I made more than 1,000 QSOs in Sweepstakes this weekend, and the most
frustrating, by far, were from a couple of dozen QRPers who 1) never
heard of dupe checking; and 2) sent by hand with pretty lousy fists.
Late Sunday evening, while calling CQ on another band, I waited a couple
of minutes for a VA2 station to get a fill on the serial number from a
QRPer who couldn't send it correctly, probably because he hadn't worked
enough CW to have a decent fist. The problem was NOT signal strength. I
had the same problem with half of the casual QRPers I worked.
Both of these problems are easily solved by using a contest logging
program, both to log and to send CW. This is not a slam on QRP operation
-- I've worked a lot of contests QRP, and one of my best buddies, W6JTI,
WINS or places in the top two or three in the many contests he enters
QRP. Frank made 554 QSOs in SS last weekend, and made the sweep of all
84 sections (NOT easy with HIGH power).
Why does this matter? Because MANY contesters take it seriously, and
most can finish a Sweepstakes QSO in 30-40 seconds. Most of us, me
included, are happy to work and encourage new contesters, but it's very
frustrating when someone can't send CW due to lack of practice, and
calls to work us a second or even a third time because he's too lazy to
check of dupes, taking well over a minute to finish a QSO.
73, Jim K9YC
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