[CQ-Contest] K3KU Sprint CW observations

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

Hi Art,
 
I'm glad I got you suitably coaxed or embarrassed to get on last night. I  
hope you will forgive me for those first three hours of pain. MD was indeed  
pretty easy this time, though VA had me nervous. It was the last of the W4 
mults  I worked (W4AU), with an insurance contact with K7SV at 0359z.
 
Do show up in September. It is a different contest propagation wise. Note  
that (here in the east) it starts before sunset in September, vs. almost two 
 hours after sunset in February. That makes a big difference! Last night 40 
had  gone long by even the start, which stinks for us. I even took a ten 
minute break  at 0150z to decide if I wanted to keep banging my head against 
the proverbial  wall.
 
Sprint is indeed a high skill contest. I'd say the most valuable  
transferable skill is that of getting things the first time. You can't wait  around 
for the second or third time to listen to a guy before you call him.  That's 
a good skill to have.
 
Thanks for being there!
 
 
73  -  Jim  K8MR
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 2/3/2013 2:37:07 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
artboyars at gmail.com writes:

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