[UK-CONTEST] ARRL CW

[Dennis Andrews, F5VHY]

I think the term "horses for courses" really does apply. In fact, of course, there are times when I speed up to mid-
30s or maybe more BUT only when I feel it is going to INCREASE my scoring rate. I would never, as has been
 suggested, speed up to diminish the number of callers.

Of course, high-speed sending is OK where "Guess Exchange" is operating as it's just a push button affair. But 
how about where a genuine exchange needs to be copied and logged - WPX, WAE, IARU and BERU. 

Is there any evidence to suggest that QRQ really does increase scoring rates?

I ran the logs of some leading stations in the CQCW 2008 through SH5, which will identify the best 10-minute
 period and the best hour during the contest period. I was 8th in EU SOAB HP using TM6X. It shows the following
 Best 10-minutes/Best hour for the leaders in that section.

CU2X      42/197
4O3A      44/184
SV9CVY  44/204
DJ5MW   33/150
S50A      38/189
OE4A     36/171
OH4A     34/145
TM6X      37/179

I would contend that the three at the top are there though geographic location, callsign and strength of signal 
giving them a sufficiently large, on-going pile-up to keep the speed of sending up.

Out of interest, I also had a look to see if there was evidence that QRQ had helped our leading supporters of this
 mode.

Steve - G3VMW was one of the operators at P3F in a M/2 operation. Their best periods were 66/314. With two
 operators running, I guess it's reasonable to divide these figures by two to arrive at single operator comparisons -
which gives 33/157.

Gerry - GI0RTN was with M6T where the best periods were 46/215 (actually, the very first hour of the contest).
Although you can't divide these by 2, if you check the log, it shows that the "run" operator (on 80m) made just
166 QSOs in the hour.


All very interesting stuff. I remain to be convinced but look forward to seeing either Steve or Gerry appearing above
my call in any contest results before I'm carted off to the geriatric home!

73 de Dennis - F5VHY.