[CQ-Contest] State QSO parties and CW

[Ron Notarius W3WN]

I'm not sure I'd agree with that John.  It might depend on the contest
involved.

While it varies, I'd say that on average, the Pa QSO Party is about a 50/50
mix of phone and CW, with a sprinkling of digital the last two years.

I would agree that many to most mobiles are primarily if not solely SSB, but
there are mobiles who are primarily if not solely CW; K3VX and W3WH ran
strictly CW mobile last year.  It depends on the operators (and drivers).
But mobiles are a relative small percentage of total operators.

With the Pa contest giving higher points to each CW QSO compared to Phone
QSO, it's not surprising that there is a tendency among many of the
stations, especially the more competitive ones, to spend signifcant time on
CW.

One other factor to consider, too, is that many of the State and Regional
contests have a lot of operation (especially in the fall) on 40 meters
daytime, and 80/75 meters evenings.  Now, there's probably no polite way to
put this, but... you think the Bubba brigades who refuse to move from
"their" frequency ("We've been here every single night, son, for 'nigh on 45
years, you think we're going to MOVE for one minute because you have a
Yankee CON-TEST going?" is one of the more memorable [and cleaner] comments
that comes to mind) for a major, international DX contest, is going to yield
for a QSO Party?

I see less activity on 75 phone in the evenings once the band opens, not
because of a lack of people to work (they're out there hunting), but just
from getting worn out trying to jockey for a frequency from those who
delight in tormenting a contester because of alleged slights that happened
in the misty nether regions of what they use for brains, whether they're
real or not.

Given the choice of fighting the Good Ole Boyz Killerwatt Net that suddenly
pops up, or moving to CW where even with a narrower band than in years past,
there's plenty of room for all... which do you think happens?

So it depends on the contest, the band, the conditions, and the non-contest
factors.  But CW overall beating SSB?  I tend to doubt it.

73, ron w3wn

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of John Geiger
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 2:17 PM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] State QSO parties and CW


The Florida QSO party this past weekend reminded me of
something I have observed for the past few years.
With the exception of maybe the California QSO party,
there seems to be much more CW than SSB activity for
state QSO parties.

I am not complaining as I like CW contests and just
tolerate SSB contests, but why is this?  It seems that
SSB would be easier to run while mobile.

Does the extra points that CW QSOs score relative to
SSB QSOs make everyone stick with CW?

73s John AA5JG


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