[CQ-Contest] cw speed

[kq2m at kq2m.com]

Hi Martin,

The simple answer to your question is "It depends".  I will give the 
perspective of a contest opr.
focused on making the best score possible.

A top level op is evaluating everything, second by second, in real time 
as to how best
to maximize his/her rate.  And often what is best at that moment in time 
is not what is
best overall for the contest, and vice-versa.  But for purposes of your 
question, we are talking
about a snapshot of time, a tiny sliver of the the contest operating 
period.  So the question becomes
how can I pick out stations better from my pileup -  right this second?  
The faster the run op
can do this, the better his rate and the fewer stations calling in the 
next minute, making it easier
to hear, separate and pull out new stations to work, which of course 
increases the rate further.  (and makes
the calling stations happier that they did not need to call longer).

When faced with a big pileup, or a big pileup of stations that typically 
call exactly zero beat on top of
each other, the best thing to do is to figure out a way to make the 
pileup smaller IMMEDIATELY
so that you can hear and pick out stations faster and more efficiently.  
After using all appropriate
filtering at the radio, and accounting for QSB, which is effectively a 
powerful INVOLUNTARY filter,
one of the options is to change the sending speed.  My experience has 
been that QRQ above 40 wpm starts
to thin out the pileup and 50 wpm knocks it down considerably, aside 
from increasing the rate because I am
sending faster, I am often increasing the rate further because fewer 
stations are calling at that next moment.

When the pileup is thinned out, I immediately lower my speed, to 40 wpm 
and then into the 30's until the
pileup gets too many stations start calling zerobeat on top of each 
other again.  Speaking for myself,
I would prefer operating at 36 wpm with 50 stations spread out every .01 
khz, ensuring that I could copy
most of them, rather than dealing with 20 stations all zerobeat and not 
being able to pull out anything
until I discourage some of the callers by transmitting at 50 wpm to thin 
them out enough to be able to copy
again.  Sometimes the zerobeat phenomenon is SO bad, that another cq 
doesn't help - it is just an unmanageable
din.  I try to listen to the difference in the beats created by equally 
loud stations calling at different speeds
on the identical frequency, but that is an extremely difficult way to 
pull out a callsign.  This is a pretty
advanced run technique.

Often a pileup is like that wooden game "Jenga", and, if you can find 
the key loud guy and work him quickly, then many
stations in the rest of the pileup become audible and you have more 
manageable signals to copy.  This is another
advanced run technique.

Believe it or not, by working down the pileup FASTER, a top notch opr. 
is making it easier for you
to be able to work him (more qsos and less stations now calling in the 
same pileup as you)- which is exactly what you are trying to do (and why 
you are calling him).

There are of course some ops that like to show off with how fast they 
can send or copy and they will stay at QRQ regardless
of how many or how few stations are call them.  If you don't like how 
they are operating then don't call them.  But a SHARP opr, will use code 
speed as part of a strategy to help him control a pileup and whittle it 
down to a more manageable level and maximize rate

We also know that there are MANY slower sending ops out there who can 
copy much faster than the speed that they send.  So the station sending 
at 22 wpm may very well be able to copy 40+ wpm.  Or they may be using a 
code-reader.  Or with a repetitive exchange like in CQWW or ARRLDX, if 
they listen to it a few times they will figure it out even though it is 
beyond a code speed that they are comfortable copying.

The best ops that I know always slow down their sending speed as their 
rate slows down, particularly on Sunday.  That is PRECISELY to encourage 
more casual ops to call them.  But there is a downside to that.  As the 
run op slows down the sending speed, often the callers also slow down 
their sending speed, which drops everyones rate.

My advice is to call the run opr at the speed at which you are 
comfortable.  Some ops may slow down in response, some may not.  If you 
do not copy what they send "PSE QRS".  A better approach might be to 
listen to the exchange they are sending and you may be able to copy it 
BEFORE you actually work him (as long as it is not a serial number).  
Then when you do work him you will already have the exchange and just 
need to recognize your callsign and that is something that you can do at 
speeds much higher than your normal code speed.

Contests are the best, fastest and most fun way to increase your code 
speed.  So keep on participating and your skills will continue to 
improve.

73


Bob, KQ2M


On 2023-12-02 06:21, Martin Sellschopp wrote:
> Hi all,
> what is the advantage of sending cw at speeds which are most likely 
> beyond
> the capability of most cw operators ?  Isn't a run station hoping for
> replies also from the occasional contester ? Or do most operators now 
> use
> decoders able to take any speed ?
> I helped myself with the callsigns from the cluster. In the cqwwdx 
> contest
> that's ok as the zone is known  and hopefully I realise that he is 
> replying
> to me.
> 
> I can copy  callsigns and exchange well up to 30 WPM and a bit more and 
> set
> my run speed to 22 WPM hoping for the quick guys to slow down a bit.
> 
> Martin
> DK3UW