The Netherlands Telegraphy Club QSO party was on yesterday evening. 1 hour of CW fun. Completely different from the mainstream big contests since you need at least to give report, name and ntc number (or NM if no member). The fun is that there are 2 categories. Automatic (paddle with keyer or computer) and Mechanical (bugs, straightkey, cootie). Till now I'm doing automatic but I want to try mechanical one of the next QPs as well. I was only active on 40m this time and almost only running and listening. Actually I didn't hear much S&P so only running was an option. I used N1MM as logger and some of the names were already in it, but worked also some that were not in the system yet. I had some trouble decoding SM7GVF and did correct it in the log later. Same for OK1LZ for the name. I saw PE2V spotted in hamspots so I quickly found Vincent en made the QSO. Rene PA3GPX was worked in the last minute of the contest.
I'm getting better in this. It's not a top score. Every new start is difficult. But I have fun. My keying though needs a bit more practice, it is really a mess sometimes. It's like I haven't got the (fast) motor skills for paddle use. So I also practice with a straight key and this goes a lot better in my opinion. I might do the mechanical keying category next time.
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