[CQ-Contest] 2nd Radio Contesting

[k4oj]

"Are there many 440's being used for a 2nd radio."


.......I am still using olde faithful , a TS430 as the second rig - the run
rig has bells and whistles and computer interface but the S&P rig,
well...it is getting olde.  This weekend I was very aware of its aging on
the higher bands....alongside the Omni VI it is night and day - when I
could hear a hint of prop on 10 on the 430 I heard a dozen stations on the
Omni! 


As far as lineage, I have not used the 440, the Kenwood rig has tens of
thousands of contet QSOs under its belt....prorating its cost over the
nukber of QSOs made is a nice way to justify its expense over the years :-)

An inexpensive used second rig is great for entry into 2 radio
contesting...from what I have seen there are two approaches to doing 2
radio...you use your "good" radio to S&P wiht or you use your "poorer"
radio to S&P with...

The second rig if used as a running radio will basically just sit on a freq
and as such may not need to have the bells and whistles, as long as it
hears godd!

...with the 430's rx aging I do not have this luxury however and I use it
to S&P with 
- I have to look at the log but I am sure there were several hundred QSOs
made this past weekend on the 430...basically I answered guys calling cq on
radio two while radio one acted as beacon.....while it cq'd I tuned for a
new one on the 430.

...and yes, the NAQP contest is a fun one for two radios...now that I am
really starting to understand the "swing" I can REALLY appreciate how this
aspect of contesting is a "next tier"...there were times when my gray cell
micro processor was operating at 1200 baud and the two sets of input were
like 56K baud and I literally crashed....I would shut of the second rig
audio for a few minutes to cler out the backlog and "reset" throwing the
other rig's audio back into the input matrix :-)

...bottom line - get an inexpensive not so SOTA rig for rig 2 and you will
be very pleased at the amount of score increase you will see as you use the
time you are cqing on one band as S&P time on the other (or are you still
listening to your CQ's to make sure the computer is sending them
correctly?)

.....oh yes, get used to those pregnant pauses in responding on radio 2
associated with not being able to be exactly on time with your second rig
qso response as you have do a rpt on rig one of your name because the other
guy didn't copy Bubba and needed a repeat :-)

73- thanks for all the QSOs in the NAQP!

de

Jim White, K4OJ   
k4oj at ij.net
a proud member of THE Florida Contest Group
...visit our website @ http://www.4w.com/deemer/fcg.htm







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