[CQ-Contest] K3KU Sprint CW observations

[Art Boyars]

So K8MR coaxed (embarrassed) me into doing the Sprint.
http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/CQ-Contest/2013-01/msg00382.html
I recall at least three other MD stations active: N3QE, K3TN, and KE3X
(Free DC!).  And I did not get VA myself until pretty late (K7SV and W4AU).

This was my first Sprint in about 10 years (see my recent ref
http://www.ncjweb.com/cwsprint022003.pdf), and my first real effort in over
30 years!  Did I enjoy it?  Not until 80M opened late in the 'Test.  Before
that, I was longing for it to be over.  I'd rather work 15/hr all Sunday
afternoon in SSCW.  THAT'S WHY WE HAVE DIFFERENT FLAVORED CONTESTS.  Will I
do it again?  Dunno.  Maybe if my next try starts off more rewarding.
(That might be next Jan.  I think Sept Sprint will start a couple of hours
before I am QRV.  Why bother?  There's no "fresh meat" effect.)

But I can see why op's who are good enough to do well in Sprint get bored
by SSCW Sundays.  (Maybe they could look at it as a challenge.  Or maybe
they could skip the first two hours like I do, or run LP and a dipole.
Those strategies leave you lots of people to work on Sunday afternoon.)

Two major observations:

1) (No surprise) The skills and small station improvements I developed for
SS and other "traditional" contests don't help much in Sprint.

2) Having a second (third?) tier signal is a bigger disadvantage in Sprint;
much bigger cost for not being first thru the pileup, harder to get
responses to CQ.

Both of those combine to preclude what keeps me (third tier op, third tier
signal) going in SS: ability to do (short) runs in tiny spectral holes or
on the edges of the mess; ability to use skill to get thru to the mults.
In a traditional contest I'm sure I would have caught KP2RUM and VE5MX.  (I
also heard a CQing station I knew was in RI, but he was working the FOC
Test.  Sigh.)

One more thing ... After SS CW and Phone; NAQP CW and 'Phone; ARRL 160M and
10M, CQ 160M, and S Perry, and a few QSOs in theOK/OM and in the REF, I was
just about all contested out for the Season. And the "Dedicated Contesters"
will point out a couple I missed!  Several years ago, when we were still
telling the anti-contest crowd that "there are NOT so many contests,"
somebody complained here on the Reflector that three of his favorite
contests fell on the same weekend.  I commented then that we were hoist on
our own petard; now, it's even worse.

Summary conjecture: For the semi-serious and casul op's who give you a
large part of your SS and other traditional 'Test QSOs, Sprint is just too
much to bother with.
So, thank you to the guys who dug me out here and there.  Apologies to the
guys who were slowed down by my flubs.  (W0OU -- I had to ask for a
complete repeat on 80M because, in trying to fix typing errors a couple of
QSOs back, I hit the wrong button and wiped out your QSO info.  I was too
dumbstruck to just type in your call and ask for NR.)

73, Art K3KU