[CQ-Contest] [FCG] PSE QSY - Deer in headlights

[Chris Plumblee]

Speaking only for myself, I'm one of those ops who is not ready for
conversational cw at 30+ wpm. I'm not really ready for it at 24wpm in the
middle of a contest, if I'm being totally honest.

Many ops today who are relatively casual are not ready for non-standard
requests when s&p. some don't have antennas readily available for all
bands. Others don't want to bother breaking good s&p rate for a move (s&p
on a virgin band can easily yield 100/hr rates, assisted or unassisted).

The best way that I've found in NAQP is to simply send something in place
of TU that goes something like

{HisCall} QSY 28030?

Those who are going to get it will get it from a short message (I concur
with Lu that the percentage is 10-15% at the high end). Sending more and
being prepared to explain things with the paddle doesn't result in more
successful moves, just more frustration.

As for the more philosophical question of why it's the case that more
people aren't prepared for QSY requests, I think the answer is in the
efforts to bring young people and non-cw ops into cw contesting. Younger
people do not have the history of novice-band cw chats to build their
conversational cw, and I'm loving proof that it's possible to copy cw fast
enough to handle 32-36wpm exchange elements while still being hopeless at
rag chewing at much slower speeds.

73, Chris WF3C


On Sunday, February 24, 2013, wrote:

> Ok, let's open up a new thread...
>
> Something that I have noticed for years is that when trying to get another
> CW station to QSY to another band, typically because you need him as a
> mult, I  will get no response to the "pse QSY to ...such-and-such band"
> request.
>
>
> In last week's ARRL DX CW contest from PJ4X, we tried repeatedly to get
> stations to move to other bands, but were more-often-than-not met with the
> "deer  in headlights" blank stare!  In comparing notes over 807's after the
> contest, we concluded that if the other station was loud and fast, there
> was a
>  good chance that we would get a successful QSY.  Otherwise, generally, no
> response at all.
>
> Can it be that so many stations are 1.) not really copying (or can't  copy)
> the code, 2.) not interested or able to go to another band, or  3.) quickly
> moving off the frequency before we can even send the QSY  request?  With
> respect to the last point, we tried different canned QSY  requests in our
> "TU"
> message.  We tried "R PSE QSY TO ...", "TU PSE QSY TO  ...", and bluntly
> "PSE QSY TO ..."  My guess is that we got  successful responses to less
> than
> 10% of the requests to QSY.
>
> Your thoughts please.
>
> 73, George, K5KG
>
> George  Wagner, K5KG
> Sarasota, FL
> 941-400-1960  cell
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-- 
Chris Plumblee
407.494.5155