K1USN Radio Club Announces New Weekly Slow-Speed CW Contest

The K1USN Radio Club in Massachusetts is launching a new weekly, hour-long, slow-speed contest, the K1USN SST. The inaugural session will be on Monday, September 14, from 0000 – 0100 UTC (Sunday, September 13, in North American time zones). K1USN trustee Pi Pugh, K1RV, said the decision to embark on sponsorship of a new operating event involved surveying some 2,000 radio amateurs to gauge their enthusiasm for such an event. Pugh said the club worked with a group of CWops members within the club, with the blessing of the CWops CW Academy Advisor Group. CWops is not involved in sponsoring the K1USN SST.

“The survey was sent to all 2,000 recent CW Academy graduates,” Pugh told ARRL. “We sent it using Mailchimp and were able to obtain a detailed breakout on the survey questions, which we have forwarded to the CWA Advisor group.” The 800 who responded indicated an overwhelming need for some sort of slow-speed activity as a follow-up to CW Academy.

“It was a lot of work, but we hope this will prove to be a valuable tool within the CW community,” Pugh said.

Although predicated on the desires of the CWA community, Pugh stressed that the weekly activity will be open to all looking to improve their CW skills. It can also provide a more comfortable entry point for those just getting started in CW contesting.

The SST is also for operators who currently participate in regular CWT sessions, but only as search-and-pounce (S&P) operators. “The weekly 20 WPM or slower SSTs can build confidence to find open frequencies and begin calling CQ,” Pugh suggested. Participants are advised to be patient, supportive, and willing to slow down as necessary.

Suggested frequencies are 3.532 – 3.539 on 80 meters; 7.032 – 7.039 MHz on 40 meters, and 14.032 – 14.039 MHz on 20 meters. Stations exchange name and state/province/country.

An N1MM Logger+ User Defined Contest (UDC) file is available.