[UK-CONTEST] Keyboard delays - CC CW 15/6 (longish)

[Peter Hobbs]

Following the earlier discussion re keyboard operating, I spent an idle moment looking with Sound Forge at my recording of this event to see if I could deduce who was "on-line" and who was logging by hand.  The first 38 of my 99 QSOs were all s&p, mostly with the established players and there was a wide variation in the time taken to respond to my call (sent once in each case) and to acknowledge my exchange, also sent once.  

The best response time from this small sample was by G0WKW at 298/286ms, followed by G3SXW at 452/371.  Very few of those who I know were on the keyboard bettered a call response time of 600ms, whereas using a paddle this is easy.  The average was around a whole second, with several over the 1.5 second mark.  Now it should be possible to improve some on this using partial entry and catch-up, which is supported by all the loggers nowadays.  I doubt that the keyboard/keyer itself is contributing much to the delay, which even in such a short event loses several minutes to the average participant.

Taken together with the number who continue to repeat the running station's call when sending their report (mentioned by Chris and others) I have the feeling that many participants are still using the default settings on their logger and that a few basic pointers on setup of preferences/options by "those who know" would not come amiss.  Anyone seen such a page on the web (or feel motivated to produce one) that could be referenced on the HFCC site?  I know there have been excellent articles in the Bulletin that addressed some of these issues, but hard copies tend to end up in a pile on the floor after a month or two - a referenced web page is really the answer to most things these days . . .

Finally, the HF Contesting Guide on the HFCC site still emphasises paper logging and using the right forms, etc.  Is this due for a revamp?

Regards

Peter G3LET