Another factor on time-off strategy is the possibility of thunderstorms.
Do you keep on operating when the rate drops in the afternoon for fear
that you will have forced off-times later due to thunderstorms? My
experience has been that the last hour and, in particular, the last half
hour often has a real slow rate time. But, I haven't operated a NAQP
except from home for years so I haven't operated with a good 160M
transmit and receive set up lately, so it may be different from WW4LL's
well-equipped station.
I don't have the off-time answer, but it will surely pay to keep an eye
on the weather and on the radio propagation and make the decisions on
the fly. Remember that off times must be at least 30 minutes long, so
be sure to take a full 30 minutes off, and not 29 minutes. If your last
QSO is logged at, for example, 2310, don't make the next QSO until
2341Z, not 2340Z. If you started again at 2340Z, you would have taken
only 29 minutes off.
73, John, K4BAI.
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