which you worked zip codes for 
> multipliers. Final score is zips time qsos.  What say?
>
> Bill K4XS

That's one prize you'd really have to "urn".  Sorry...

And...

> I've been working with a local fella on getting into "contesting."
> Everybody needs an elmer, so it seems.  After much encouragement and prodding
> on my part, he gave it a go on CW during SS.  Below you will find his
> comments.  I've scrubbed his name to eliminate any embarassment.  Comments?
> 
> Ford-N0FP

Were we were all born sending 45 wpm with a silver key in our fists?  I think not!

Just consider - if a 10 wpm QSO takes six times as long as usual to complete, it might displace 20 or 30 of those marvelously productive "CQ SS" we all sent about, oh, three thousand times on Sunday with no response whatsoever.  On the other hand, the potential for THOUSANDS of CW contacts has now been effectively removed from the contest community.

Yes, I fidgeted through a dozen or so really S-L-O-W contacts, but I didn't lose my frequency.  One was a needed multiplier from the Midwest.  On two, somebody sent "?" over the QSO, but I was able to send "AS" right back at 35 wpm and never missed a beat.  I would have loved to have more slow folks call in on Sunday when the bands were full of CQ machines (mine included).

Please - choke down the adrenaline just a tad and get some perspective on what it must be like to try to enter our sacred CW lovefests.  You, too, were once slow and poked along at 13.001 wpm.  But it didn't kill the Gods of Contesting to slow down for your one measly QSO filled with errors and repeats.

There is nearly always room in the contest for the new, the old, the casual.  It's not the Olympics.

73, Ward N0AX at K7IR


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