[UK-CONTEST] CW speed

[G3SJJ]

It is daunting, Francis, but it also a fact of life. Contesting is no 
different to DX chasing. Out of interest today I worked several pile-ups 
and matched my paddle sending speed to their speed. It went like this : 
BX0ZR 25 wpm, XW3DT 27 wpm, VU7RG (20m/15m) 30wpm and (30m) 31 wpm.

Like WVG said, special interest groups, DXing and contesting account for 
the bulk of CW activity these days and the speed range is 25 to 35 wpm, 
but there is some slower stuff around. In our day, 40 years ago, it was 
probably 12 to 20 wpm.

Just an idle thought - I do wonder whether still making people learn on 
a straight key is the right way to go these days. If people had an 
electronic keyer and paddle and were taught to send and receive 
characters at 20wpm from the start then the jump to modern day speeds 
wouldn't be so much of a barrier.

As a test I just turned my keyer down to 20 wpm and tried a few 
characters. Seems less boring than I remember 12 wpm years ago.

Chris G3SJJ



As someone who is about to start learning morse, this is an interesting
thread, I really do want to learn, but talk of only contesting at around
30wpm is very off putting - as G4BUO said, even 12wpm is daunting.

Since its early days for me yet, I can't say how things will go, but if I
can't contest at a slower speed, I might just give up in frustration.

The main driver to me at present is to be able to work DX in these poor
conditions, since I'm not getting far with SSB. However, if the future of CW
contests is 30wpm, I might be dead before I get there.

Francis Bacon