[UK-CONTEST] Typing skills and contesting

[Roger Cooke]

Hi Stewart.

  I do use touch typing, I was lucky when I first went to work I was amazed at 
the typing pool. The girls in there 

could carry on a conversation with me and carry on typing their letters at the 
same time, so I persuaded one to
teach me in the lunch hour. It has been very useful, and being a pianist, it 
also helps.  I definitely believe that it
can only be a help, because you do watch the screen at the same time anyway, so 
corrections are not a problem.
   I also have set in N1MM the facility that enables transmit after 3 
characters. However I have been caught out 

with that on a couple of occasions when the other station has been /A or /P. 
Again, like you, a note on a piece of
paper for post contest correction usually puts that right. 

 

Regards from Roger, G3LDI
Swardeston, Norfolk.





________________________________
From: Stewart Rolfe <gw0etf at btinternet.com>
To: UK-Contest <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Mon, 15 August, 2011 11:32:21
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] Typing skills and contesting

Some interesting comments in the latest thread about typing skills.

I'm a self taught touch typist but don't seem to have the confidence to use it 
properly in a contest. Nevertheless I can keep up with most situations I find 
myself in and am happy enough for example to press Enter to start sending before 
I've finished entering the call ('type ahead'..?).

However, I spent some time in WAE cw at the weekend and for me QTCs are a 
totally different matter; there's no way I'm going to type these in real time 
when you're normally talking 30wpm minimum. I'm afraid I'm writing them on paper 
and entering them post contest with all the dangers of reading my own rapidly 
scribbled letters; in fact I discovered a pdf form in my old files that DARC 
used to produce for just this purpose so presumably I'm not alone, though it 
doesn't seem to be available now.

So is touch typing to be considered an essential tool in a contester's armour?

73,

Stewart, GW0ETF

PS I did half intend to get tooled up with audio recording for the purposes of 
checking my QTCs but never got round to it - feels a bit like cheating anyway?
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