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#30 - What is your favorite winter CW contest?
Date: 12/15/01-1/14/02 --- Votes: 58
| Contest | | Nr | Pct |
| ARRL DX |  | 18 | 31% |
| NA QSO Party | | 6 | 10% |
| RAC Winter | | 2 | 3% |
| HA DX | | 0 | 0% |
| CQ 160M | | 0 | 0% |
| REF | | 0 | 0% |
| PACC | | 1 | 1% |
| NA Sprint | | 1 | 1% |
| UBA | | 1 | 1% |
| Russian DX | | 0 | 0% |
| Not a contester | | 29 | 50% |
Sure are a lot of hams missing out on the fun of contesting, although at least one of the 'Not a contester' votes came from one who loves certain contests, but none of those listed here. My personal favorite would come up a tie between the NAQP and ARRL DX, but I normally enter all of those listed except the NA Sprint and CQ 160M which I sometimes skip. I think when I run the spring contest poll in a couple months, I'll allow for checking more than one contest. Perhaps asking which contests do you enter regularly. At any rate, another interesting set of results. Thanks.
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#29 - How did you first find my site?
Date: 11/15/01-12/14/01 --- Votes: 106
| How | | Nr | Pct |
| ARRL Web Article | | 5 | 4% |
| AC6V's Ham Links | | 6 | 5% |
| Just surfed in | | 15 | 14% |
| Keynote article | | 23 | 21% |
| My QSL Card | | 0 | 0% |
| Newsgroup posting | | 3 | 2% |
| Search Engine | | 27 | 25% |
| Word of Mouth | | 2 | 1% |
Other
Langa List (6)
QSO (2)
CW pages internet (1)
eMail (1)
QRZ (1)
RAC (1)
? (13) | | 25 | 23% |
Shortly after I posted this poll, my site was featured in Fred Langa's newsletter which drove a lot of traffic to my site. I certainly appreciate your input to this poll. It helps me evaluate just how I can spread the word about my site in the future. I'm sure the answers were not all that interesting to you, but they were to me. My next poll will deal more with ham radio, and should be fascinating to both you and me.
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#28 - Check all bands on which you use QRP.
Date: 10/15/01-11/14/01 --- Selections: 461
| Band | | Nr | Pct |
| 160 | | 19 | 4% |
| 80 | | 36 | 8% |
| 40 | | 85 | 18% |
| 30 | | 58 | 13% |
| 20 | | 69 | 15% |
| 17 | | 37 | 8% |
| 15 | | 55 | 12% |
| 12 | | 27 | 6% |
| 10 | | 48 | 10% |
| Don't use QRP | | 27 | 6% |
The second poll in a row that I really enjoyed and didn't have a pre-conceived notion of how the results would turn out. I'm surprised at the lack of QRP interest in 17 and 12 meters. Perhaps because overall the QRP kit makers don't push these bands as much? Maybe the same holds for 10 meters? 160 meters is a rough band for the QRPer, especially those of us without huge antennas and good locations, so I can understand the low interest there. I'm not at all surprised that 40 meters is tops, but I would have thought 30 meters would have come in ahead of 20 meters. 30 meters is great for QRP, while on 20 meters, the QRPer sometimes gets pushed around by the QRO/beam stations. As many of you know, I operate all 9 bands regularly here.
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#27 - What is your main ham radio goal this winter?
Date: 9/15/01-10/14/01 --- Responses: 91
| Goal | | Nr | Pct |
| Complete WAS | | 8 | 8% |
| Complete DXCC | | 12 | 13% |
| Complete WAZ | | 1 | 1% |
| Win some contests | | 4 | 4% |
| Increase CW speed | | 11 | 12% |
| Increase operating skills | | 8 | 8% |
| Build some new gear | | 14 | 15% |
| Be more active on CW | | 21 | 23% |
Other
80/160M DX (1)
WAZ & code speed (1)
Get back on the air (1)
Get sponsored for FOC (1)
Enter CW SS QRP (1) | | 12 | 13% |
I think this is the poll that I personally enjoyed the most since I had no pre-conceived idea of how it would turn out. My goal is to be more active on CW this coming winter after not doing much beyond getting my daily QSO for the past several months now. Whether I'll make it or not remains to be seen. Perhaps in the spring I'll have a poll asking if you achieved your winter goals. I had one comment from a voter who was happy to see so many plan to be more active on CW and I agree with him/her.
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#26 - Which of the following fall contests are you most looking forward to?
