[UK-CONTEST] RSGB 80m CC SSB condx

[Andy Swiffin]

> Similar slow at the start of the contest here,

Interesting to hear other peoples experiences.   Here was the opposite!

The whole contest was a bit of an experiment for me.   I'm a bit limited just at the moment as the severe flu I thought I had over new year actually turns out to be pneumonia...    Hence I have no stamina and no voice.   So,  I thought I'd try out the N1MM full "voice keying"  facilities and recorded a-z and 0-9 and let it loose in my stead.

It wasn't actually all that bad.   The biggest drawback  I felt was that you could not start saying a calling stations callsign until you'd typed it all in, whereas if I was speaking it I would do so while typing, so there was a bit of a delay there.   Surprisingly most people came back in response to their mechanically spoken" call and almost everyone got the report first time.  For anyone with a vocal disability (even temporary like mine)  I think this is a viable way of participating in an ssb contest.

As to conditions, interesting.   At the start particularly everyone was pretty weak, apart from g8apb!   But in the first 10 minutes I'd made 18.  It was downhill from there and I crested the hill at the end of the hour with 60 and went into a terminal decline with 65 at the close of play.   I expect I could have found a few more by S&P but didn't have the energy or the will for it.    

So,an interesting contest.   

I'm intending in bringing out the mechanical voice for AFS on Sunday so we'll see how that works out.

73
Andy
gm8oeg



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