[CQ-Contest] Unsportsmanlike?

[Mike Brown]

I'll have to admit that I let myself get in a bad frame
of mind durring CW SS and spent a lot of time 
doing other things. I'm not a 5 wpm extra. I passed
my 20 wpm test back in 86. But, I didn't use cw
much after that. I even had about a 5 year period
where I didn't even own a rig or operate. Who is
to blame for that? Must be that guy I see in the
mirror every day.

I am no cw whiz period, but I also am too stuborn
to lay down and give up. My Plan A was to go
high in the band and call CQ at 20 wpm. I thought
that most would answer at that speed. Some did,
and some didn't. Well, here's another mistake I
made. I should have sent QRS instead of hitting
F9 on TRLog to send the "?".  Looking back, 
another mistake I made. 

Contests like the ARRL 160 are a lot easier for me,
since the exchange is really short. SS requires
one to be more "on the ball" then any other
contest due to the longer exchange. I did use the
TR simulator some, and felt I was doing halfway
decent, not great, but not terrible, running it at
around 24-26 wpm. Well, all well and good, but
perfect code, with no background noise, no qrm
no qrn is quite a bit different then when you go
to the rig. 

The "wait and get the info, then call" idea is fine.
I should have done more of that. The only problem
with that is, if the station you want to work is 
cq'ing and not getting any response, then you
have a problem because you can spend a lot
of time there waiting. When I ran into this
situation, with guys going probably 30 wpm+
I would send my call at around 20 and I assumed
they would send the exchange close to my 
speed. And yes, I did have the call of the
station before calling.  Well, my mistake
here was assuming that station would come
down to my level. Well, looking back on that
technique, that means I was assuming that
operator could read my mind. Well, that is
not always going to work. Some did, and I
appreciate that. But, I don't feel the stations
that came back at high speeds were in the
wrong. Again, I could have used QRS and
more then likely, they would have sent the
exchange slower. Again, my mistake.

Well, I could whine and blame the other guy
and never try another CW SS again. But, I
have another plan. Buy a set of paddles
(I've relied on the pc for all my sending)
and get on the air a lot more often. 
Yes, I'm sure I'll make a lot of mistakes
before I get the hang of using them. And 
I'll no doubt be going slow, at least until 
I learn to use them. Sure, I'll use the pc
durring most of the contest, but there
are times when it would be easier to
just use the paddles instead of taking
the time to put the program in keyboard
mode. 

Does this mean next year I'll do better? 
Well, I hope so, but, even if it doesn't, I'm
sure I'll feel better about it, since I'm not
going to do what I did this year, and that
is get frustrated and quit. I was mad at
myself, and beat myself menatally. I'm
going to work at becoming a better cw
op because it's just not in my nature to
give up. If I said "well, cw at contesting
speeds, just isn't my thing", then that
would mean I would be giving up and 
only operating half the contests. Naw,
that isn't going to happen. Time go get
in gear and do my best to improve. I 
hope otthers that struggled this weekend
feel the same way. 

73 - Mike K9MI




-------Original Message-------

From: Blake Meinecke
Date: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 11:45:27 PM
To: CQ-Contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Unsportsmanlike?

Time, jim at forsyth.net
> writes:
>
> > A certain level of proficiency is required even to get your feet wet,

Right-o. You ever see a MLB pitcher slow up his fast ball for a rookie
batter? Nope. If he did, the rookie would never learn to hit in the
big-league.

From a personal perspective, I never asked for a single QRS when I was
starting out..... for fear of someone finding out I was (am) a rookie ;-)

73,
Blake N4GI

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