Date: 8/15/01-9/14/01 --- Responses: 118
| Contest | | Nr | Pct |
| CA QP | | 3 | 2% |
| PA QP | | 6 | 5% |
| FISTS Sprint | | 5 | 4% |
| QRP ARCI QP | | 4 | 3% |
| SS | | 17 | 14% |
| CQWW DX | | 35 | 29% |
| ARRL 160M | | 3 | 2% |
| ARRL 10M | | 10 | 8% |
| Not a contester | | 30 | 25% |
Other
IL QP (1)
VHF (1) | | 5 | 4% |
Pretty much as I expected. The CQWW DX and SS contests do seem to be the most popular of the fall contests. Since there were so many votes in this poll, perhaps I'll do another similar poll for the winter contests. I received one comment that the only point to contests is to work stations who might not otherwise be on the air. I'm not sure if that was intended as a positive or negative statement. I see the positive aspects because contests do prompt stations from otherwise inactive states, countries, zones, etc. to be active and make those entities available. Also isn't it great to hear the CW bands so active during contests whereas at other times there may be little use made of the CW frequencies perhaps encouraging other modes to attempt to take over our CW space in the spectrum. There's a lot of good in contesting and I'm glad that 75% of you are interested in contests. It would be nice if it were even higher.
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#25 - On average, how many days a week do you operate CW?
Date: 7/15/01-8/14/01 --- Responses: 78
| Days | | Nr | Pct |
| 7 | | 25 | 32% |
| 6 | | 3 | 3% |
| 5 | | 19 | 24% |
| 4 | | 5 | 6% |
| 3 | | 7 | 8% |
| 2 | | 4 | 5% |
| 1 | | 6 | 7% |
| 0 | | 9 | 11% |
I'm delighted to see so many folks regularly use CW on the bands. I feel sorry for those who use no CW at all. They are missing out on the true joy of amateur radio, as well as a chance to give their brains and fingers a good workout to keep them nimble as they get older. Too many folks use their computers and not their brains to communicate these days.
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#24 - What feature do you find most useful on my site?
Date: 6/15/01-7/14/01 --- Responses: 79
| Feature | | Nr | Pct |
| CW Contest Calendar | | 15 | 18% |
| CW Abbreviations Lists | | 5 | 6% |
| QSL Routes | | 22 | 27% |
| Log Searches | | 0 | 0% |
| Links | | 5 | 6% |
| Propagation Information | | 14 | 17% |
| QRP Rigs List | | 12 | 15% |
| Other (FISTS Columns & Techniques | | 1 | 1% |
| Other (Encouragement to use QRP) | | 1 | 1% |
| Other (?) | | 4 | 5% |
The votes are in and you have spoken. Since the Log Searches received no votes, that feature is being dropped. I will concentrate on updating the other features in the order of the total number of votes received. Thank you very much for helping me decide the future of my web site.
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#23 - What is your favorite Morse Code band?
Date: 5/15/01-6/14/01 --- Responses: 127
| Band | | Nr | Pct |
| 160 | | 3 | 2% |
| 80 | | 8 | 6% |
| 40 | | 48 | 37% |
| 30 | | 5 | 3% |
| 20 | | 26 | 20% |
| 17 | | 5 | 3% |
| 15 | | 29 | 22% |
| 12 | | 0 | 0% |
| 10 | | 3 | 2% |
Nothing really surprising about the results. I am disappointed that more folks don't share my favorite band - 30M. It's nice to see how the popularity of these polls has grown. I ran a similar poll in mid-1999 and only got 20 responses - this time it was 127. Thank you very much.
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#22 - With 5 being best, how do you rate the idea of eQSLs?
Date: 4/15/01-5/14/01 --- Responses: 87
| Rating | | Nr | Pct |
| 5 | | 31 | 35% |
| 4 | | 3 | 3% |
| 3 | | 8 | 9% |
| 2 | | 14 | 16% |
| 1 | | 31 | 35% |
A tie between the pro and anti-eQSL groups. And it looks like the undecided ones in the middle are leaning against eQSLs right now. It will be interesting to perhaps re-run this poll in a year or so. I'm sure the overall response will be more positive then when more hams realize how much money and time can be saved with eQSLs. Also when the ARRL and other major award organizations recognize eQSLs for awards, that will convince many doubters it is the way of the future. Personally I'm torn in two by the matter. I love getting the regular QSLs in the mail, and will miss that for sure. However, I certainly will enjoy exchanging eQSLs at NO COST versus the 75 cents or so for a QSL and SASE to a domestic station and 2 to 3 dollars for a DX card sent direct.
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#21 - What do you use most often to send Morse Code?
Date: 3/15/01-4/14/01 --- Responses: 153
| What | | Nr | Pct |
| Straight Key | | 32 | 20% |
| Bug | | 9 | 5% |
| Paddle Keyer | | 104 | 67% |
| Keyboard Keyer | | 2 | 1% |
| Computer | | 3 | 1% |
| Other (Sideswiper) | | 2 | 1% |
| Other (?) | | 1 | 0% |
Two comments on this poll. I'm surprised the bug didn't get more votes. I would have thought it would have come in second. I'm happy so few folks use keyboard or computer keyers. Although I do use a computer for contesting, I think sending Morse manually with a straight key, bug, or paddle is the real way to enjoy this wonderful mode.
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