[CQ-Contest] 1 million qso's?

[Bill Coleman]

On Jan 29, 2009, at 4:13 AM, James Cain wrote:

> A week or two ago the "web survey" question on the front page of the  
> arrl web site was "About how many CW QSOs do you think you made in  
> 2008, excluding contest contacts?"
>
> I checked "Less than 5," which was probably a stretch.

I think I made somewhere between 50 and 100.

> I guess contest contacts aren't "real" contacts.

Contest contacts are different from casual contacts. The CW  
proficiency required for a contest contact is very different. CW  
contests also seem to activate the CW bands -- perhaps this survey  
attempts to see how much other kind of CW activity there is.

> 40 percent of respondents checked "I don't work CW."

The vast majority of hams didn't pass a CW requirement for their  
license, and some that did have long ago forgotten it. so this isn't  
surprising.

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