SST - Slow Speed Contest
MST - Medium Speed Contest
I am having a blast working these one hour long contests. I'm not concerned about the scores, just the practice in copying callsigns.
Just for a point of reference I did best in the MST test (and all contacts were in S/P -- Search and Pounce) with a rate of about 1 QSO every 2 minutes. Not ideal, but a good start. I will do better!
The goal is to approach 1 per minute, then 2 per minute and see how close I can get to the best utilization of the time. I think during the 7-QP with a lot of help we had rate of about 1 QSO every 60-80 seconds but we were running a busy contest.
I figure if I can work 2 per minute that would be a good level to have before the WA QSO Party (Salmon Run) this year. Then again, I don't know really what the maxim rate could be. Let's stick with 2/min as a goal for the month of June. It will take a lot of practice.
Stepping back from this I can only contemplate about how this happened.
In order to prepare for the opportunity to work DX'p I'll need to brush up on CW and the CW Contest has been absolutely phenomenal in raising my confidence and given me a great reason to work more CW and practice copying callsigns. I'm still making a lot of mistakes, but they are good mistakes -- in that they are teaching me things -- better ways to listen, more experience at hearing calls in CW directed towards me (when I call CQ). That's really it.
I used CW for years for the purpose of chasing after DX and it was a tool to log a station that I wanted to reach. For DX'ing CW was essential, but I did not quite understand how much fun it would be to be on the other end taking calls (in Run mode) or rapidly sifting through the band giving reports to others who are in the "contest".
Thanks to my friends who are helping me do this. The encouragement is so important and welcome.
If you hear me on the band, don't hesitate to drop your call and give me your advice, I would appreciate your help to know how to do this better.
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