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"Dee" == Dee D Flint writes:

[... I suggested an experiment ...]

Dee Actually Jack, that would not be quite a fair measurement. The
Dee CW op has put in many hours of practicing and participating in
Dee contests to get his/her speed up to a really useful contest
Dee level. Although the phone op has also put in hours participating
Dee in contests to get his/her abilities honed to contest level, it
Dee is far fewer hours than the CW op to get to the top levels of
Dee ability. So the double points, at least to me, also acknowledges
Dee the longer preparatory stage that it takes to get good at it.

Not all CW ops put in as many hours of practice, and some phone ops
put in serious hours. My first contest -- as an Extra, no less -- was
a Field Day. I was terrified of the microphone, and spent more than
six hours practicing calling into a dead mike. It may sound stupid to
some of you, but I was really really really shy. We had a written
script to follow: "CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day, this is Whiskey Six
Charlie X-Ray" was the first line, then the next line included the
response with blanks to fill in, and even a line to thank the other
amateur and wish them luck in the contest. I don't think of this as
being the same as a voice keyer, by the way. We were actually pushing
the mike button and speaking, which was very exciting. The one thing
that was more fun than calling CQ was being the control op for
Technicians and non-amateurs who wanted to give it a try. One Tech
got the Cooke Islands as his first QSO, and he's now a General.

Dee In the contests in which I've participated, I have noticed that
Dee the best CW ops can usually run more stations in less time
Dee because of the need for fewer repeats than the best phone ops.
Dee On the other hand, less experienced people can run phone contacts
Dee faster than CW contacts.

Oh, I agree. By far, the most common phrase at my station was "Say
again?". At my current stage of CW "literacy", I effectively need an
interpreter -- that cuts down on speed drastically.

Dee In my own contesting experience, my all time high was 310
Dee contacts and it was a CW contest. My second best was down around
Dee 150 contacts and it was a voice contest. I'm running only 100
Dee watts and wire antennas. I found it much easier to break through
Dee pileups and bad conditions on CW. But it took time to learn CW.

I'm also in the 100W and wire antenna group. I don't have enough
experience with pile-ups and bad conditions, but one reason I want to
learn CW is because people think about what they send and don't waste
words on stupid stuff (at least in my fantasy-land) unlike other parts
of the band. I've only heard five minutes of 14.313, but that plus
some VHF repeater abuse has been enough to convince me that I want to
be where the better operators are, and I really hope they're on CW.

Dee Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

Jack.
- --
Jack Twilley
jmt at twilley dot org
http colon slash slash www dot twilley dot org slash tilde jmt slash
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