[CQ-Contest] When is speed not speedy?

[Tom Haavisto]

This an interesting thread.

One of the interesting observations made at this years CTU was along
the lines of  "A lot of the serious folks will end up working a good
percentage of the serious folks".  No - don't expect a 100% sweep, or
even close to it, but chances are the big guns will work a good
percentage of serious entrants, conditions permitting.  Once you think
about it, this makes perfect sense.

What makes the real difference is how many casual folks one can work.

So - by slowing down and making an effort to work casual folks CAN
lead to a winning score!

The other thing I heard at the 2011 QRP forum was to suggest the QRP
folks work contesters!  We have the ears to hear them, and they WILL
make QSO's :-).  And yes, the QSO's ARE appreciated.  My heart skipped
a beat when I heard the presenter suggest this :-)


Just something to keep in the back of your mind during those slow
times...  There are folks wanting to work us.  Just might need to dig
a little deeper to put them in the log.

Tom - VE3CX




On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 3:57 PM, KU7Y <ku7y.cw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Show some gratitude and slow down, guys.
>
>
> I spend a good bit of time on a couple of QRP email lists.  There are many
> folks there that are both new to ham radio and to contesting.  One of the
> things that seems to always come up is how contesting is too hard to break
> into due to all the fast CW.
>
> Now I understand that speeds do need to be up there a bit to be able to make
> a good score but.... when we think about things to do to get more people
> interested in contesting we need to also think about those new folks trying
> to "get up to speed" and just giving up because they can't copy most
> stations.... even one letter/number at a time.
>
> I'm not sure just what the answer is but it's seems like a shame to pass up
> this pool of "recruits".  Maybe if more people would move up the band and
> cut their speed down to 15ish or so wpm during some of the low rate times,
> would this help "welcome" the new folks??
>
> After all, these new folks are a good portion of tomorrow's scores if we can
> get/keep them interested while they get their CW skills up.
>
> OK, back in my hole,
>
> Ron, KU7Y
> SOWP 5545M
> Arizona Outlaws Contest Club
> Silver Springs, NV
> ku7y at qsl.net
> http://www.hatpinsandmore.com
> KX3 #0062
> DM09ji
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