I'll tell him you said that. I know he was putting up a big 40m yagi this year. His biggest trouble is taephoons smashing his antennas. He had a log periodic, before.
Where were you last night? F6HKA was on 7051 around 0400z, handing out QSOs and chatting extensively at about 15 WPM. We had a twelve minute QSO (and were both amused to learn it was the same temperature, 11 C, in both Limoges and Austin).
One other observation; even back in the late '70s, I noticed that as a 5-10 WPM Novice I rarely if ever found EU stations sending slowly enough for me to copy. Stations in SA and the Caribbean, though, were another matter and they were the only real DX I ever worked regularly until I got to 20 WPM or so.
I will be happy to have QSO with you in Ukrainian DX Contest https://www.contestcalendar.com/contestdetails.php?ref=176
F6HKA is on a lot and he was willing to slow down (way down!) to work me so I am sure he would be happy to work you N5WVR. He has a beam and a great signal and our 20-minute QSO was armchair copy. He was my first DX with CW! He was very prompt to send a card as well. You can almost always find him at the SKCC sked page- it's like a chat room. If you just watch the page you can see what frequency he is on and give him a call. Bert is his name- heck of a nice guy!
Like most things, most of us aren't naturals, and you often get better only if you push yourself. Thus: Q: How do I get to Carnegie Hall? A: Practice, practice, practice. As a Novice ca 1970, I started out S-L-O-W. But, I was on the air almost daily, and my speed improved to about 20 wpm letter-for-letter hard copy (about 30 wpm w/o paper). 13 wpm for the General license was a snooze. The same thing happened to me when I took up snow skiing in my mid 30s. By sticking to it and pushing myself to improve, my skill improved. I could make it down most any slope w/o a lot of effort. The same thing happened when I tried to win rounds at ET bracket "drag" racing. "Cutting a good light" and running consistent times improved. I got to the point where I didn't suck ALL the time. If you buckle down and push yourself, you can do it, too.
I can speak about Vietnam and other parts of SE Asia from my experience operating in Vietnam for the past 2 years. HAM radio is a foreign a concept here. When I fly the inspectors ask what my K2\100 is and I simply tell them it’s a radio. Then they sometimes ask if there is a battery and I reply no and they let me proceed. Other times they discuss it with other inspector, closely examine it, I show them my license (which specifically lists equipment) which generates further discussion, some calls to higher authorities, and occasionally several photographs of the gear. It’s a great production that gets many people looking at the whole affair. All this is to say...in SE Asia Amateur Radio has few new inductees among its ranks per year.. Think less than 100 per year. (This excludes Japan) There is also the cost factor. Here in VN operators pay a Frequency Managment Fee which is about $1 usd per month. But most only pay for 2 or 3 bands. 10 bucks per year doesn’t seem like much, but here 10 bucks goes a long long way. One way to think of it is paying for 3 bands per year buys me about 1 months worth of groceries. I don’t eat junk food, but I certainly don’t starve. Finally, as has been mentioned, most new operators are greatly restricted by power out. New operators here are limited to 20 watts and ssb only. The 2nd class license gives them cw at 50 watts max. At 3rd class they have 200 watts at thier disposal, but they are already reasonably proficient in cw.
