[CQ-Contest] some things never change

[Bill Coleman]

On Nov 28, 2005, at 7:33 AM, kr2q at optonline.net wrote:

> The house is very quiet as I read.  Except I keep hearing CW.  I  
> turn around to check the rig, but it is off.  Happens all the time  
> post contest.  After decades of contesting, it still makes me a  
> little crazy.

I've had this happen before, early in my contest carreer. I remember  
after one particular Field Day (yeah, I know, it's not a contest),  
having listened to SSB for over 24 hours, I drive home and went to  
cook something. When I turned the exhaust fan on over the stove, I  
suddenly heard a huge pileup of voices - all calling random  
phonetics. Weird.

These days, I don't get this so much. Certainly not for an SSB  
contest, and only a little after a CW contest.

I think part of this is the sleep depravation, part is the straining  
to pull stations out of the noice. But a big part may be the high  
levels of noise we subject our ears to during the contest period.

One part of the solution may be to turn down the volume as much as  
possible. For CW, I turn down my sidetone until I can just barely  
hear it. I try to run with the RX volume low, but sometimes crank it  
up a bit to dig out weak ones.



Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901