[CQ-Contest] Last Night's Sprint

[Ed Felter]

What a challenge the sprints are for me!  I have started the Thursday
sessions in the last few months and this was my first 4 hour test.  I made
about 2 hours  when  40 went away and 80 was very noisy so I took the
opportunity to hang it up with 100 Qs.

Sprints are kinda like some city streets — you are either quick or you’re
dead.  I restarted CW about 6 years ago at age 70 and serious contesting
within the last 3 years or so.  I am struggling to get a callsign out of
the melee quickly enough.  But sprints are helping me like CWTs have
immensely benefitted my CW efforts.  All of this comes at the expense of
you hams on the other end.  Sorry for the delays, but please be reminded
that each of you is helping me to get a little bit better, for which I am
grateful.

There is a positive stress that comes from these sprints to which I can’t
seem to say no to even after a dreadful session!  So I keep coming back. I
hope to get better!

Thank goodness for great software!  Last night, in a hurry, I failed to
change a couple of macro strokes in the first few Qs and I know it was
confusing.  I fixed that only to find that improper use of ESM  can really
foul up responses in sprints when in other test there is no adverse
response.  Sorry.

Anyway thanks for the QSOs and I will see you in the next sprint trying to
get better and hoping for your patience!  73

Ed AI6O


On Sun, Sep 11, 2022 at 8:14 PM Jim Brown <k9yc at audiosystemsgroup.com>
wrote:

> 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
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