Jason Goldsberry N5NU wrote:
> 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.
It depends on which contest...... (how's that for a wishy-washy
answer!)
In SS, where there are a small number of possible mults (79, going
to 80 next year) you are better off *never* to abandon a good run
freq to search for mults. Invariably they will almost all come to you
if you. I will only search for mults in such a contest if my run rate
has gotten REALLY dismal. To a degree this is also true of ARRL 10M,
160M, and ARRL DX. Note that in all these examples, you are a 'target'
station yourself.
At the other extreme are contests like CQWWDX or WPX, where the number
of possible mults is HUGE, and you are not a 'target' station. In
those contests I generally look for mults between runs, typically
about every 30-45 minutes. Early in a contest these hunts consist of
a quick tune of each open band from end to end, cherry-picking the
strong
stations I hear, but not spending time around big pileups. Later in the
contest, when the pileups are thinner these guys will still mostly be
around.
In every contest I try to spend the last 60-90 mins in strictly run
mode. It's slow going, but this is when the 'rarer' single op stations
are roaming the bands looking for the stations who didn't come to
*their* run freqs.
All that said, my feeling has always been that rate wins over mults
in almost every situation, so my concentration has been to concentrate
on rate and just let the mults come as they may.
73, Hans, K0HB
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