[UK-CONTEST] Typing skills and contesting

Tue Aug 16 02:06:28 PDT 2011

Andy has articulated what I strongly believed to be the case. I suspect 
that our keyboard skills are +/- the same. This then begs the questio as 
to why it is significantly more difficult to transcribe CW onto the 
keyboard than it is SSB.

Well, of course it isn't in the everday of contests, in fact I believe 
that for YT who never uses SSB that it may be more efficient; certainly 
I am quite unaware of any " translation " being necessary. Of course to 
the contrary, QTCs come in a format, which is not that familiar, and of 
coure WAE comes but once a year. I don't believe that there is a 
fundamental problem here for the born again hunt and pecker, rather that 
it is the same as getting to the Carnegie Hall, viz, practice, practice, 
practice.

Chris/DL8MBS has drawn my attention to a prog. by Fabian/DJ1YFK ( who 
enjoys the advantage of youth ) which can hone one's skills. I suppose 
the question is, whether there is a cost/benefit dividend in doing this? 
On paper, I'd say no, but since even in my dotage I do not want to 
suffer from a skills deficit in any area of contesting, I may have to 
consider my position!

On the issue of computer/paddle sending, I would opine: if you are 
running a >200 p.h. rate, then trying to integrate the paddle is 
counter-productive, and will lower the rate. However having a paddle at 
the ready synced to the computer sending speed is a get out of gaol card 
for correcting fouls up. Even at that rate it is nice to be able to say 
on the fly " hi Fred " or whatever, and add some humanity to an 
otherwise impersonal process. In fact I use the paddle for e.g. "agn" or 
"nr?", because I just don't use F keys, rather ESM, which imo is another 
significant rate booster.

73

Clive
GW3NJW

On 16/08/2011 08:21, Andy Cook G4PIQ wrote:
> Clive asked about how SSB ops cope with QTCs if they're not a touch typist. I'm not a touch typist though through 30 years of spending a lot of time in front of a keyboard I'm a fairly quick hunt and pecker but I do look at the keyboard much of the time. QTCs on SSB at full speed are not a problem...
>
> 73
>
> Andy G4PIQ
>
> On 15 Aug 2011, at 17:34, Clive Whelan<clive at gw3njw.net>  wrote:
>
>    
>> Hi Stewart
>>
>> Good to have a touch typist's perspective.
>>
>> I am certainly not a touch typist, and feel it is way toooo late to
>> learn now. However, and interestingly, I have no issues whatsoever with
>> normal contest operation, and can say that in the vast majority of
>> situations touch typing is NOT a pre-requisite. If required I can even
>> forego the type ahead function, although I won't be quite as fast as
>> with it. In that situation, my 50+ year CW copying skills and short term
>> memory are sufficient, even to make corrections on the fly at 35wpm (
>> using N1MM) for instance where I have mistyped. I cannot be sure of
>> course, since one cannot assert a negative, but feel that the legendary
>> 10,000 hours syndrome is standing me in good stead. However, where I
>> signally fail is in the entry of QTCs at 30wpm+. I suspect that this may
>> be because the format is not as natural, as the callsigb, serial number
>> routine. What happens is I find myself playing catch-up, and making
>> errors which I cannot correct on the fly. Sadly, being a self taught CW
>> student all those years ago I never did learn to " copy behind ", and I
>> feel sure that this is a valuable asset when transferring stuff from the
>> brain to the keyboard. Naturally there is no problem in copying to paper
>> in any circumstances, and I suspect this is because that was the way I (
>> we?) took the stuff down originally, and of course we were all competent
>> in that department before learning CW.
>>
>> Again, I cannot be sure, but in view of the difficulties you- as a touch
>> typist- have, I suspect that the only way to be comfortable with the
>> process, is if one were already a competent typist before learning CW,
>> but that if it it is the other way around, then the process may never be
>> perfected. 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. What would also be
>> interesting is how a  competent SSB operator but non ouch typist fares
>> with QTCs
>>
>> I may be a cynic, but knowing the dificulties that the average Joe has
>> copying my exchange at>30 wpm in conventional contests, the difference
>> in WAE leads me to believe that many are actually using audio recording
>> or even decoders ( although how the latter could work I don't know ). I
>> used to love WAE and QTCs in the old days when sending on the paddle and
>> copying on paper, but I confess I now find it a chore to have to ask (
>> beg even ) for QTCs, so I tend to chill out in that one. Also the
>> default use of clusters does not now endear it to me. ymmv.
>>
>>
>> 73
>>
>>
>> Clive
>> GW3NJW
>>
>> On 15/08/2011 11:32, Stewart Rolfe wrote:
>>      
>>> 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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