[UK-CONTEST] M0BEW - WAECW 2002

[Donald Field]

You can't have Tim, Clive - he's helping me with some checking routines for
the IOTA contest!

But for Ian, I'm afraid it's bad news. Like learning a language, Morse seems
to come most easily when you are young. Something to do with pathways in the
brain. Just as adults can rarely become totally fluent in a new language
(sounding like native speakers), so the younger you learn Morse, the better.
Those who I admire for their CW ability, people like N5TJ N5KO etc, all
started in their early teens and were ragchewing regularly at 50 wpm or
thereabouts before they reached the age of 20 (I am generalising, but I
think this pattern is typical). For us old fogeys, it's downhill all the
way! Of course, practice helps, but we need every assistance we can -
keyboards included! (oh, and most of the contesters I envy have also made a
point of learning to touch-type, another skill I will never master as I'd
have to unlearn two-finger typing first!).

Just apropos WAE, one of the reasons it fell out of favour with UK
contesters in recent years was that it assumed you used PacketCluster; i.e.
there was no distinction between what we might call Assisted and Unassisted
categories. To the purists this was anathema, and many of them, who had been
regulars in WAE, dropped it like hot bricks. They may never return.

Don G3XTT

----- Original Message -----
From: "Clive Whelan" <clive at gw3njw.fsworld.co.uk>
To: <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 9:58 PM
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] M0BEW - WAECW 2002


> G3SEK Ian White wrote:
> > It's not the Morse
> > reading speed that's hard to believe, but the typing/scribbling speed
> > required to get the solid string of 10 into the log with no time for
> > 'reading behind'. Is it real, or in WAE is 'QTC' a signal - at least for
> > some people - to press the REC button?
> >
>
>
> It is widely rumoured that leading contestants have, for many years before
> technology made it so easy, recorded the QTCs as a matter of course.
> However, this could easily be sour grapes on the part of less successful
> operators. I suspect the truth is that some ops do do this, and more today
> than ever before . However I agree with Ed, that it is not in the spirit
of
> the contest. If you do it however you are only cheating yourself, as it is
> not against the rules per se.
>
> Ian will be gratified to learn that I do struggle to get the stuff into
the
> keyboard at 35 wpm plus ( 30 is comfortable) I can read the CW easily at
35
> wpm, and type ( *not* easily!) at 35s, but that doesn't mean there is a
> good match. To "do" 35s, I believe you need to type at about 45s or more,
> and that implies touch typing, which I personally believe would never be
> achieved without professional tuition.
>
>
> Hesitation and retention are two key words here. He who hesitates is lost,
> was never more true than when taking QTCs into the keyboard! Retention is
> important, because if you are thrown off balance by say ( fictitious)
> LX/9A6QQ/P then you need to recall that from your brain's volatile RAM
> register. I am in little doubt that Anno Domini degrades such an ability,
> even in the best of operators.
>
> Some anecdotal evidence suggests that if you learned keyboarding *before*
> CW, you are much better equipped for this procedure, whereas the OFs ( no
> names no pack drill!) who originally had to write the stuff long hand, are
> much less natural at the game. I have considered writing the QTCs to paper
> like I used to do before computer logging came along, and then
transcribing
> to kbd post contest, which I think is entirely ethical. However I decided
> to persevere with direct to kbd copy, and the good news is that it was
> slightly easier this year. The problem is that once a year is quite
> insufficient practice to improve. What is needed I think is some kind of
> practice "tapes", but how this could be made interactive I have no idea.
> methinks a certain G4VXE may be the man for such a project. Wot sa Tim!
>
>
> 73
>
>
> Clive
> GW3NJW
> gw3njw at gw7x.org
> Contest Cambria-http://www.gw7x.org
>
>
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