[UK-CONTEST] ARRL DX

[Gerry Lynch]

On Feb 25 2010, Roger G3SXW wrote:


> My personal best is 221 per hour (from 1A0KM) but once you can get beyond
> 180-ish I firmly believe that it is the pile-up situation which
> determines rate, not the operator's ability.

Yes but not but yes but no. Certainly you need the right conditions to run
really fast - 20, 15 or 10 open and only open to North America and early in
the contest when you're still working tier 1 and 2 stations, with slick
operating and largely 1x2 or 2x1 callsigns. Some of the slower rates in
Europe are because of less snappy operators, but some is also because more
US second tier operators have 1x2 and 2x1 callsigns and more European
second tier operators have clunky 2x3s.

How much does skill matter? Have a look at

http://www.qsl.net/oh1noa/rates.htm

I'm rather proud of my 236 from PJ2T (and another 225 or so the same year).
But there's a huge gap between that and the 270+ hours clocked by W2GD and
your new best friend 4L5A. Is that because they got lucky or is it because
John and Al are that much better operators than me? I say because they're
that much better than me.

236 really did feel like the limit of my abilities, even in those
conditions. *As always* I was riding the speed control that hour, but
between 38 and 42 wpm; and I didn't go faster because my brain needed the
recharge time. Others would have made more out of it. Maybe not many
others, but some would have made a lot more out of it. Maybe I could have
made more if I were operating from the Caribbean more regularly. But I'm
not and I don't think I could ever average 4.5 a minute for a whole hour,
no matter what.

And when people say "I contest for fun", I point out that those were the
most fun hours I've ever had in my life, with the possible exceptions of
really good sex and winning elections.

73

Gerry GI0RTN