[CQ-Contest] The intricacies of CW contesting habits.

[brian coyne]

Ernie,When I perceive that a caller is either a novice, or such as yourself an op who is using mechanical assistance then I make an effort to assist by switching over to the hand keyer, especially where my s/n exchange gets into 4 digits.
It is counter productive for a running op to ignore the signs of a lesser skilled op becaus repeats slow down the rate. You mention your 'sabotage' tactics are needed only once in some 500 contacts for you so the problem is not so bad. and the majority of ops will make an effort to accommodate you when you request a fill.

 We welcome all levels of competitors as they increase the  activity and it also increases the fun to have  callers from far away places such as your own. However let me make a request to ops in your situation which is 
(a) make sure that your code reader and rx eqp't is up to the job that can deal with qsb & qrm to the best level possible in your situation to reduce the number of repeats you ask for  and(b) make an effort to learn abbreviations commonly used on cw mode such as cfm, nr,  rpt, pse, etc.
The thrust of your post is a request for common courtesy which, in my view is not unreasonable, my request on behalf of we more experienced contesters is to ask for reciprocal consideration in aspects mentioned above.
In last weekends ARRL 10M contest I had three cases of ops who, I guess, were using code readers.. Two were my  requests for fills due to qrrm, qsb or whatever and the third was for confirmation of a callsign, I sent the call I heard plus the exchange then got to thinking I have never come across this prefix before so better make sure that I got it right, unfortunately not all ops correct you if you get something wrong.. In all three cases my several requests were met with complete silence, these were not long distance callers but all EU's with good signals. . If they did not read my final msg of 'SRI NIL'  then they may be later surprised to find that they did not get my mult.  
73  BrianC4Z / 5B4AIZ.

      From: Ernie Walls <vk3fm at Wallsy.com.au>
 To: "'cq-contest at contesting.com'" <cq-contest at contesting.com> 
 Sent: Wednesday, 17 December 2014, 2:42
 Subject: [CQ-Contest] The intricacies of CW contesting habits.
   
Now...I am not a contester; I play in them to pick up whatever band/mode/state/etc fills I can find, and generally have fun. And a VK3 point is mostly appreciated because there are not that many of us around.

I am also not a CW aficionado. I cannot read speed above about 8-10 WPM and have absolutely no interest in acquiring that skill. I also send code by machine, 'cause it's way easier, and much better, than doing it myself.

Yes folks, I am what is known as a CW cretin, barely tolerable on the bands beside those venerable skilled CW fogies of 80 years ago. And my wife often calls me worse than that!

But I play in/with the CW mode, because modern software allows me to do so. Which includes dabbling in contests. And, what I seem to be doing in every contest I do play in, which includes a cameo appearance in many smaller, regionalised contests is come upon someone who will insist in operating at 35+ WPM, and in doing so manages to send generally disgusting code (so my software tells me!) and cause much QRM asking for NR repeats and the like.

I love ( I mean, I really LOVE) going back at these types at about five WPM faster than they are operating at, then sit back and watch what happens! Very regularly they vacate the frequency and can be found, doing the very same thing, a few kHz away. But I win the day because I have taken them out of their self-regulated, controlling, CW comfort zone. About once every 500 contest QSOs, I meet one of these people. Almost invariably from what was known as eastern Europe - although not always!

Do I feel guilty - nope, it is part of the 'fun' I mentioned earlier.

As for 'cut' numbers - never realised they created in so many folks so much angst - I PROMISE I will never use them again. Promise. Except for the ubiquitous 5NN of course - then again, that's different, if I read the posts right!

Ernie Walls VK3FM
Vk3fm at wallsy.com.au<mailto:Vk3fm at wallsy.com.au>
Mobile 0418 301 483

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