[UK-CONTEST] Typing skills and contesting

[Stewart GM4AFF]

The ability to touch type is not really the point. Errors occur because
there are ops who seem to give themselves a real hard time sending with one
device (a paddle) and ALSO typing in the call to another device (a keyboard
or paper log), so there's often a mismatch. How they manage to do this at 36
wpm is beyond me, but I can spot them a mile away when I work them ;-)
If the keyboard was used as the primary and only means of callsign 'data'
entry then, given the checks done by the software on strange format calls,
there ought to never be a mis-typed and therefore mis-sent call. And if you
needed to touch-type to keep up then I reckon you're making QSOs at a rate
well beyond the current world record!

73
Stewart
GM4AFF

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Dave Sergeant
Sent: 15 August 2011 18:08
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Typing skills and contesting


On 15 Aug 2011 at 16:34, Clive Whelan wrote:

> Of ourse this has to be conjecture on my part, and it would
> be good to have the views of somebody who was a typist before learning
> CW. I'd guess that they may be a rare breed.

I am one of those 'rare breed's, in that I learnt to touch type while
still at school, around 1963-4. I learnt morse at University, in 1968.
Of course in those days the typewriter was very much a sit up and beg
one with chunky keys, and contests were very much paper and pen (and
real RSTs). In my early days of contesting I had difficulty
coordinating ear/brain/fingers and nearly gave up. But over time it
becomes instinctive - and these days I copy whole callsigns in my head
before completing typing it in. Occasionally when I am unsure of a
serial number (those big 4 digit ones) I ask for a repeat - every
single time I have typed it correct the first time.

What I cannot do, even now, though is to hold a conversation while I am
copying or sending. I know that is something the old wireless operators
used to be able to do, but I don't know how they do it. I can drink a
cuppa, write notes with my other hand etc, but as soon as somebody
speaks to me I lose it...

My UBNs tend to show the occasional problem with me miscopying numbers
(no more than a couple per 80MCC), but by far the most common problem
is stations miscopying my serials, which is quite understandable with
my weak QRP signals - very wrong copies, not just one digit. I cannot
find a single case which indicates I have sent something different with
my paddle than what is in the log, and I don't believe it happens.

73 Dave G3YMC

http://www.davesergeant.com

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