I had one of those beginner "light bulb" moments for me during the XE
contest.
This was the first contest in which I've operated that accuracy was very
important; if you logged a QSO incorrectly, you are penalized the value of
three equivalent QSOs. (Log an XE station incorrectly and you lose 12
points as XE's are worth three points each!)
So accuracy was on my mind this contest. While S&Ping, something that
dramatically improved my accuracy was to never give my exchange unless I
had a high degree of confidence that the running station had my call
correct. Once I give my exchange, it's essentially all over....the running
station gives his and if my call is wrong, by the time I've figured out how
I want to correct him, he's moved on to someone else and any attempts to
correct just result in chaos.
While I didn't do this next thing during the contest, I think am going to
edit my S&P exchange macro so that it does not have my call at the end. At
the moment it is, using the XE exchange as an example, 599 041 041 KT5MR.
Under the notion that I only give my exchange if I believe the running
station has my call correct, then giving my call again -- especially just a
single time -- could cause unnecessary confusion if it gets garbled, like
KT9MR or something slight like that.
The other thing I improved during the contest is on the ergonomic side. My
shack is in my home office and I have these really nice 1970's modular
office wooden furniture desks...ridiculously thick and solid. Essentially
40 years old and no warpage. The only problem is that they are about an
inch and a half too high for me and make sitting at them uncomfortable
after a few hours.
I went to the garage and found some MDF boards, which I placed under my
chair, thus "lowering" the desk height by about an inch. It made all the
difference in the world!
73,
--
/*/-=[Michael / KT5MR]-=/*/
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