[CQ-Contest] CW Sprint

[George Fremin III]

Contesters,

What follows is what has become my biannual post 
to get you to think about ways of getting a few more
stations on in the CW sprint.

The CW Sprint is coming up on February 13, 2005.

Activity in this contest has been growing over the years and in the
last 3 or 4 years we have seen some great activity increases in the 
sprint. But we can do better.

Here are the log submission numbers by call area for the 
last three sprints:

Sept 2004   Feb 2004   Sep 2003
W1 15         15          14
W2  6          8          10
W3 11         15           6
W4 22         42          34
W5 29         32          36
W6 37         39          39
W7 18         20          15
W8 14         13          13
W9 11         13          15
W0 15         14          12
VE 12         11          11

(A good goal would be a minimum of 20 entries from each call area.)

Several call areas seem under represented to me based on the number 
of contesters and contest clubs in them - the FRC and PVRC teamed up
last time to field a team in the 3rd call area - maybe this year
they can field several.  Given the large number of contest 
club members these clubs have that should be easy.

Bill Fisher - W4AN had great success getting a lot of W4 stations on
in the sprint, he did this by getting folks to sign up to be on a
sprint team. Many other people also do this for each sprint but since
it happens behind the scenes it is not always obvious who those people
are.

When you look at the results for your call area or state think of ways
that you and/or your contest club can get more people on for the next
sprint and then make it happen - get folks on the radio.  I think that
getting them on a sprint team is the best way to get them to get on
the radio.  Also I think it is clear that people on teams will put in
more time in the contest than if they are not on a team. 

In the last several sprints I have had good success forming a few
teams from the 5th call area. I found team members by looking through
the NAQP and SS results for people that sent in logs and I sent them
emails inviting them to be on a sprint. I also looked at the bottom of
the sprint results for the lower scoring stations and asked them to
join teams as well.  I looked at my CW SS logs and sent emails to
everyone I worked in the 5th (and this year the 3rd) call areas.  As a
result I got several sprint novices each time that I think will keep
coming back.

It is my hope the above will give you some ideas on how to find and
get new sprinters on the air - go after long time contesters and
also get people that have never done a sprint.

I think it should be easy to get at least 20 to 25 entries from every 
call area - in many call areas that would only mean getting 5 or 6 more
stations on for the next sprint.  

If you operate the sprint - work on getting one of
your friends on for the next one.

I have an invitation email I send out - it has quite few links to sprint
resources on it since I often send email to people that have never
heard of the sprint.

Here are those links:

If you have never tried the sprint you can find more 
information about it at these URLs:

CW Sprinting - Beginners Guide - by W4AN
http://www.contesting.com/articles/198

The Sprint Survival Web Page
"The Sprint - the most fun you can have in 4 hours with your clothes on." - N6TR
http://n6tr.jzap.com/sprint.html

If you would like to have some sprint QSOs to use for CW practice:
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr/audio/sprint_practice/

The rules are here:
http://www.ncjweb.com/sprintrules.php

Past scores are here:
http://www.ncjweb.com/sprintresults.php

Please go look at the sprint results and think about
ways you can get long time contesters and newbies on 
in the next sprint.

-- 
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii at kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr