[CQ-Contest] CW with FLDigi?

[DXer]

Hank,

I have used FLDigi with N1MM+ in the last CQWW and ARRL contests. It worked great with a caveat.

I do know the Morse characters. I learned and used Morse in the 80s, but tinnitus 'killed' it for me. After all these inactive years, I lost speed and 'vocabulary'.

For those not familiar with tinnitus, it's also referred to as 'ringing in the ear'. It's like your hearing having a very high noise floor. It also seems to introduce 'phantom' dits and dashes in my case, making it even harder to decode sometimes, and painful after a while. 

Back to your question, it does work great as an additional tool. I don't know how effective it would be to somebody with zero knowledge of the code. There were many times when I was able to decode the callsign correctly before FLDigi did.

I would never use it in a normal QSO, outside of a contest. It would be like an Apu Nahasapeemapetilon type QSO: yes sir, no sir, no English, hotdog, ok. :^) But not an issue with the typical contest exchange.

Thank you very much for supporting and accommodating the newcomer, as opposed to 'breaking his legs' for not doing it the 'traditional', 'manly way', <insert any other qualification here>, and don't forget to flush it after. :^))

Using a CW decoder is the only way for me now, besides, it's just another digital mode.

73 de Vince, VA3VF