RSGB IOTA contest - CW wins out over SSB.
Advocates of CW (Morse code) will often cite its advantages over other modes like phone (by which they usually mean single sideband (SSB) these days). One of those advantages, a side effect of it’s narrow bandwidth (meaning that the transmitted energy is ‘focused’ into a narrow signal), is its ability to ‘get through’ when other modes can’t. They’ll tell you that CW will get you the QSO more times than any other mode, such as for instance when conditions just won’t allow you to conduct a phone contact.
Case in point - this years RSGB (radio society of Great Britain) IOTA (islands on the air) contest, held this past weekend from noon UTC Saturday to noon UTC Sunday. It’s usually a good measure of both your antenna and conditions because many of the participating stations on islands will be running modest power with simple antennas (unlike other major contests where the ‘big guns’ are out with their huge antenna systems and powerful amplifiers). Bottom line is, in the IOTA contest your station needs two basic attributes - good ears and a good radiated signal. This boils down to one fundamental component - your antenna (or antennas). If you can’t hear them you can’t work them and if you can’t make them hear you you also can’t work them.
What I found when trying to work a few of the stations was that more often than not it was VERY difficult getting them to hear my SSB signal (and even those who could hear me were reporting me as ‘weak’). Using CW on the other hand usually resulted in them replying to my first or second call.
Over the weekend I worked around twice as many stations on CW as I did on SSB (all of them European stations on either 20m or 40m) and all of the SSB contacts were hard work! Not to mention those SSB stations I tried to contact and just didn’t get through (after calling several times even when there were no other apparent callers). A very clear demonstration that, all else being equal, CW will get you the QSO where SSB might not.