[CQ-Contest] Here's an idea...

[Bob Shohet, KQ2M]

Yuri, it amazes me that some people make comments before thinking about what they actually write and those same people often make assumptions about what they are writing before having any information.

By definition, contests are about testing your skills and the skills of others.  What makes a contest valid is the test of actually COPYING information correctly not just relying on the computer to fill it in for you when you press “enter”. 

And because I send with my keyer and not my keyboard, whatever I send, I have to send myself correctly at whatever speed I am sending it.  You can be sure that tests my skill plenty – and after 900,000+ CONTEST qso’s, about 600,000 of which were made on cw, the last time that I checked, I was still doing pretty well in the skill category.   So NO, it is not like “QRP ops..... “yada, yada, yada”.  I am actually sending exchanges, NOT my computer and .
you might do well to ask next time before you assume.  There are few people alive who have made as many CW qso’s as I have and probably no one has ever made as many cw qso’s as me by sending with their keyer rather than their keyboard/computer.

I am sure that the Haitian man named Eemio that I knew would take issue with your characterization of “this kind of joke”.  There are MANY names which are unfamiliar to most Americans/Canadians/Eastern Europeans, etc., I certainly don’t think that choosing to use an actual name is a joke - either to send or receive.  Waste of “valuable” time?  Hardly!  If you know what the exchange is before it is even sent then what is actually being tested?   Certainly not COPYING skill; the only thing being “tested” is having enough coordination to use the keyboard/computer to log for you.

I would never begrudge anyone sending me an unusual name or a name that I didn’t expect, any more than I would begrudge an operator from using qrp or qrpp.  Actually, many lower power guys call me because they know that I will listen for them and take the time and make the effort to dig them out – many stations won’t do that.  I certainly don’t complain about it or make the statement that you did:  

“if you weren't expecting this kind of joke during contest rush. It just waste of valuable time, nothing more”. 

You might want to reconsider that  – it sounds pretty arrogant.

I thinks it’s nice that low power guys or people with unusual callsigns would call me even though the burden falls on me (and others) to get their callsign and information correctly through the contest levels of qrm, qrn, and qsb.  I appreciate that they are in the contest and raising the level of activity for all participants.  And copying 599TT1 or 59950MW is a lot more interesting than 599KW.  Same with working TG0FRACAP or any of hundreds of unusual and never before heard callsigns that we are not expecting.

I get that some people don’t like to be “challenged” by something unusual.  Yeah, it isn’t easy and slows down the rate.  And some people don’t have a sense of humor about some things, and aren’t very tolerant or forgiving.  But really, this is only a contest.  It isn’t about truly important stuff like a person’s health or safety or family.   Life’s too short to argue about contest exchanges.  

73

Bob KQ2M


From: Yuri VE3XB 
Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2018 11:07 PM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com 
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Here's an idea...

Always amazes me. 

Some smart guy comes up with "brilliant" idea and he starts testing everyone else skills but not his own... It's like QRP ops keep complaining about  big gun stations that couldn't copy their tiny signals but never call weak stations themselves. 

As a member of QRQ club I can copy CW at 40 wpm and higher speeds but I would definitely make sure that I copied EEMIO right and will ask for the repeat. Nothing wrong with that, especially if you weren't expecting this kind of joke during contest rush. It just waste of valuable time, nothing more. On the other hand if I had nothing better to do I would come back with some fancy name (like Enine, my old friend's name, for example) and see how well the joker will copy it. Not sure he will.

I guess that most people care about how to get contest exchange copying easier for their party, but looks like some think otherwise, having fun at someone else expense...


73 Yuri VE3XB

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Bob Shohet, KQ2M

A lot time ago in the CW Sprint, I used EEMIO (sent at 40+ wpm of course  :-) and Scandalla amongst other names.  EEMIO was pretty funny – almost impossible to copy correctly at that speed – it was a true test of operator skill and honesty.  Skill to get it right the first time and honesty to ask again for it when they weren’t sure that they got it right.  As you would expect, the best ops got it right on the first or second try, most of the rest either needing MANY repeats (clearly expecting Bob) or just faking it and sending “r’” or “tu”.  I used other unusual names as well to “test” the ops.  I was more interested in having fun with that than achieving a good score.

Once in the mid-80’s, on the way back home after a YCCC meeting in Mass., I operated for an hour at Hal, W1NN’s station in CT, and worked K8CC on two bands with two different names.  When I got back to eastern Long Island in NY (where I was living at the time), I then worked K8CC again on a 3rd band using a different name from another state.  So I worked Dave a total of three times - from two different states on three bands and with three different names (one name per band).

Dave being the FB op that he is, correctly copied each name change and state change.  I’m pretty sure that Dave still remembers that contest.   :-)

73

Bob KQ2M