[CQ-Contest] Be careful what you wish for

[Eric Gruff]

I agree with the part about it being easier to find open spots on the bandmap to run. It’s also a function of having panadapters that let you just point and click to the empty spots.


However, there was no shortage of bug and straight key (or maybe they just soldered a phone plug onto a piece of zip cord and touched the wires together to send?) users who adopted the “a dash should be about 1.2 times longer than a dot” when sending exchanges. I had one fellow who was S9+, but decided to send serial number 9 as “009” with his straight key, and it took about five repeats to figure it out. I sent “nr 9?”, and he sent “009” over and over, which also could have been “090”, “099”, “090”, etc. This was hours into the contest, so I couldn’t rule out anything. I sure won’t be surprised if the contact comes up busted. 

 

Then there were folks who when asked to repeat “PREC”, sent everything but that. I got the entire exchange again twice, callsigns, “?” (probably a lot of folks who don’t know what precedence is), and silence. I guess that’s why SS is so challenging. 

 

I still had a lot of fun. I could have won the whole thing if the sun hadn’t gotten into my eyes. 😉

 

Eric NC6K

 

Message: 3

Date: Sun, 5 Nov 2017 18:23:32 -0500

From: "Randy Thompson K5ZD" <k5zd at charter.net <mailto:k5zd at charter.net> >

To: 'Radio K?HB' <kzerohb at gmail.com <mailto:kzerohb at gmail.com> >,              "'CQ-Contest'"

                <cq-contest at contesting.com <mailto:cq-contest at contesting.com> >

Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Be careful what you wish for

Message-ID: <008501d3568d$18529880$48f7c980$@charter.net <mailto:008501d3568d$18529880$48f7c980$@charter.net> >

Content-Type: text/plain;             charset="UTF-8"

 

I was thinking the same thing. The bands just don't sound as crowded as I remember them 20+ years ago.  We sure miss all those 1x3 calls that used bugs and had been doing SS forever.

 

 

Randy, K5ZD

 

 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf 

> Of Radio K?HB

> Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2017 4:39 PM

> To: CQ-Contest

> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Be careful what you wish for

> 

> Do you remember when you wished that it was easy to find a good clear 

> QRG to run in SSCW?

> 

> 73, de Hans, K?HB

> "Just a boy and his radio"?

> 

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