[UK-CONTEST] EuSprint CW

[dave at g4buo.com]

Sprints are not to everyone's taste, but there are many respected
contesters particularly in the US who consider them to be the ultimate
test of contesting ability.

This is particularly true in my opinion now that Skimmer technology has –
in contest sections that permit it for single ops – fundamentally changed
the nature of search and pounce in a CW contest. It becomes point and
shoot. Those of us who like to copy callsigns for ourselves KNOW that in a
sprint, there's practically no scope for anyone to cheat and get a call
from Skimmer or RBN because, just when the technology finds a station, he
will most likely have QSYed.

Certainly in the North American Sprint this is the case, with the very
high level of activity people move around really rapidly. Unfortunately
the EU Sprints haven't captured the imagination of enough contesters in
Europe. Perhaps too many of them are too wedded to running big power and
pushing the F1 button. That's not the sort of contesting that appeals to
me. S+P is a great skill to acquire. I don't understate the skill level
required to run a CW pileup at 3/min or above on CW, but S+P is a whole
new skill, and can be enormously rewarding when done well. I've currently
got the G 'record' in the NA Sprint with 200 QSOs – ironically this is
more QSOs than can currently be made in the EU Sprint, due to lack of
activity.

Unfortunately there's some time to go until the next NA Sprint – early Feb
I believe - but even if you can't break through and make some NA QSOs, at
least spend half an hour or so listening. It’s enormously thrilling
listening to the pace of the event and appreciating the skills displayed
by those entrants, some of whom are capable of making up to 400 QSOs in a
four-hour CW contest, where you have to QSY after every second contact!
Not all of them rely on SO2R technology, some of them can do it just by
QSYing within the current band.

We're now putting in a new publicity drive for the EU Sprints having
sorted out the problems we had with adjudication. I'd dearly love to build
activity levels until the EU Sprint becomes as thrilling an event as the
NA events. At least we have some RSGB 80m sprints where you can get some
practice – but it does rely on activity levels being high, otherwise the
'sprint' becomes a 'walk'.

Dave G4BUO

> Rob,
>
> The first time I tried a EuSprint cw I gave up in frustration after 10
> minutes, just couldn't my head round the whole thing. In a 'normal'
> contest you at least have an opportunity to listen to a couple of
> exchanges from the same (high speed?) station to work things out; in a
> sprint he/she's gone after one exchange during which you've got to get the
> number and name before someone else may be calling you.
>
> I persevered and now think they're great fun but usually suffer from
> insufficient numbers to get that nice 'flow' and rhythm going. So don't
> despair Rob and meantime hope to work you in the RSGB sprints, though
> unfortunately I'll be missing for next week's...
>
> 73,
>
> Stewart, GW0ETF
>
> --- On Sun, 9/10/11, G4LMW <g4lmw at btconnect.com> wrote:
>
>> From: G4LMW <g4lmw at btconnect.com>
>> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] EuSprint CW
>> To: "Stewart Rolfe" <gw0etf at btinternet.com>, "UK-Contest"
>> <uk-contest at contesting.com>
>> Date: Sunday, 9 October, 2011, 14:36
>> Hi Stewart
>>
>> Mine was a token participation worked around domestic
>> commitments. Only 30 QSOs
>>
>> To be honest, I think the general higher speed of CW was
>> enough to put many RSGB Sprinters off (it nearly pushed me
>> away!)
>>
>> Thanks for the QSO.
>>
>> Regards
>> Rob, G4LMW
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stewart Rolfe"
>> <gw0etf at btinternet.com>
>> To: "UK-Contest" <uk-contest at contesting.com>
>> Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2011 12:23 PM
>> Subject: [UK-CONTEST] EuSprint CW
>>
>>
>> > Not done a Eu Sprint since last spring and thought
>> numbers of participants were lower. The RSGB convention this
>> weekend obviously reduced UK participation; thanks to G0MTN,
>> G4ERW and G4LMW for keeping me company.
>> >
>> > K3/Acom 1000 and a low 30m long doublet. Antenna ok on
>> 20m and 40m but a cloud warmer on 80m which is not too bad
>> for UK but struggles into eu and beyond. The incessant rain
>> put me off putting up an inv-L for a maximum of 2 hours
>> action on 80m but it would certainly have made a
>> difference.
>> >
>> > Spread of unique calls....DL(10), UA etc(10), I(7),
>> LY(6), PA(4), G etc(4), S5*(3), SP(2), OK(2) and one from
>> each of 9A, EA, EU, JA, LA, W, OM, SV and UT. Where were all
>> the RSGB 80m sprinters??
>> >
>> > Stewart, GW0ETF