[UK-CONTEST] QRS Contest

[Clive Whelan]

I m-a-y not be right, often I am not, but I do think the
concept of QRS contesting is a ludicrous one. Analogies are
equally tricky, but may be useful to the novice. So, did
Michael Schumacher learn to drive fast  by starting on the
Nurburgring with everyone  zooming by at 100 m.p.h+?; I
rather doubt it. Rather he learned to drive on public roads
like the rest of us; improved his skills on a day-to-day
basis. It then dawned an him, or was recognised by others,
that he had a talent, and he progressed to the "nursery
slopes" of motor racing. By the time he found himself in a
competitive environment he was already well on the road to
competence.

My own history as a CW operator, was that I passed my 12
w.p.m. in March 1959 after thinking that I would never get
there, even given the exuberance and blind self confidence
of youth ( I had yet to learn the fear of failure). The
ticket came along in April, and I made my first faltering
QSO with G3JHH ( now SK) in Hounslow. If anybody thinks that
might have been comfortable, it was not. At this point I was
still having to write everything down on paper, in capital
letters ( joined up writing came later), and really
struggled to send John's report, my name and QTH, from a
pre-pared crib sheet. After that, even as a precocious 16
year old, I was quite exhausted! The resultant thrill was
however, even almost 50 years on, quite inexpressible. It
wasn't the era when callow youths punched the air and
shouted YES, but that's how it felt alright. I then, without
realising it, began to gain s degree of competence.

Wind the clock forward a few months to June 1959, which as
we all know is the month of NFD, a very big event in those
days. I cycled about 5 miles across town( I was 16 remember)
to the Cardiff RSGB group NFD site, and was captivated by
the sights and sounds, of NFD: tents, generators, gin-pole
masts, open wire feeders, AR88s, CR100s, bug keys, glowing
807s, and steaming mugs of tea! I stood in awe as giants of
my youth such as GW5BI, GW4FW, GW8UH and GW3AHN began to
fill the paper log sheets with QSOs, carefully entering each
one onto a dupe sheet ordered by the last letter of the
callsign; to me this was military precision, indeed many of
these blokes were military trained. As one of the operators
(forget who) got up at the end of his "shift", OM Tom/GW3AHN
pushed me towards the operating chair, and told me that I
was "on"; boy was I terrified! I now realise that Tom had
been watching my progress over the preceding several months,
and thought I could do a job. So it was that I began to run
my first pile up on a straight key. Well, pile up is a
euphesism really but I did fill up a few log sheets, and the
rest is history as they say.


Now it may well be that with the advent of technology, that
it is possible to hone one's contest skills "off-line",
without serving an apprenticeship as described above, but
somehow I rather doubt it. To put some numbers to the
argument, I think it is plain daft to participate in
contests unless you can copy callsigns and exchanges at 20
w.p.m. There may be a number of ways to develop this skill,
and I make no apology for promoting the "apprenticeship"
route above; there really are no free lunches. In reality
one simply never stops learning, and I invariably learn
something new in every contest in which I participate,
whether that be operating technique, strategy , tactics or
perhaps propagation. Remember today is the first day of your
contest career; I'm glad I started when I did.


73


Clive
GW3NJW



-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Alex
GM3ZBE
Sent: 16 January 2007 10:51
To: 'Don Field'; uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] QRS Contest


Hi,
Personally I find that while Morse runner and similar
programs are very good
for teaching you to copy callsigns and reports they do not
teach you how to
"ragchew" in normal operation.  I can copy 25 to 30 wpm
quite well in
contest exchanges but I am not comfortable at more than
about 18wpm when in
a normal qso. I wonder if any one else has found the same
thing?

Alex

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Don
Field
Sent: 16 January 2007 10:31
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] QRS Contest

The problem with MorseRunner, it seems to me (and it's a
great program), is
that it relies on doing everything from the keyboard. When I
was starting in
contesting I used a straight key (until my first serious 48
hour effort -
never again!) and then an elbug. I still prefer to contest
with a key next
to me and not rely 100% on the keyboard. My gut feel is
that, as a newcomer,
I wouldn't be happy with having to use these training
software packages in
that constrained way.

Don G3XTT




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