VE3CSK:
>Increased activity has caused me to change the way I operate in this
contest, and perhaps others will arrive at a similar conclusion.
I agree Bill! Although I had my best ever result
in terms of total score, it's very clear to me now that
I should have been doing more S&P. I see many easy mults
reported that I never heard, many big QSO totals from
stations I never heard, etc. To the latter point, I was
wondering why ON4UN was not in this contest until I saw
his score posted on the 3830 reflector! :-) 300 QSO's
with USA and I never heard him (i.e. I wasn't listening).
Why did this happen? I believe it's because I
had so many problems finding a clear frequency on which
to run, that when I finally did I was reluctant to leave
it when I really should have. Contests are always a
trade-off between running and S&P. I became so paranoid
about a clear frequency that it clouded my normally good
instincts about when to quit running and go S&P-ing.
An example of this was Saturday night. I was having
reasonable success running EU stations above 1850. I
worked many that were weak but readable. I kept thinking
"The band will really open in a few minutes so I don't
want to leave now". At 0430 5B4AGC called with a very
strong signal. I noticed he was in his greyline zone and
I thought "Oh boy, hang on and EU will really pound in
for their greyline". I kept at it and sure enough SV3RF,
SV8CS and OE3I called with extremely strong signals. Wow,
just wait until the greyline moves to DL and Western EU!
After all OE is just southeast of DL. I kept trying to
run...and yet there was no greyline peak as I watched it
move across Western Europe. Sure I worked stations, but
I might have worked just as many or more if I had gone
S&P-ing, and certainly would have picked up many more
easy mults.
I also think I need to work on making my TX antenna
more broadbanded so I can more easily go up to 1900 and
not lose effectiveness. I always learn new things in
contests and there is always next year!
73, Bill W4ZV
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