I took him up on the offer. I arrived very early Saturday May 6, 2023. Rusty was already in the shack working CW on 40m for about 30 minutes after the start of the contest by the time I arrived.
We took a small break and he showed me where the essentials were - coffee and after getting a warm shot of Joe we were at the station and talked briefly about the strategy we would use. We'd work CW first.
It was just a few minutes later when Rusty said, smiling, "Why don't you give it a try?"
Well, that is when I found myself in the deep end of the pool.
I was using his rig and his software to call CQ on CW for 40 meters. The key-presses of N1MM software were straight forward to figure out and soon I was dropping the call sign (W6OAT) and taking calls from all over the country and even some DX.
What I assumed was that I would work mostly SSB and Rusty would work CW, but that is not what happened -- and I am grateful. I am grateful because the opportunty Rusty gave me was to work CW and keep working on that mode hour after hour. At first I set the speed of the keyer to what I knew I could probably copy, 16-17 wpm. Most stations came back to me at that speed -- so I had a good chance of copying most of their call. Rusty helped me fill in the blanks during the exchanges. I relied on Rusty's ear to pull out the call signs perectly but there is more to it than that. The exchange, the tempo, the pattern all was what I was learning.
It wasn't only about recognizing the call signs, but also knowing when to recognize when to drop the call (again), or when to give the report ("59 WAKTP") for WA state and Kitsap County. It was terrific fun to be able to get most of the call and log the contacts in the book. We were on a roll soon. 100 QSO's then 200, and so on. Then when the band conditions shifted during the day, we changed bands too. We changed modes on the band. I was able to use my new Heil Pro-7 and with the VOX work SSB --- I felt a little more comfortable with SSB, but to be honest I had the most fun working CW. It is the mode that gave me the best experience.
I don't think I'll stop working CW contests. The bug has bitten me. Pun intended.
Progress was getting better. Soon I just had to turn up the speed, to 18 wpm then 19 wpm. When I shifted to "hunt them down" (by clicking on the spot of the call, the rig and the antenna/amplifier system automatically tuned to that) and I was increasing the speed -- with confidence.
The unfortunate event was that the lower bands just started to get incredibly noisy (QSB, QRN). The noise level was approaching S8-S9 at times. Really difficult to copy, but Rusty was there to help fill in the blanks.
The other neat thing that happened was a lot of Rusty's friends came to work us when we called CQ, and offered an incidental 73 or "Hi Rusty" and it was nice to see a grin on his face with all of the friends coming to work his call.
By the end of the run of the contest, we logged exactly 800 QSO and I think approximately 4/5ths of them were ALL CW. We worked 160, 80, 40, 20 and 15 meters CW and SSB. Our attempt to work 15 was also incredible too. We logged over a 100 CW contacts there. 10 meters wasn't in shape to do us much good.
It's late now, after the end of the contest and I'm just really wiped out. But I'm left with a great appreciation for the art of CW and contesting. I have learned skills that really tested me. I still have a long way to go, but I know it'll always be fun -- just as he told me it would be. He was right.
I will have to check the calendar and find the next contest that involves CW. I may not be able to wait for the WWDXC Salmon Run. There has to be another contest or CW experience before that!
That's all for now. I'll be re-summarizing this once I've had some time to digest all of the tutoring and gems of information that Rusty shared with me.
I hope you had fun working us, W6OAT. And I hope you were OK with the mistakes I made trying to secure your call in the log. I was working at fever pitch, but I think the log is nearly perfect. Maybe a couple of broken calls only because I logged the wrong county. But, we shall see when the logs are filtered by the 7-QP desk.
Oh and the other fun thing is that we worked the max DX (10) and we also worked 46-47 states. We just missed SD, MS, and NM and one other I cannot remember. We also worked almost all of the Canadian provinces. Logs to come later.
Best 73!
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