Wonder of wonders, this message has nothing to do either with contest rules or
cut numbers. Please don't tune out, hi!
Until recently, I was pretty much of a solitary contester - never had any
occasion to operate in multi-op situations, nor to compare my results with top
operators.
Over the last 8-10 years, though, I've built a fairly capable station for the
first time in my 53 year ham career. I've also had a couple of occasions to
operate at multi-ops with some top operators, and I'm struck by the fact that I
do not seem able to consistently get the sort of results they do, even from the
same station. This is particularly the case in hell-bent contests like the CW
Sprints, but I have the same feeling about the first evening in Sweepstakes,
and to a lesser extent in the big DX contests.
To the extent that I can isolate the problem, I think it lies in the inability
to keep myself totally focused in the moment. Even in the midst of a 120-150
hour on CW I find myself not always totally "zoomed in" on the pileup.
Watching good ops, they seem to have a really special focus that I find hard to
maintain, even for a 4-hour sprint.
If there's anything to be done about this, I'd like to try, even though at age
65 I am inevitably losing some of my edge. So I'm wondering what others have
done about this, whether there are particular techniques that you use to help
stay focused. I don't know what I'm looking for here, so any suggestions would
be welcome. If you want to send them to me off the reflector, I'll summarize
anonymously.
Thanks!
73, Pete N4ZR
The World HF Contest Station Database
Full details on 3226 contest stations
recently updated at http://www.pvrc.org/WCSD/WCSDsearch.htm
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