I accidentally sent this to Mike instead of the whole list.

Mike,

I echo your comments about changes and things I don't like about contesting 
that I personally believe are unfair.  For example, working Multi Multi or 
even multi single station, one guy is sending automated CQ contest, 
commanding a frequency due to his power level and monster antennas, while 
another operator, on the same band, using a different antenna for that band, 
is tuning between CQ TEST trans missions to conduct SAP, or Search And 
Pounce contacts.  This means, obviously, two operators per band and two 
antennas for the same band.  No, they aren't supposed to be transmitting at 
the same time, and normally they can't due to their receiver overloading, 
but it is still 2 operators operating two different parts of the same band 
at the same time.  I also do not like the internet DX announcements on the 
clusters telling everybody on the planet where the contact is located and on 
what frequency.  The pile ups get ridiculously large in just moments of an 
internet, or packet, announcement.  I've also heard a big signal commanding 
a frequency tell a DX station to jump to another band and work their other 
station on that second band for the points.  That one I thought was already 
illegal and against contest rules but perhaps that has changed now.  I've 
heard similar stations literally make schedules on other bands at exact 
times, such as a 20 meter station scheduling for later on 80 and 160 
frequencies.  I thought that was against the rules, too.  The current band 
conditions still are not as good as they were in the late sixties and early 
eighties, and to some degree, even the early nineties so even the big 
stations still haven't broken old records of contest in the past but even 
so, some things just don't add up to equality in contesting when everything, 
including dupe sheets, were kept for contesting.  I loved using my computer 
and CW software in contests but I never have once tried seriously competing. 
Those guys sending fast and slow are attempting to save time, a second here 
and a second there, to squeeze in one more contact than a competitor up the 
band.  Does it work that way?  Yes and no.  Years ago, a contest friend of 
mine, K0CL, who often operated under Bill Browns call, K0UK, from Larry's 
mountain top contest station, in the Sweep Stakes SSB contest, had almost 
identical scores with another Colorado contester.  QST said, when the dust 
settled in Colorado, K0RF, another very large Mesa top contest station owned 
and maintained by a guy named Chuck, were 1 point apart for Colorado.  K0RF 
has a station north of Denver up hundreds of feet over the entire 
surrounding terrain on a flat top mesa.  He has multiple towers and antennas 
and has been a contester for many years.  A good friend of mine has been one 
of his CW ops for various contests and W0UA, George, is often Chucks main CW 
operator.  I learned the hard way the the big contesters in this area are 
often unfriendly unless you have a signal and stations and competitive 
abilities equal to, or nearly so, to theirs.  The only reason they paid any 
attention to me at all was due to my high speed CW abilities back in those 
days.  Larry, K0CL, and Bill, K0UK, are personal friends of mine and Bill 
put up my 2 element 40 meter beam for me in 1992 and Larry, K0CL, has helped 
me with tower and antenna stuff for years.  They live on the western side of 
the mountains, what we call the western slope, and when I lived over there, 
that's how I met Bill and Larry.  Larry has driven a 500 mile round trip 
several times, Bill, too once, because I couldn't get anybody locally to 
assist me putting up larger antennas and towers.  Go figure.  On the other 
hand, when W0ZV used to live in Colorado, he'd even call me on 2 meters and 
tell me if someone I needed for a new country was on 80 meters, for example, 
and Bill was the biggest Dx operator in the state.  I think he is W4ZV now 
but I haven't heard Bill for a long time.  He helped in that way because he 
knew I ran lower power, had a short tower, smaller and he loved CW like I 
do.  In the winter, Larry's contest station was at 10,000 feet and you had 
to ride snowmobiles to get to the top  of the mountain.  I was often invited 
to operate but I was an assistant pastor of a small church about 100 miles 
from the contest site and working a contest, even for half the time at that 
distance, would have been impossible.  Contest has always been fun for me to 
play around in, even working QRP in SS CW one year, and I'm interested to 
see how Lloyd scored, that is, if he beat his old record.  Now if anybody 
has money, they can buy the land and put up a huge contest station.  I have 
one mapped out in my head already I like thinking about with the antenna and 
tower designs and lay outs.  It will likely never happen, and I sure am 
getting too old to stay up hours and hours, plus I don't want to learn new 
software.  Did you read that, Jim?  I'll see if Jim is paying attention to 
my important words of wisdom about my tiny signal and low scores in all 
contests.  You can complain about such things if you have a small station, 
you see.  The only contest I ever stayed up for all night was the Nebraska 
centennial QSO party back in the sixties, haha, and I made 170 contacts 
running 150 watts.  I was about 15 years young at the time.

Phil.
K0NX





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Duke, K5XU" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2014 7:25 PM
Subject: Re: CW Speed in Contests


> Phil wrote:
>
> "I heard HK1TU ... He was sending, between contacts, CQ TEST
> at
> probably 70 WPM then his call at about 25 WPM ... We
> couldn't do that type of thing before computer contesting
> software ..."
>
> K5XU Replies:
>
> There were a few stations on the air this weekend that I
> would not call for that very reason. Some of those stations
> were sending at a respectable speed, but had their automated
> call and power level cranked up to a level that was
> beyond outrageous. I know this is done in order to "make
> more points," but some of these guys push things way past
> anything logical. I personally think that practice should be
> outlawed, but I also know that will never happen. At that
> level, fewer contacts mean fewer points when a person must
> constantly ask for repeats of the serial number.
>
> And, some stand alone keyers will now let you program them
> that way, or so I am told.
>
>
> I also think it sounds quite ridiculous, and says nothing
> about good operating practice.
>
>
> Mike Duke, K5XU
>