ARRL DX CW contest

Until I read about it on G4ILO's blog, I'd quite forgotten about this big contest. Rather late on Sunday afternoon and evening I decided to have a go and see what could be worked on 40 and 20m. Although I managed a few US contacts with the 2.5W QRP I do find CW contests hard work: people send SO fast and by the time I've called with my straight key they've usually already had another QSO.  I suspect many these days use keyboards and auto keyers most of the time in contests. Actually I quite enjoy the odd SSB contest as I can talk (nearly) as fast as anyone else. Even with 2.5W SSB it is surprisingly easy to make contacts in a big contest, especially late in contests when the big guns are looking for new stations to work.  Overall, I prefer experimentation, but a contest just for fun can be quite cathartic.