[CW] A Speed Question

[George Merkle]

 As someone who is working this CQ DX contest for fun, I have scratched my head also about that.  I have to use the CW decode capability on my rig for the really fast ones, and it only works sometimes, mostly on strong signals with no QRM, when those operators like some of the Caribbean ops are sending at 40+ wpm. (Is it ZW5B or ZW46?)  It's certainly more fun to me at readable speeds of below 30, and I only send my signal report at 22-24 wpm.  It is a challenge trying to copy some of the stations where 2 or even 3 stations are transmitting within a few hundred hz/cycles of each other.  But when it's at 35+ wpm, I cannot do that!
Many of the really fast transmissions are just encoded into the rig's memory and then blasted away by merely pushing a button.  Takes some of the fun out of it, but if you're trying to maximize points, it's sensible.
George N0GM

    On Saturday, November 23, 2019, 2:46:48 PM CST, Ron.K3PID <ron.k3pid at sbcglobal.net> wrote:  
 
 I’ve been a ham for 58 years. Never got into contesting with the exception of ARRL Field Day with the local club. I was working on the computer this afternoon and listening to 40 meter CW and the clatter of one or another contests and it remains a mystery to me why one would send CQ TEST DE etc at 35 to 40 wpm except perhaps in the final hour of the contest. Isn’t the objective to get as many contacts as possible? Doesn’t 35 wpm exclude a huge segment of the amateur community? I observed several stations calling at high speed for 10 to 15 minutes between responses and wondered if it wouldn’t make more sense to call at say 15 to 20 wpm and maybe double or even triple the odds of a response? Maybe that’s why I don’t do contest! Not complaining mind you, just wondering what the theory is? Ron K3PID  ______________________________________________________________
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