Good afternoon blog readers I hope you are still enjoying the summer heat and are putting it into perspective as it compares to winters freezing cold?
I have a question, when it comes to CW contesting...how fast is to fast? I have asked myself this question during CW contests, when I decide to search and pounce most of the time the speed is in around 30-34 wpm. Now having said that there are some big guns that run at close to 40wpm. BUT they have been spotted and always will be thus for the most part then the caller already knows their call. It is just the exchange that has to be handled and if it is a contest that has a generic exchange (CQ zone, ITU zone so on) then the software fills in the exchange details.
For a small gun like me it's only now and then I get spotted on the cluster and I know when this happens as I get into a pileup situation. I am not some multi operator high power station with dream antennas I am just small potatoes. I feel that if I was to knock out code at 36 wpm I think my contact rate would drop? In my humble opinion ( please correct me if I am wrong) I should stay in the 30-34 wpm range to gather fish in my net?
What say you fellow CW contesters.....in a dark place in my mind I am thinking that for me its a waste of time to practice for the 38-40 wpm goal because with my 100 watts along with a simple vertical antenna at that speed I will hear crickets when calling CQ contest? What say you............
2 comments:
Hello Mike, my neighbourstation PA4O (who is currently active from PJ5) does a lot of CW practising. He is able to do 74 wpm. I often test his ability to copy me on high speed and call him with 40wpm or above. He is always able to copy me despite I hear my call as fast as a RTTY signal. I don't know how he does this, I think it is a magic miracle. 73, Bas
Good morning Bas very nice to hear from you, yes I agree that 74 wpm is way up there. To able decode at that speed and even 55-74 is a special gift. I am happy with topping out at 36 wpm.
Have a great weekend,
73
Mike
VE9KK
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