[CQ-Contest] SS and CW contesting

[Ria Jairam]

Once, on field day, I did that with a club.

Never again.

Oh, and yes the YL-OM contest rules still say dupe sheets. I’m going to
remind them to update it.

73
Ria, N2RJ

On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 5:33 PM John Geiger <af5cc2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ria,
>
> Did you get to experience dupe sheets?  That was a totally different
> world, but it was fun to try and play dupe sheet blackout-see how many of
> the squares you can fill.  I don't miss the paper logs at all!  Been using
> NA since 1999, I probably need to get with it and get N1MM going sooner or
> later.  I do still use paper logs for non-contest QSOs, though
>
> 73 John AF5CC
>
> On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 8:57 PM, Ria Jairam <rjairam at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I watched some old videos of contesting and a lot of it was slower
>> back then too. Lots of slow phone, slow CW.
>>
>> Today we have computers which speed things up. That would explain it.
>> Back then, you used what, a bug? And you had dupe sheets rather than
>> N1MM+ or Win-Test.
>>
>> 73
>> Ria, N2RJ
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 12:55 PM, Joe <nss at mwt.net> wrote:
>> > This IS  something very interesting actually,
>> > If you look at my rate graph, That Bump you see at 20:00Z?
>> > That was a simple change of going from the typical ~30/35 WPM,
>> >
>> > to only ~16/18 WPM.
>> >
>> > It felt terrible at first, Kind of like when you get off the expressway
>> > after driving 75 for 8 hours to go to a regular road at 60 feels like
>> you
>> > are crawling.  But the QSO rate JUMPED a LOT!
>> >
>> > Probably all those that can not copy the 30+ wpm.  hmmmmm?
>> >
>> > Joe W9ET/WB9SBD
>> > Sig
>> > The Original Rolling Ball Clock
>> > Idle Tyme
>> > Idle-Tyme.com
>> > http://www.idle-tyme.com
>> >
>> > On 11/9/2017 10:19 AM, Steve London wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I have listened to recordings of SS from the 60's and 70's. What
>> strikes
>> >> me is how much slower CW speeds were then. You needed to troll in all
>> of
>> >> those newly-hatched General's, who could copy only slightly more than
>> 13
>> >> WPM. Obviously, this slowed the rate on Saturday, leaving many more
>> QSO's to
>> >> be made on Sunday. If you tried running at 35 WPM, you would quickly
>> run out
>> >> of QSO's.
>> >>
>> >> Fast forward to today. With very few slow speed contesters out there,
>> we
>> >> are working each other at 30-40 WPM, with high rates. No one left to
>> work on
>> >> Sunday.
>> >>
>> >> As a datapoint, the 1968 winner of SS CW was KV4FZ, with 1000 QSO's.
>> The
>> >> QST writeup has some interesting photos - WA5LES (now K5RC), K5YAA
>> (still
>> >> K5YAA !), WA5RTG (now K5GO), WA2CLQ (now K1ZM).
>> >>
>> >> 73,
>> >> Steve, N2IC
>> >>
>> >> On 11/09/2017 08:18 AM, Bill via CQ-Contest wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> It has now been 10 years since the US went code-free and ham radio
>> >>> license
>> >>> numbers are at ALL TIME highs - 750K total, half are general and extra
>> >>> that
>> >>> have HF privileges. 30K new techs a year, 10K upgrades a year from
>> tech
>> >>> to
>> >>> general/extra. The problem for CW contesting is the number of hams
>> that
>> >>> can
>> >>> copy code at 20+ WPM is decreasing and will continue to do so. New
>> hams
>> >>> are
>> >>> on SSB/FM/digital. Look at the FT8 band segments on a bandscope. Look
>> at
>> >>> the
>> >>> QSO totals in the RTTY contests. Read QST. And MOST importantly look
>> at
>> >>> the
>> >>> checks in the last SS.
>> >>>
>> >>> Looking at the number of submitted logs for a contest doesn't indicate
>> >>> how
>> >>> the contest is doing, because it is now so easy to submit a log via
>> web
>> >>> page
>> >>> copy and paste. A good indication is for all the ops that put in 22+
>> >>> hours
>> >>> last weekend to ask themselves if they HAD fun and if they look
>> forward
>> >>> to
>> >>> putting in 22+ hours next year? Did they feel like they couldn't wait
>> for
>> >>> it
>> >>> to end? Were they squirming in their chair the last few hours?
>> >>>
>> >>> The only significant major contest scoring change I can think of in
>> the
>> >>> last
>> >>> 45 years is WPX getting rid of zero point Q's. That's when I started
>> >>> entering
>> >>> the WPX. There needs to be some changes in the SS for those of us that
>> >>> still
>> >>> operate CW contests. Only 54 stations reported on 3830 operating 24
>> >>> hours. In
>> >>> 2010 there were 125 stations. I don't see anything positive in that
>> >>> trend.
>> >>>
>> >>> 73, Bill KO7SS  (47 years operating CWSS)
>> >>> _______________________________________________
>> >>> CQ-Contest mailing list
>> >>> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
>> >>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>> >>>
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
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