[CQ-Contest] NAQP CW observations

[Art Boyars]

1.  Op's seemed willing to work harder than in SS to QSO weak sigs.  I wonder why.  Maybe because  a) It was late in the contest (I was on only for last 6.5 hr);  b) Shorter exchange means better chance of getting the QSO;   and   c) Once you have the QSO on the first band, then the only thing you need to copy on the other bands is the call (too easy for my taste, but most people seem to like it).

2.  A >>lot<< of sigs had really bad key clicks, some from op's with fine reputations.  I know this has been discussed here before.  I just hope that if it keeps being mentioned, then maybe some of those guys will fix their radios.

3.  Lack of whomping big sigs made everybody seem weaker than in SS... or were condx on 40 and 80 just that bad???  Some of the big guns seemed down a lot more db than 10*log(100/1500).  I am reminded of a comment I made after my return to SS CW a few years ago: "One mid-west station was rcvr-jumping-up-and-down-on-the-desk loud all night long on 40.  I would have thought that so effective an antenna system would have yielded a better result than he claims."  Nothing like that in NAQP CW (this time, anyhow).

4.  It's nice to get peoples' names, but some names sure are hard to copy if the sig is a little weak.  I found myself wondering why my parents had not named me "BOB".  And then there were the guys who outsmarted themselves by using cute names.  I had thought of doing that.  I was going to name myself "EEN", and get everybody confused, or maybe bust the QSO when they typed 599.  But I figured that would just get me on everybody's do-not-call list.  Don't want that!


73 & GL in SSB,   Art K3KU