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 On Wednesday it was time to see if I could uphold a New Year's goal I had set for myself. Each Wednesday is the CWops Mini test for 1 hour at 1300 and 1900 UTC. I have been taking part in this weekly event for a few years now. I found it greatly helped me increase my confidence with higher speed code, becoming more familiar with my N1MM+ keyboard commands and building on my hearing the code and moving that to typing it. 

 
The code speed in the CWT's as they are called on average goes from 32wpm to 36wpm. There are times when your pushed and speeds can rise to 40 plus. I have always searched and pounced for contacts during this one-hour mini-contest. There have always been these apprehensions to run or call "CQ CWT". The mini-contests are always very well attended and these ops have an excellent grasp on CW. In the past, I have tried for a short while to run and it has been a lacklustre event for me from plan nerves and getting from ears to brain to keyboard flustered. I found once this happens things go downhill for me very fast. I then in defeat go back to search and pounce. I have been practicing over the past year with code contest programs, I have been very active in CW contests running and now it was time to commit to running in the CWTs. During the morning CWT at 1300 on Wednesday I warmed up my ears, and brain and searched and pounced for about 15 minutes. Then it was time to find a clear spot and send out "CQ CWT VE9KK". Unlike in weekend CW contests when I ran this time I felt a bit nervous. You never know the speed someone is going to come back to you at. I am perfectly fine with that as I want to improve and if you send "??" or part of a call they will slow down and all is well. 

In the 1300 UTC session, I ran for 20 minutes and actually, I was very surprised it really went off very well. Sure I did ask now and then for a repeat, had a typing breakdown due to nerves and now and then hit the wrong macro key sending the wrong message. In the 1900 UTC session, I ran for 30 minutes and it was better but as I was in the swing of things we had a power outage! 

Looking back I did ok and better than I expected, I am very glad I took the plunge and I know over time I will get better and the nerves with calm down as well. Now I know some readers will think "What is the big deal". That is very true but for me, it is like I am playing High School football and was picked up and placed in the NFL. In my humble opinion these ops are the cream of the crop when it comes to CW contesting and to be honest I find it intimidating. But one week down and 51 more to go or thereabouts!

 Now that I am retired long weekends seem to sneak up on me as when I was working it seemed they never could come fast enough. As with CW contesting they just don't seem to come fast enough  but space weather has a way of sneaking up and spoiling the contest....well that is what I used to think anyway. In the past, I would faithfully check out the space weather to get a sniff of upcoming conditions for a weekend contest. If things looked rough I would either skip the contest or dip my toes in it just to see how the ride would go. 

Recently I have changed my outlook on the dreaded solar storms. This weekend was the CWops open contest and it is divided into 3 sessions. I took part in the 2nd session only as I had other things on my agenda for the weekend. From 9 am local time to 1 pm is session 2 I jumped in even with a Kp index of 5. I understood it was going to be rough, and I most likely will not beat last year's score but I have decided to use the poor conditions to hone my CW skills. 

In the past when calling CQ contest and having a station come back to me who was almost non-existent and fading in and out I struggled. Now I have the opportunity thanks to the poor solar conditions to practice this skill! I had a ton of fish on 40m and 20m just waiting for me to dig them out of the mud and toss and turn with them as we both faded in and out.

That was how I spent my 4 hours in session 2 of the CWops CW open contest. My score was not the greatest but that was not my goal and considering the poor conditions I would have been frustrated. Instead, I used it as a learning session to work weak and fading stations. When I say weak at times their signal was not even moving my S meter and fading as well. 

Below is my final score and I ended up operating for 3 of the 4 hours as I started late by 30 minutes and I took some breaks. 

 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.

For those of you who are into CW and the key has gathered some dust over the summer break a great way to slide back into the CW groove is to take part in some 1 hour "mini-contests" 

The K1USN SST (Slow Speed Test)

The event runs twice a week    Friday 2000-2100 UTC
                                                  Monday 0000-0100 UTC which is Sunday eve but Monday according to UTC time....always threw me off when I first got into contesting.....anyways...

This 1-hour mini contest max's out at 20 wpm and I have done many of these and sent at 16-18 WPM and had many contacts. If you are rusty and want to pick up the dit dah pace a bit this contest is a great place to be. If you are a veteran op it's a great place to slow the pace down and donate an hour.
The exchange is your call sign, name and your State or Province. The contest program N1MM+ supports this contest also if the call sign you are working on is in N1MM+ database the op's name and State/Provence is auto filled if you want. This way you can start by just having to copy the op's call sign. 

ICWC MST (Medium Speed Contest)

                         Mondays 1300-1400 and 1900-2000 

Tuesdays 0300-0400

In this 1 hour mini contest the CW speed picks up the pace a bit to 20-25 WPM BUT on request will slow down. This contest is also supported by N1MM+ but under the UDC section (user-defined contest) I'm not going into the UDC format here but use the ICWC link above and they provide a link to the N1MM site to set this contest up. The exchange in this one is your call sign, name and QSO number (serial number as it's called)

 CWops CWT

This event runs 4 times a week. Wednesdays 1300-1400 UTC and 1900-2000 UTC
                                                   Thursdays 0300-0400 UTC and 0700-0800 UTC
 

In this 1-hour mini contest, one has to put their seat belt on and realize your hair (if you still have any) will be blowing in the wind with the CW speeds. This contest is looked at as a high-speed mini-contest. The speed starts at 25 wpm and goes up from there. When I say up.... speeds into the 40's wpm....mind-boggling. Anyway, N1MM+ does support this contest. In my humble opinion if you are in the 20ish wpm range give this contest a listen only. Search and pounce just listening to the calls and see what you can pick out. The average speed is mid 20's to mid 30's wpm. The exchange your call, name and CWops member number or if not a member your State or Province.
I do take part in this contest but I am not as yet a member of the CWops so my exchange is NB for New Brunswick. Membership details can be found at the site from the link above. 

So there you have it if you are interested this fall and winter and have some time on your hands give the 1-hour mini tests a go. Here is the way I look at it....I busted my hump learning CW (it was not an option when I went for my ticket) and I just did not want to throw that away. I had done what most did to get my ticket I learned the code just to get past the exam and I planned to forget about it.
I did leave the code and radio alone as I had a young family like most of you did. I then started to have time on my hands and the love for radio was alive again. I listened to CW and to be honest I was a few code letters short of a full load if you know what I mean. Slowly started to pick it up again and have never looked back.
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Above is me stepping down off my soapbox....I hope you found some useful information from the above.