[UK-CONTEST] RSGB 80m CC CW

[Mark Capstick]

> Dear All,
> 
> I have been reading the reflector for a few weeks now, but this is my
> first posting....
> Just wanted to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the 80m Club Champs
> contests.  I was a little unsure about the vague, open-ended, unlimited
> team numbers concept, as opposed to the well defined AFS Team
> contests....but then we at Basingstoke ARC never managed to muster a full
> team for  AFS!  So, it has become a self-improvement exercise,
> particularly on CW, having been virtually QRT for the last 7 years.  (My
> CW is still more than a little rusty.)
> 
> The Feb CC CW contest was frustrating to say the least, with PC Keying
> problems (SD DOS keying directly from the parallel port).  I kept getting
> random length dots and dashes .....extremely embarrassing!  As a
> consequence stuck to S&Ping, with the keyer.  Made 58 QSOs.
> 
> This week's CC CW contest was much better.  Moved to windows-based SD,
> still keying directly from the PC.  Much better, but still getting
> occasional CW character element speed variations, but was good enough to
> hold a frequency most of the time.  Made 85 QSOs......46% improvement!!
> 
> Still not totally happy with the keying performance, so have ordered a
> Winkey interface, at Paul, EI5DI's recommendation.  I hope it will sort
> out my PC keying once and for all....then I will have nothing else to
> blame, except my operating skills!!
> I am a little worried about Chris, G3SJJ's comments:
> 
> ....."the Writelog/Winkey problem was apparent again with the speed
> varying at will. "
> I was hoping that Winkey would be my keyer timing Holy Grail!  Time will
> tell.
> Looking forward to the next CW contest, and hoping to have a crack at the
> SSB one next week with my XYL Rachel, M0RCD....
> 73,
> 
> Mark Capstick, G4RCD.
>