[CQ-Contest] CW Sprint this Saturday Feb 7 (Feb 8 UTC)

[George Fremin III]

The CW sprint is this Saturday - get on the radio for this unique contest. 

https://ncjweb.com/Sprint-Rules.pdf 


And if you are like me and have never had a great time in the sprint - maybe my story will help. 

How I learned to stop worrying and love the CW Sprint

Over the course of my ham radio life I have never been a great or at times even good CW operator. I have never gotten any good at head copying and can only sort of do that at sub 25 wpm speeds for the most part.  I have gotten to the point, in a contest, that I can run folks on CW at maybe 33 to 35 WPM and can do OK when I am calling CQ.  Search and pounce takes a lot more skill and has always been much harder for me.   It just takes me longer to sort out what is happening on a frequency and I first arrive and then to get synced up.  So while I am a better than average SSB contester and I am what I would consider an average or maybe below average CW contester compared to my SSB contest skills.   I have a lot of guest ops at my station in CW contests - and most times that my call has been on in the NA CW Sprint contest it has been a guest op - even though they usually use the name GEO - it is not me.  But I have gotten on in the CW Sprint over the years with my call and a few others.  And I never do very well - you can not sit and call CQ on one frequency and S&P is usually half or more of the contest.  And as a result I do not do well. To do S&P in the CW sprint is hard - folks are sending very fast and early on each band the pileups can be tough.  

But this past September I did not have a guest op lined up for my station so I decided I would get on and see what I could do.  And as I was getting ready for the contest it dawned on me that since my S&P skills are poor and even more poor at CW Sprint speeds - maybe I could just call CQ.  I would have to give up the frequency after one contact (the Sprint QSY rule) I could just move 5 kHz more up or down the band and call CQ again.  So that is what I did for almost all of my four hours.  I did not send super fast - around 30-33 wpm and I just called CQ - moving each time.  I think I ended up making only about five S&P contacts.   But I ended up with a better score than I have ever had and even better I had fun in the CW Sprint instead of being frustrated.   So, if you, like me, find the CW Sprint difficult - I have a suggestion - Call CQ.  Don’t forget to move at least 5 kHz and then call CQ again.  You might just like it.

I made 232 contacts and best of all broke 10,000 points for the first time ever in the CW Sprint. 

The CW Sprint is this coming Saturday night - get on the radio and give it a try.  If you need to go slower than 30 wpm do it - if they call you too fast - send QRS or just call CQ again.  They will either work you or not.   You called CQ, it is your frequency and you are in charge. 

I will have a guest op here this time - because I can’t do all the contests all the time.  :-)


George Fremin III
K5TR