[CQ-Contest] When to mult? Summary.

[Jason Goldsberry N5NU]

Hi again,
  Thanks to all of you who responded to my inquiry about when to work
mults.  I receieved a good number of reponses from a variety of stations in
different areas.  There seem to be several different theories on this.
I'll share some of these with you in the following.  These all seem to come
from contesters with a bit of notoriety.
  
ND3F, an operator at W3LPL, thinks that my strategy that I used was good,
and he says that he always stops for them, even for garden variety.

N5NJ, an operator I've met at WX0B, says to work multipliers whenever it
gets real slow.

K5FUV, a head honcho DXCC guy, suggests not to waste early time for
multipliers.

N4ZR, the guy who gives me WV in every contest, says that usually
multipliers will take care of themselves.  However, he does spend the last
few hours tuning around looking for mults.  In WW, he does a quick S&P up
the band each time he changes.  He doesn't like to spend more than a minute
or so on a new multiplier the first time.

N6RT, operator at W6EEN this weekend, believes that a clear frequency is a
virtue.  He believes that 80% of the multipliers that you S&P will probably
end up calling you anyway.

VE4XT, whom I sometimes hear, says that you MUST search the rare mults out,
but do it late in the contest and also when the rate is slow or you're
searching for another run frequency.

W3PP, a contester of Delaware with a great signal, likes to run, run, run
the first day, and resist the temptation to hunt for multipliers.  He hunts
mults the 2nd day when the rate is slow.  

K4ZA, a person with simlar questions, says to always sweeps the band really
quickly for multipliers from the Carribean or SA.  He tunes UP the high
bands and DOWN the low bands.  I did not know that there was a proper
procedure, but it makes plenty of sense.

KR2Q, a holder of several records QRP and a winning operator from N2AA/K2GL
M/M teams, writes that to never work the DX-Peditions the first day.  Also,
never look for multipliers the 1st day unless there is an incredibly rare
opening.  As a log checker, he says that it is usually QSO's, not
multipliers that win close contests.

K0HB, like W3PP, says that multipliers will come to you in domestic contests.

W9WI, the pile-up champion at Dayton (or so I've heard), says that he NEVER
looks for mults on domestic contests.  He says big-guns aren't 599+, then
there is no point in trying to run.  However, if the band is opening, don't
spend too much time calling one station.  Between Europe and JA he bounces
between S&P and running.  He likes to have something else to do during slow
periods.

NY4T, a little guy likes to S&P, but run when there is an opening in
multiple directions.

Overall - some good observations.  I'll NEVER give up big rates to mult
again (hopefully).  I need to get a program that will tell you how much a
mult is worth in terms of minutes.  I think that it would be an asset.  I
hope you read these and get something out of this that will improve your
score.  I know it will for mine.

73, Jason N5NU
n5nu at inu.net
http://www.inu.net/n5nu/


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