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Good afternoon blog readers I hope you are still enjoying the summer heat and are putting it into perspective as it compares to winters freezing cold? 

I have a question, when it comes to CW contesting…how fast is to fast? I have asked myself this question during CW contests, when I decide to search and pounce most of the time the speed is in around 30-34 wpm. Now having said that there are some big guns that run at close to 40wpm. BUT they have been spotted and always will be thus for the most part then the caller already knows their call. It is just the exchange that has to be handled and if it is a contest that has a generic exchange (CQ zone, ITU zone so on) then the software fills in the exchange details.  

For a small gun like me it’s only now and then I get spotted on the cluster and I know when this happens as I get into a pileup situation. I am not some multi operator high power station with dream antennas I am just small potatoes. I feel that if I was to knock out code at 36 wpm I think my contact rate would drop? In my humble opinion ( please correct me if I am wrong) I should stay in the 30-34 wpm range to gather fish in my net? 

What say you fellow CW contesters…..in a dark place in my mind I am thinking that for me its a waste of time to practice for the 38-40 wpm goal because with my 100 watts along with a simple vertical antenna at that speed I will hear crickets when calling CQ contest? What say you…………

Now it's not a numbers game I play with myself but my goal is to get better at what I do. Improving my skill in whatever it is, is important to me. With Amateur radio CW is my skill and I will be honest I work hard on it and it's nice to see the efforts are being rewarded oh and it's a lot of fun too. To gather as much understanding about my radio, antenna, propagation, pileup skills and the list goes on is what keeps my hobby a busy one and exciting one.
Cheers to the upcoming 6 months of 2023!

 We have had our share of rain over the past 8 days as we are in the middle of a low-pressure system that has stalled out over the Maritimes. This low-pressure system brings cooler temperatures and rain. The upside is the wildfire smoke here is non-existent. We see the results on CNN of the wildfire smoke that is blanketing the central and eastern U.S.

On another note, a funny thing happened today while I was doing my daily CW contesting practice with the G4FON software. It sent me my call sign....I took a double take thinking that call sounds familiar. Then I realized because it was my own. The first time this ever happened. Oh well, it's a way to spend just another rainy day but Saturday we are told the sun will be peeking out from the clouds.  Also, I am hearing the wildfire smoke will subside over the U.S. as well.

Do we need those inline fuses between our radio and power supply, most if not all radios come with them but are they always needed? There was a time when I thought the more fusing the better and safer, but does it add to the safety or is it just redundant fusing? First off let me begin with, this is my own opinion and I do follow it whether you choose to or not it is absolutely up to you. 

I was having an issue with my Icom 7610 cycling off and then back on again while transmitting . The issue was narrowed down to resistance within the cable from the power supply to the radio. I first replaced the poor terminal connections on my Astron power supply. The issue returned again it was then further determined that the guilty party was the inline fuse/fuse holder connection. I cut out both inline power cable fuses...OMG, you say?
Well, not really if (the big if) you have a power supply with very good built-in protection meaning over-voltage protection (crowbar), over-current protection (fold-back current protection), over-temperature shutdown and an internal AC fuse I believe you are good to go without inline DC fusing between power supply and your rig. Again in the background I hear "OMG, you did what"

I do hear some saying "Wait what if there is an issue in my supply line from the power supply to the rig" This is true BUT keep the power cable as short as possible and if you have worries about overheating cables, moving parts or rodents then you have bigger issues than un-fused power cables. Having said that if something between the power supply to the radio power cable causes a sudden increase in current or voltage the power supply protection will quickly look after that. 

 Some who have a large rig such as the Icom 7610 or other manufacturers could be saying "there is no way this rig will be used as a mobile by the average ham but it has fused leads". My answer to that is the big 5 (Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, Flex and Elecraft)  have no idea what power supply you are going to use. Also, some may opt to use a deep cycle battery at home on a trickle charge or whatever. 

After everything I have said about fuses I am not against them and as a matter of fact I have a Rigrunner fused rail and use it and I am thankful for it. I connect my external ATU, noise cancelling unit and SWR meter (for the light) to it. 

Now if you have no issue with your supplied power to your radio and things are not acting up like they were with me then by all means keep the fused line but for me, some radical thinking cured the problem and some power supply understanding allows me to sleep at night knowing the radio is in good power supply hands.

 I wanted to thank the Dutch PACC contest committee for a nice participation ribbon that arrived today. It was the first time I took part in this contest and it was well-attended and fun. When I looked up my log results I was not able to find them at first. I later clued in that I entered as SOAB low-power MIXED! I have to pay closer attention as I was and always am CW and not mixed.

This past weekend we had record-setting temperatures and amazing weather! Unfortunately, I heard the call of the wild and not what contesters call "Butt in chair" My name was being called from many directions..the BBQ, the deck chairs, sunny skies and later in the day a cold beer. This was a small still voice of the CQ WPX contest but at times was silenced by the fair day voice. I chose to mostly enjoy the day as there will be more contests and over the summer I will get tired of the very warm weather. 

The contest conditions when I was taking part were filled with QSB and many repeats of progressive serial numbers. For the time I spent in the contest I was happy with my results and I could tell that my consistent contest practice is paying off. I can copy much faster and more accurately. In all CW contests that involve numbers in the exchange, many stations will send what is called cut numbers. These are letters in place of the actual number. The most common are 9 (N), 1 (A) and 0 (T) there are some others but these are the most common. Why am I telling you this.....well for the first time I heard a station ID his call with a cut number. As an example, my call VE9KK would be sent as VENKK. Most contest rules if not all do not allow this as well I would think the telecommunications governing body of the country they are from would not be pleased. As always I entered the contest as Low power (100 watts or less), unassisted (did not use spotting assistance) single operator and single transmitter. I used my Icom 7610 and Hustler 4BTV vertical antenna.

 This coming weekend is a long weekend for our American friends as well as it is the yearly running of the CQ WW WPX CW contest weekend. If you are into CW contesting this is one of the big ones to get involved in. As for me, I am hoping for a nice rainy weekend as this will keep me in the operating chair longer. Last year I used my EndFed antenna for this contest as I had the Hustler 4BTV but it was not as of yet installed. 

Now I am curious to see how I do with the Hustler 4BTV compared to my EndFed antenna. I try to keep my CW contesting pencil sharp by taking part in the weekly 1-hour medium speed contests which max's out at 25 wpm and the CWops weekly CWT's which plain and simply just max's out! I also have daily practice with 2 contest simulation programs G4FON and Morse Runner.

 CW is my thing and contesting is my thing, so for me this coming weekend I will be doing my thing.