"Doug Smith W9WI" wrote in message
...
Caveat Lector wrote:
And in the past, many DX clubs set up DX spotting repeaters on 2M --
some with 200 members
Also 2M simplex
And prior to that folks gave a one ringer landline call to their DX
buddies as u sed.
An before the clusters, avid DXers subscribed to DX newsletters to "spot"
the DX
Ala The West Coast DX Bulletin by Hugh Cassidy WA6AUD
Or now a days The Daily DX.

Any difference between these and today's Packet Cluster other than wide
distribution ?????

No, but that's a big difference.

The newsletters are useful but they don't tell you specifically who's on
what frequency *now*. If your source of DX news is The Daily DX, you
still need to be able to copy to know whether the station on 21024 really
is FT5XO as predicted in the news bulletin.

On cluster, you can rely on someone else's copying ability.

(true, you'll occasionally get screwed that way!)


Going by the spots for 17M CW this morning, nobody out
there can copy code anymore :-)

--

... Hank

http://home.earthlink.net/~horedson
http://home.earthlink.net/~w0rli

Doug Smith W9WI said :

Any contester of value will welcome any CW op regardless of speed. I
would hope slower CW ops would not be intimidated by my high CQ speed
and would call anyway. (I realize that's probably not realistic) I
will happily slow down to match the speed at which you call me.

Generally these folks can recognize their call sign at any speed, and with a
memory keyer -- pushing buttons (or keyboarding macros) is what they do to
work CW DX or contesting.

This is something I can relate to. Not being a CW lover, my DXCC was
SSB-only, and until last year, that's all I really operated. That and
a little RTTY and PSK-31.

Well, once I realized that even though my primary DXCC was phone, my
band awards could be mixed, I started to get curious. I still couldn't
do more than about 8 or 9 WPM after not using code for about 20 years
(and never being much good at it even then), so I took to using CW
decoding software. It helped a little but I found it more useless than
useful.

Then I discovered CW contesting as a means to building up my 40 and
80m totals. Intimidating as hell at 35-40 WPM, but with packet spots,
in S&P mode, I could see who I was working; I could audibly confirm
their calls even if it took 3 or 4 tries (or 5 or 6 if they were
really fast). I can pick my own call out of noise easily, I know what
report I was being given back (even serial numbers if I listened
carefully), and all of a sudden I was a lot more comfortable with
code. N1MM generates my replies with good clean CW which helps, too!

I now DX in CW just as happily as in phone (though my TS-570's AGC
makes is painful at times), but I still can't hold a long QSO in that
mode. I just bought a Vibroplex iambic and with luck, my QSO speed
will start back to 17-20 WPM by year's end.

In all of that, I never attempted to throw my call in even once if I
wasn't sure what to expect back. As I listen to the zoo that is FT5XO
on 40, I have to stop and wonder just what level some of these bozos
are at. I'm betting there are some extra-heavies in there (along with
extra-lites). Few seem to understand the concept of split, some fists
are so bad it's agonizing to listen to and the litany of lids who
continue to throw their calls ad-infinitum-ad-nauseum, even as the
MicroLites are transmitting, is enough to drive me batty.

I just have to wonder if CW decoding software is taking a lot of
inDUHviduals from the SSB parts of the bands and making them
pretend-CW ops, fouling it for those who actually know how to listen
and have a clue on how to operate.

73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

Please reply to Double-you Two Eye Are Tee at Arrl.net

Peter Dougherty wrote:
I now DX in CW just as happily as in phone (though my TS-570's AGC
makes is painful at times), but I still can't hold a long QSO in that
mode. I just bought a Vibroplex iambic and with luck, my QSO speed
will start back to 17-20 WPM by year's end.

Congrats & welcome!

They say "practice makes perfect" and that probably applies more to CW
than pretty much anything else in life...

wasn't sure what to expect back. As I listen to the zoo that is FT5XO
on 40, I have to stop and wonder just what level some of these bozos
are at. I'm betting there are some extra-heavies in there (along with
extra-lites).

I *know* there are "extra-heavies" as some of the calls involved are
well known to me.

Really, I was being facetious when I suggested the problems in the FT5
pile are due to poor general CW skills. They aren't. (for the most
part) The honest DXer whose CW isn't up to the FT5's speed is either
sitting out the CW side of the expedition (and sticking with SSB/RTTY)
or is doing as you are.

Few seem to understand the concept of split, some fists

I do have *one* criticism of the FT5's operating: I don't think they're
indicating that they're split often enough.

I just don't know that it's reasonable to expect people to just
naturally know that any rare expedition is likely to be working split.
That knowledge certainly comes with experience, but every DXer starts
without experience and can only acquire experience by working DX! "TU
FT5XO UP" might be a good idea.

--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:05:52 GMT, Doug Smith W9WI wrote:

I do have *one* criticism of the FT5's operating: I don't think they're
indicating that they're split often enough.

I just don't know that it's reasonable to expect people to just
naturally know that any rare expedition is likely to be working split.
That knowledge certainly comes with experience, but every DXer starts
without experience and can only acquire experience by working DX! "TU
FT5XO UP" might be a good idea.


The op on 40 last evening was doing exactly that for almost every qso.

Bob, N7XY

Well, I stumbled across FT5XO on 30 meters this evening... without
benefit of a spot on the cluster, not that I've not been looking for
them on DX Summit too...

Worked on the third call -- in large part because people were a LOT
better behaved and I could actually hear the folks the FT5 was working...
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com