[Elecraft] ARRL November Sweepstakes CW

[Craig Rairdin]

> but I couldn't participate due to my inability to copy the high speed CW 
> used by  what I assume are mostly computers sending code. 

I admit to being fully automated. WriteLog did 95% of my sending. The other
5% was a keyboard connected to the microKeyer box. I sent CQ once or twice
by hand just to break the monotony. Part of the fun for me is the
technology, so don't anyone give me any crap about not sending my own code.
:-) I didn't design my transceiver either.

I'm comfortable ragchewing at 18-20 WPM -- by no means fast. I had the keyer
set to around 28 for SS. I found most everyone was in that range... Maybe
30-35 at worst. I made a few exchanges at 35 just because the other guy was
going that fast and it was no sweat to hit Alt-F10 a couple times to crank
it up.

*Many* times I slowed the keyer down to 18 for someone sending slower. 

After watching WriteLog, my wife asked me about the need to know any code.
While the code-copying abilities of WriteLog are awesome (it copies at six
audible frequency ranges simultaneously, and can do this for two radios at
the same time), It doesn't handle low s/n ratios as well as the human ear,
and it's not uncommon for it to drop a dit at the beginning or end of a
letter. You can't depend on it.

What I find (and I'm sure everyone does) is I can copy a lot faster in a
contest than in real life, because the messages have a fixed format. Almost
everything is numbers, which are easy to copy fast, and what isn't a number
is a letter from a small list of possibilities (5 or 6 precedence codes and
80 sections). Most of the time I'm able to copy the caller's previous Q and
increment the sequence number by one. Then when I call him I've actually
already copied what he's going to send. I can use that time to verify I
copied it right. The hard part is when you're sending CQ and you don't know
what you're going to get back. I tend to send CQ at 25 WPM and hope that the
answer will come back at the same speed. 

I get the same thing while flying my airplane -- people ask how I can keep
track of everything ATC says. It's all in a fixed format using a limited
vocabulary. You know what they're going to say before they say it so it's
trivial to "remember" it.

Craig
NZ0R
K1 #1966
K2/100 #4941