With NAQP coming up, anyone have any operating advice?
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To kick it off, these are notes from Bill Fisher, W4AN:
I'll approach this from the other side. What do you need to do when
operating the NAQP.
1. Operate 10 hours.
2. Move mults. I even approach the contest so that I will be CQing on
a band that has an opening to locations that I need mults for on other
bands. I will also call guys that I have worked before on 20 meters and
ask them to move to 10 meters.
3. Dont take no for an answer. My success rate with guys who say "The
band isn't open" is on the order of about 80%. Tell them you just worked
someone else near them.
4. When you find an odd opening (10m open at 8:00pm and nobody knows
it) spend some time finding the mults you need on 10m by looking for
those
guys on 40 meters and moving them.
5. Take your off times early or late. But dont take off times when the
casual guy is likely to be on the radio. I got caught up in chasing
mults on 10 and 15 this time and ended up taking an offtime around
4:30pm. Mistake. Always take offtimes in 1/2 hour chunks. Idea is to
increase exposure. Many guys get on for a short period of time and then
turn off the radio never to be heard again. You want to work as many of
these types as possible. Shorter off times means less chance of missing
them.
6. Just because you dont see the sun, it doesnt mean that 10 and 15 are
dead. I almost always catch K5ZD late in the contest and move him
through all the bands. I can't remember ever not working him when we
have moved. This is more true of a north-south path. East-west can be
more difficult.
7. On 10 and 15 meters try pointing south. I worked about 15 mults on
10 meters by pointing south and working them on back scatter.
8. When moving a mult, pick a frequency that nobody else would pick. No
sense in moving someone to 10 meters and then to have your competition
bag him too for your efforts. If using two radios, if possible check the
frequency you want to move to before doing so. You have to be quick.
Two radio ops...
9. Always CQ. Let the 2nd radio do the S&P.
10. Listen to both radios all of the time. Let your mind do the
filtering. I turn the volume down on the S&P radio and slightly higher
on the CQ radio. I turn off side tone on both unless I need to send
something to someone. Then when the CQ radio is done CQing I get a blast
of audio in an ear that was dead quiet.
11. Move a lot. Make sure you aren't S&Ping the same band over and
over. Even if 20 is the hot band, you need to S&P it for the guys who
aren't smart enough to S&P.
12. Don't run out of bands. Going to the next open band too early will
catch up with you eventually. We dont have any bands below 160 meters.
And some more from Bill, W4AN:
1. CQ a lot.
2. Move multipliers you need or expect to need later to bands that you
may
feel you will miss them on. Don't be afraid to move someone as late as
the
end of the contest to 10 and 15 meters. I remember one NAQP where I had
missed MA on almost all bands. I worked K5ZD on 80 meters and moved him
through every band. This was like 11:30 at night.
3. You dont have to be on the band that you hear everyone else on. I
almost always start on 20 meters. I work the 2nd radio on 10 & 15 to get
the mults.
4. Dont go to the low bands for good too early. Always keep a mental
note
of where you are in the contest. At 7:00pm you will be half way to the
end. Are you on 40M? Have you already been there for a long time? Guess
what? You are going to run out of QSO's near the end. Experience helps
here.
5. Last January I averaged 100+ QSO's per hour. Keep that in mind. This
is not a slow contest (not in January anyway). Keep the rate up, pay
attention to where your rate has been, and dont be afraid to move around
when it drops. Frequency allocation is not a problem in this contest.
6. Call CQ TEST, not CQ NA. You can work anyone in this contest. The
guys that call CQ NA aren't thinking it through very well in my opinion.
I
work at least 30 DX QSO's in the NAQP every time.
7. When asking someone to move, dont make it a run-on sentence. Simply
send '10M?' or more often I will just send a frequency like '28070' after
my report. Maybe a PSE in front of it. Move people high in the band.
Dont make the mistake of moving someone to someone else's CQ frequency.
I'll move em to the novice band.
8. Point your 10M yagi south. Especially after the band sounds dead.
Same with 15.
9. You guys with "no 160 antenna" should try loading whatever you can. I
worked a bunch of guys in the ARRL 160 contest from loading a 40M dipole
and getting 5W out of my FT1000MP. Amazing.
Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL Mail: aa4lr@radio.org
Quote: "Boot, you transistorized tormentor! Boot!"
-- Archibald Asparagus, VeggieTales
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