Hello Phil, I respectively disagree Phil. I can absolutely, positively, 100% GUARANTEE that a major CW was never won by someone using a CW decoder. I'd even stick my neck out and say that no one has ever broken into the top 10. I also don't think software will ever surpass the human brain for decoding CW.
The purpose of CW skimmers for contesting is not so much to decode callsigns as it is to fill the bandmap of available stations to work. At the end of this month is the biggie....CQWW CW. Please take a few minutes and listen, really listen, to one of the big stations work a pileup running stations. Then switch on your CW decoder and see how that works. It will open your eyes....... On 11/8/2012 4:21 PM, Phil Hystad wrote: > I can see that someone might want to use a K3 CW decode or a computer decode > program like CW Skimmer when operating a contest. After you set things up, > very little real CW skill is necessary to be a CW contest player. Indeed, > many probably do just that. > > Ultimately of course, the software will get better and the instance of the > human operator will no longer be necessary. Some future glorified computer > program can play the game all by itself. You can even schedule your computer > program to startup when the contest schedules begin and stop when they end. > Of course, total control of your rig by remote is included. > > Cool -- just think, I could be off doing more interesting things while > operating a contest from my Mac hosted computer application. I could be a > high scorer -- I could win! I would be the contesting CW champ. Or, at > least my program would be but no one need know that. > > The best part is that during the contest and during all those automated hours > or cranking up my score at 2.7 GHz CPU speeds, I can be out in the wilds > nearby with my wire antenna thrown into the nearest tree and operating QRP CW > from my KX3 using my Begali paddle. > > 73, phil, K7PEH > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > -- 73, Gary K9GS Greater Milwaukee DX Association: http://www.gmdxa.org Society of Midwest Contesters: http://www.w9smc.com CW Ops #1032 http://www.cwops.org ************************************************ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

