[Elecraft] QRQ CW

Wed Apr 30 08:51:53 EDT 2014

I am accused by some of sending too fast in CW contests; I like fast.  My
typical CQ speed in this years ARRL DX and CQWW contests was in the 35-42
wpm range.   When the stations are loud, and the ops good, I stick with
40-44 WPM, but when the pile thins and there are less callers, I slow it
down.  What I've found is that, in most contests, contrary to what Kevin
was saying, QRQ does not stop people from calling you.  Many, many guys
come back to me on straight keys at 15-20 WPM but don't  ask for QRS or
fills -- most contest exchanges are pretty darn easy.  If the callers stop
calling, I often QRS to see if there are some people waiting to call but
can't copy.  I find few.   I also find that QSO Rate is directly affected
by speed.  For me, the true sweet spot is in the 32-38 wpm range.  Maybe a
bit slower in Sweepstakes.  I don't consider these speeds "showing off".
(I also hate big swings in speed in the exchange!)

I was blessed when I was a teenager -- some 35 years ago -- to ragchew with
a bunch of friends on 40m who were into QRQ with keyboards.  Gerry can you
copy?  Yes?  They would increase speed until I was barely able to copy.  So
-- now general conversation at 50wpm is OK in my head.   Ham-type QSOs I
can go much faster -- in the 60s probably.    Many years of traffic
handling helped as well.   Contest QSOs are very predictable -- so they are
so easy to copy.

One other note on speed... I operated W1AW/! from Massachusetts the first
day it was on... It was the first time that state was on 20m CW with the
'AW/1 call.  The pile was HUGE, about 2.5 kHz wide.   Everyone was loud and
the ops were great.  So, I cranked the speed up to 48 wpm.  It was GREAT!
 No one left the pile (how hard is 5NN MA?)  I had no QRS requests.

Since this is the K3 reflector, I'll say I use the K3 in QSK mode for all
my CW contesting -- I love it.  Very smooth.  The only issue I had this
year was so much loud backscatter, especially on 20 and 10m.  The echoes
were so loud that it would really confuse if trying to send from the paddle
(which I rarely do!)  Never an issue with the K3 driving an Alpha 87A in
QSK.  Love it!

73, Gerry W1VE (AK4L back in the teenage years)

Gerry Hull, W1VE   | Nelson, NH USA | +1-617-CW-SPARK
AKA: VE1RM | VY2CDX | VO1CDX | 6Y6C | 8P9RM
<http://www.yccc.org> <http://www.yccc.org/>
<http://www.facebook.com/gerryhull>  <https://plus.google.com/+GerryHull/posts>
     <http://www.twitter.com/w1ve>

On Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 7:49 AM, Kevin Stover
<kevin.stover at mediacombb.net>wrote:

> Excellent post.
>
> I learned more than ten years ago from a group of guys in the Black Hills
> that slowing down to about 22-25 wpm when running gets more answers than
> "showing off" and cranking the keyer up to 35+.
> These guys can all do 50+ head copy but slow it down intentionally to
> attract more contacts.
> It works. For about 6 years in a row they were one of the top ten 1A
> stations during field day.
> Maybe if the big contest guns did the same we wouldn't have the visceral
> anti-contest attitudes displayed, and get more people involved.
>
>
> On 4/29/2014 9:09 PM, Fred Jensen wrote:
>
>> INT QRQ [also QRQ?]: "Shall I send faster?"
>> QRQ nn: "Send faster, nn WPM"
>>
>> We hams nounify and verbify International Q-Signals all the time, and QRQ
>> in casual conversation means someone who sends and receives Morse at rates
>> generally higher than the normal proletariat on the CW bands and in
>> contests ... which tend to be higher than normal conversation, not a whole
>> lot to say and often it's predictable. :-)
>>
>> The alleged Morse receiving record is held by Ted McElroy from sometime
>> in the first half of the 20th century ... around 75 WPM on text taken from
>> the newspaper.  I do hear about those over 100 [units not always
>> specified], I really don't know how to interpret that.
>>
>> I first met Joe, now N8EA, at Keesler AFB in Biloxi MS when we were both
>> very much younger, I was 22 and he might have still been in his very late
>> teens, or maybe 20.  Joe could head copy 50+ WPM.  I think he still can.
>>  I'd say he could paddle it too except I could *not* copy 50 WPM so how
>> would I know when he did send?
>>
>> QRQ [as a noun meaning "very fast CW"] is a personal thing.  It depends
>> on your Morse experience, how old you are, and other factors.  Receiving
>> QRQ limit for me is around 40 WPM, but I doubt I'd try and engage D4C in a
>> debate at 40 wpm however.  My limit with a paddle has declined to around
>> 25, maybe 28 on a good day, it's been inversely proportional to the number
>> of accumulated birthdays.  For a CW newbie, 20 WPM character speed and 12
>> WPM net speed could be QRQ ... a struggle.
>>
>> My K3 has a QRQ mode [unused by me] that improves the keying and QSK at
>> very high speeds, most of which I think come from keyboards these days.  I
>> hope we don't get back into the nonsense of Extra, Extra Lite, and No Code
>> Extras.  You take the test on the day you take the test.  It is what it is
>> right then.  You pass, you get your license and it's as good as mine from
>> 1956 ... period.  We're all in this together.
>>
>> In the Summits On The Air crowd, a number of formerly SSB/FM-only ops are
>> actively learning CW.  I know there are others.  Every legal mode is OK,
>> and we're pretty good at sharing our spectrum allocations. Others on the
>> planet could actually learn from us.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Fred K6DGW
>> - Northern California Contest Club
>> - CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
>> - www.cqp.org
>>
>
>
> --
> R. Kevin Stover
> AC0H
> ARRL
> FISTS #11993
> SKCC #215
> NAQCC #3441
>
>
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