[CQ-Contest] Last Night's Sprint

[Jim Brown]

On 9/11/2022 7:14 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR wrote:
> Kind of a mixed experience.  My first Sprint in maybe 5 years, and I had 
> real trouble getting into the rhythm of the thing.  If it hadn't been 
> for an N1MM+ message file with some built-in helps, I would have been 
> really at sea. Finally packed it in at 90 minutes, without ever getting 
> to 80.

Hi Pete,

Sprint is, by far, the most challenging contest format, at least for me. 
It took me a long time to get close to 300 Qs, and I think I might have 
broken it once or twice. Each year, my 1941-vintage brain falls a bit 
farther behind.

> I was disappointed by the level of operating - particularly by those who 
> continued calling despite the called station having asked for a 
> particular station (with a partial call), as well as those failing to 
> wait until the previous QSO was really completed (with an "R" or other 
> ack).  On the other hand, I made a lot of mistakes too.

Depending on who's hearing who, it can be hard to tell who's TXing -- 
whether it's the CQing station or the callers. And in Sprint, he who 
hesitates is lost! Thanks to lightning static, I needed more than a 
half-dozen number fills; when that happens, I'll send dits until other 
callers have stopped, then ask for the fill. Only twice did I fail to 
get it, so those stations lost a Q.
> 
> 104 Q's in 90 minutes, 38 mults = 3,952 points.  K3/KPA-1500, Carolina 
> Windom at ~40 feet (my tribander is down in the back yard)

FWIW, when we worked, three times, I think, you had a pretty reasonable 
signal. Don't remember our 80M QSO.

73, Jim K9YC