Straight Key night 2011 may well have been the best of the last three years that I've participated in this event. I had 10 very enjoyable QSOs with stations across the United States and Canada, and all of them had nice fists. 80 m, 40 m, and 20 m were generally full of CW signals, and I never had to call more than a couple of times before someone responded. This continues to be one of my favorite operating events of the year.

With a little help from VE3LFN, I was able to figure out that my straight key, which I purchased off of E-Bay with the make and model unknown, is in fact a MESCO key probably produced prior to 1900, so my thanks to Darryl for a great QSO.

CW may not be considered technically relevant in this modern age of communications, but I still don't think that there's a better contest mode, DX mode, or just plain fun mode. I find that when I bring perspective new hams or hams that are considering upgrading to my shack for a demonstration of HF, they are far more fascinated with CW than any of the other modes. I try to play on that fascination by convincing them that CW is well worth the effort to learn, and that they will be glad they took the time to do it.