[SCCC] separating zero beated pileups?

[Steve Harrison]

On 6/28/2024 7:35 AM, Drew Arnett wrote:
> .......I'm a very bad CW op, because I only
> practice during contests or SOTA activations.  (I swear I'm going to
> get an antenna put back up at home any day now.  lol)  I do think my
> CW copying has gone up a bit between WPX last month and FD this month.
> Also feels like much less failure to copy a callsign or exchange info
> when that isn't faded out or covered by some noise.  Copying correctly
> the first time does help a bit with rate.  :-)  Also a bit less
> trouble with a couple of my frequently confused characters.  However,
> daily CW use or practice is what I really should do (and have never
> done.)

In the early '70s, on the Southern California Net on 3600 (and later,
3598), we once had a guy named Doug (can't remember his call) who, when
he became active in the net, was at around the 15 WPM level and needed
frequent fills. This guy did like contesting and traffic handling,
however, so he kept coming to the net and engaging in some smaller CW
contests whenever family responsibilities allowed him. Over 6 months or
so, his CW copying expanded to over 20 WPM, and he was accepting
occasional assignments to liaison with RN6. A year after he first
showed, he was easily copying well over 25 WPM on regular RN6 traffic,
and had become a regular SCN net control station. Over the years, due
largely to his continued net activity, his CW capability grew from just
above general-class level to experienced high-volume, high-speed CW
traffic net capability of over 35 WPM.

There's nothing like practice.

Having said that, CW nets aren't very common any longer. (Steps up onto
ARRL-bashing Soap Box) Heck's Bells: the ARRL, in it's infinite wisdom,
stopped publishing Section Communications Manager monthly reports in the
printed edition of QST some time ago; that was one of the many features
that printed-QST no longer provides that I always looked forward to
reading (I always loved reading reports from other sections than my own
LAX). There's almost nothing left worth reading in today's printed QST;
so why should I bother paying extra for the printed edition?? (jumps
down from Soap Box) SCN still exists (or did, a few months ago... I
haven't checked lately), and a year or so ago, I even ran into an old
SCN manager who is now manager of a Texas traffic net, still active
after 40+ years.

Der done bese nuthin like continuing practice.

Steve, K0XP