[Elecraft] EQP: a CW-only contest?

[Kevin Rock]

Many of the CW folks have commented on being shut out.  It may have been 
the band conditions and not the lack of folks out there trying.  20 meters 
was in pretty good shape because I made 8 contacts in about 15 minutes.  
But I only worked for about an hour or so total.  I am just now finding 
out that there is supposed to be some sort of order to the contact.  I 
thought chatting was encouraged in this party.  It never crossed my mind 
that this was some sort of serious contest but I guess it was.
    73,
        Kevin.  KD5ONS



On Mon, 15 Mar 2004 19:55:46 -0500, Mark Volstad <mvolstad@fuse.net> wrote:

> Having built my K2 (s/n 3862) last November, I was really looking 
> forward to
> participating in my first EQP. I even put the finishing touches on a 
> KPA100
> and KAT100 last week just to make sure that I would be heard! I was
> therefore very disappointed to find that there seemed to be no SSB 
> activity
> whatsoever in the contest. I spent several hours monitoring the 
> designated
> phone sections on 15 and 20 meters, and heard nary an EQP QSO. I hung 
> out my
> own shingle for a while and had no takers, except for an older fellow who
> told me that this was the first he'd heard of a Hallicrafters QSO 
> party!  I
> eventually gave up and worked the OK QSO party instead and made 14 
> contacts.
>
> Don't get me wrong -- I love CW, but my current comfort zone of 12 wpm is
> well below what seems to be needed for a CW contest. Add to this the fact
> that I'm a new ham and don't yet understand the intricacies of CW
> contesting -- I understand the basic exchange but am lost on how to 
> request
> a repeat, etc. Are there any good web sites that explain typical 
> contesting
> shorthand?
>
> I was also looking forward to sharing building and operating experiences
> with other Elecrafters, something that's rather difficult to do at 12 
> wpm.
> Perhaps next year one or two hours of the contest could be designated as
> SSB-only to encourage a bit of activity in this mode. In the meantime, 
> I'll
> keep practicing my CW.  :-)
>
> 73,
> Mark, AI4BJ
> Northern Ky
>
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