Hi,
I am wondering of any of you upperclass contesters out there would be
willing to share with me your strategy for when to run or when to work
mults. I have tried several different ideas, but I never can get QSOs and
mults to balance out for a maximum score.
I can give you several examples of when I spent valuable time looking for
multipliers. I won't say 'wasted' time, because I don't know whether I
really wasted time or not, or whether it was well spent. At 0011z I have
20 contacts in the log. I abandon ship. This nets YB, VR2, VK, and T8.
Back to running. Another pass at 0038 gets me 9M2 and KL7. Later I start
at the bottom and go up. This gets me BY, KH0, and KH6. So...here's the
question - was it worth it?
I work both YB3OSE and YB5QZ later. VR2BG was on most of the weekend,
and I accidentally duped VK4EMM and worked about a dozen other VK's. T88XW
was handing out big numbers throughout. I hear 9M2TO Saturday night, and
several KL7's later call in. Sunday night, a very loud BD4DW calls me.
KH6TO is all over the place. Overall, the NH0E was the only multiplier
that I otherwise wouldn't have worked - or at least it is from my standpoint.
Another example, during the 10 meter contest this weekend, I abandoned my
clear run frequency where I had just had a 113 hour to go look for
multipliers that hadn't yet been found. I started high in the band and
just worked my way down looking for mults. I'm having the time of my life
busting mults like nothing else. I stupidly bust Carribean pileups during
prime time, which should be the last into the log. I spend the hour and
work KP2, FM, 4X, KP4, LZ, SU, Mississippi, VP5, TZ, YV, Arkansas, VO1,
VE2, VE5, V2, CT, and LX.
Out of these, 4Z4DX, LX/DJ6OZ, and SU9ZZ are the only ones that I never
heard again. Most of these others even called me, or were handing out
4-digit numbers of some sort. Again, was this a good use of time?
These two mult scavenges alone probably cost me well over 150 QSO's.
Then on the flip side, by not working the mults that you think are
'easy', you run the risk of never even hearing them again. This nearly
happened with SD, and it had me scared for a bit.
So...what are YOUR methods? I am dying to know how these people can sit
there and work 2000+ QSO's and then have more mults than I do. It behooves
me.
BTW, the final totals were for N5NU SOHP CW only: 1152 QSO's 60 dom, 78
countries for 638k part time from TX. (1kW + 2 ele Quad 65ft etc)
73, Jason N5NU (Age 16)
n5nu@inu.net
http://www.inu.net/n5nu/
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