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Straight Key Night in October

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I suppose there are many straight key nights in the world such as the one by ARRL.

Today, the last Sunday of October, we had Let’s A1 Contest, and I joined with my Vibroplex Blue Racer 2000 by using the dash contact only.

I exchanged the number, RST plus two digits designating the year when you first obtained the CW operator license, with a local station, and immediately submitted the contest log.

Do I not seek for more QSOs? Well, there are opinions that there exist a negative correlation between the activities of rag-chewing and of contest engagements, as is exemplified by the statements:
The more time I spend at the mall, the less money I have in my checking account.
The more hours I spend at the office, the less time I spend with my family.
which are very true at least for me.

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Looking Forward, Looking Back

“In my younger and more vulnerable years…” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

When I was young and perhaps a little bit vulnerable, my memory was almost empty. So if you have some questions like:

“What will I be? Will I be handsome? Will I be rich? Will I be a good CW operator?”

you must look out at the outer world for the answer and do not look into your own memory.

And after coming a long way down the track, someday you will notice that you are doing an exhaustive search of your memory for an answer, thinking “There must be an answer there, because I have done it before“.

So getting old is, for one thing, not being vulnerable any more, but becoming too much self-contained for another.

I think I should always try to do something new (a new language? a new skill?) to avoid being excessively self‐sufficient.

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