[CQ-Contest] CW Accuracy

W4ZW w4zw at comcast.net
Mon Sep 11 10:24:52 EDT 2006


After reviewing a few of my past log UBN reports, I decided to find out
where I was busting calls.  So I started working out with RUFZ-XP and made
several interesting discoveries.  The first culprit is my typing ability, or
lack there of.  I never learned touch typing and have adopted the hunt and
peck method until I feel fairly comfortable, but limited by speed. 

I switched to computer logging completely about 15 years ago, although I
wrote programs to do computer logging on DEC, WANG,  and DG minicomputers a
jillion years ago for FD and SS.  I'd never noticed a large error rate until
studying my UBN's.  I have enough hearing loss in my left ear at certain
frequencies such that often sounds seem "muddled" and I do miss calls when
doing SO2R and have returned to basic SO1R because of it.  But I wanted to
see exactly where I was making the errors and I discovered several
interesting things.

My typing errors were the first and most obvious culprit when I simply hit
the wrong key. But I also discovered that I almost always get the call right
if it's a "standard" call, that is a 1x3 or 2x3 or shorter because I have it
in my head cache at speeds up to about 50wpm.    But if it's a XX7/anything
I have a momentary mental blink and miss the complete call.  Also sometimes
have a mental blink and a degree of error with the Call/QRP.  And last, at
speeds over 40wpm I mix the "S" and "H", and that from a guy who was K4HHG
for 40 years.  Also found certain "mental stops" with repeated characters
and certain  letters like "T", e.g. copy "UTU" as "VTU" or just "TU".  

When I stir this all around with my poor typing, I can see how my UBN is
higher than I want.  I also think some of this has to do with aging, because
I remember how clearly I could grab calls in my head when I was younger
(especially in my teens when my head cache was really BIG)  and putting them
down with a pencil.  I tried using a pencil with RUFZ and discovered that my
accuracy did improve, but not enough to give up the wonderful advantage of
computer logging.

Anyone else notice this aging by-product?

Jon Hamlet,  W4ZW
Casey Key Island, Florida
"A little piece of paradise in the Gulf of Mexico"

More information about the CQ-Contest mailing list