I was tuning around this afternoon and found 15 meters was hopping with stations working the CQP, the California QSO Party. The California Kilowatts were booming in on phone, and I decided to slide down to the CW parts to see what was happening there. I wasnt' disappointed.
There were plenty of stations working the contest, most of which were running about 30 wpm. I found a couple that were running slower, probably between 20-25 wpm, and I found I could copy their exhanges without much difficulty (fortunately its a simple exchange).
The problem I had was the band conditions. It was a cast of the Eastern U.S. working Six-land, and everyone on the East Coast was running strong. My puny wire dipole and 100 watts had a tough time, not to mention it took me some time to get my sending up to snuff.
Even after adjusting my bug for 20 wpm, the Six-lander was working everyone else. He was sending his exhange before I could get my call finished! There's a whole host of operating techniques for CW that I'm absolutely clueless about, not to mention my CW speed deficit. I never worked the one guy, and did work a few on 20 and later 40 meter CW.
Maybe its just my imagination, but I really believe my CW speed has improved. I've been playing with Morse Runner too, just for kicks. The standard I go by is my ability to copy the KYN, the Kentucky CW Net. Earlier this year I hadn't worked much CW, and I was having a hard time copying the net. I may not be much faster, but I feel more confident about what I'm copying, for what that's worth!
I'll be glad with fall finally arrives. We had a period of autumn-like weather, with quieter conditions on 80. The static crashes get old.
73 … de KY4Z … sk … dit dit ….