[CQ-Contest] ARRL 10m mult strategy

[Tony Wanschura]

Jason,

Your evaluation of the problem is excellent.  Unfortunately, I don't
think there are any hard-and-fast rules about when to abandon a run for
a multiplier hunt.  There will always be a lot of uncertainty.

You already know that it was very probably a waste of time to chase
Caribbean mults the first evening of the contest.  The other situations
you mentioned are not so clear.

I thought about the run/hunt issue constantly this year. Last year I
operated high power SSB from W0AIH and finished number 7, but with a
main antenna system of 5/5/5/5 (and a backup of 3/3/3/3 and 5 el at 205
ft), the mults mostly came to me.  ANd when they didn't, it was a
usually a matter of only one or two calls. This time, from home, with a
KT34XA at 50 feet, I didn't have the luxury of letting everyone come to
me.  In retrospect, I think I didn't go multiplier hunting enough.  But
then again, I may be wrong. I thought I should have had more mults, but
my rates were certainly good.

One technique that bagged a few mults for me was to use the dual receive
feature of my FT-1000MP to tune the band in small spurts between CQs,
and then grab them with a quick call.  I picked up maybe three mults
this way.

I'll be very interested to see what others have to say on this topic.

73,

Tony, KM0O




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