Oh my!

Listening on 20 Meters, right now, there’s a DX station calling CQ, and all I can say is “Wow!”.  He’s way loud and should be at the bottom of a pile up.  Why not?  Because he’s sending way too fast with no spacing whatsoever.  I was finally able to make out the call; but he was getting very few takers.  Once he switched over to the memory keyer (which had some spacing in there, which made it legible), I can see that he’s not only getting more takers, but that he has also been spotted on the DX cluster.

You know, if you want to be a speed demon, that’s one thing.  But spacing is so important. There’s no point in sending so fast that you send gibberish. Even if there are no actual errors, no one is going to want to work you if they can’t understand you.

So any time advantage that you feel you’re gaining is probably lost by either A) repeats or B) lost opportunities due to no one wanting to work a fist like that.

You know, I’m not not an expert, by any means. But I do know bad Morse when I hear it; and that was bad.  A shame really, because it could mean the difference between a lot of contacts and just a few.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!


Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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