[UK-CONTEST] RTTY Decoders in CW contests

[Gerard Lynch]

At 00:20 29/05/2007, Mike Harris wrote:
>G'day,
>
>Oh dear, I don't use cut numbers, hate 'em.  Also send at about 22/24wpm.
>I guess I will just have to cross G6PZ off my mental recognition list.

I wondered who I would offend with that post, but I was really 
surprised to find you were the offended party, Mike!  If you think it 
was a comment on your operating, I suggest you reread it, because 
there is no way that it could apply to you.

Point One: you don't send your callsign three times bracketing the 
exchange.  I know, because I worked you yesterday (thanks for the 
mult, hopefully some year, I'll work you from home as well!).  In 
fact, you didn't send anything extraneous that I remember, although 
*I* might have done in my shock and surprise.  Swinging the beam down 
your way for indirect path USA always seems to net some nice 
surprises from your direction, and on 10 and 15 I tend to try it for 
short bursts even when the band is wide open direct to the USA, much 
as people tend to scream at me for for taking quick peeks to to the 
southwest during USA runs .

Point Two: I didn't say anything about sending at 22/24 wpm, which is 
of course entirely normal and reasonable.  I didn't say anything 
about pumping out 15 wpm from a hand key either.  But if the operator 
in question can't actually read or send CW and the whole business is 
run as a computer operated exercise then they might as well set their 
computer to send things at a decent speed.  And cut out the crap.

Point Three: I'm not a big fan of people sending TU and GL at the end 
of contest or DXpedition exchanges.  Why?  They don't add anything, 
except maybe if it's someone you know and the GL is meant 
genuinely.  If you're running at high rates, they simply break the 
rhythm which confuses the run operator, confuses the pileup and 
generally means that less people will work the DX/'big gun' and the 
'big gun' will work less other stations.  No-one wins.  Run stations 
of course send TU at the end of every QSO, but it's not exactly a 
hearty thanks more a recognition that "TU" takes less time than "R 
QRZ?" which is what it actually means in practice.

Brutal?  I don't think so.  We're supposed to be experts in the art 
of radio communication.  Exchanging relevant information as quickly 
and clearly as possible is a core skill - I would say *the* core 
skill of radio operation, whether it's on CW, 'phone or RTTY.  Good 
operating has never been something we're good at teaching, we expect 
people to pick it up through a process of osmosis.  As contest 
operators, we should explain why communicating as briefly as 
conditions allow is important, and casual operators might agree with 
us and do it.  No-one explained to me why saying "good luck in the 
contest" is pointless, so it was years before I got rid of that bad 
habit in phone contests.


73

Gerry G0RTN
http://www.gerrylynch.co.uk
"In days of old, when ops were bold and sidebands not invented
The word would pass by pounding brass, and all were well contented."