[CQ-Contest] Big SS Score from the NE

[John R. Golomb Jr.]

In <3.0.6.32.20001112171438.008d8df0 at pop.gscyclone.com>, on 11/14/00 at
11:31 PM,
   Pete Smith <n4zr at contesting.com> said:

>W4AN recently commented on this reflector that breaking into the top 10
>from the Northeast was truly an accomplishment.  That inspired me to
>remember that N2NT (N2NC op) from NNJ is currently standing 8th in SOHP. 


>I looked up the station in the World Contest Station Database, and it
>doesn't look *that* special.  So how does he do it?  Inquiring minds want
>to know.... 

I guess I'll attempt a response to this, sorry it's a couple of days late.

I guess it comes down to experience and knowing what works in SS CW from
the NorthEast.  I've been operating SS CW since 1980 (it was the first
contest I entered) and it is still my favorite.

I first have to give credit to N2NT's fine SO2R station.  It is a real
beauty.  You can view the antenna description on N4ZR's database.  What
you don't see from the database is all the automatic antenna/amp switching
done inside.  Andy has recently added an Alpha 87 to his station, so that
has made band changing even faster on the right radio, the left side is
still a Titan amp.

One of the things I do in SS is S&P as much as possible.
I believe that I can work people faster using 2 rigs S&P
than the conventional "CQ on rig1 and S&P on rig2" approach to SO2R.  This
works particularly well with computers sending the long SS exchange.  You
can look around for someone new to work while the computer is sending the
exchange. By the way, the Sprint is a great contest to practice this. If
you can do it well there, SS will seem easy. This S&P approach is great
for the first few hours, until you start to run into the same guys.

After the first few hours, the rest of the contest is done using the 
conventional SO2R approach.  I guess the rest of the contest comes down to
proper band selection (you have to be flexible) and off-time selection.
One thing I've changed off time wise in the past few years is coming back
on after 1200Z sunday.  I used to get back on the rig too early and most
people were still sleeping.

Some other examples/comments of things I might do a little different:

- Staying late on the high bands the first night, lets me go to 40/80 late
and be fresh meat to all the local stations.

- when someone "stole" my cq frequency when I was working someone on rig2,
I just QSYed (sometimes to a new band) instead of fighting.  

- K1AR's DX contest tip of treating all the bands as one big band is
certainly applicapable to SS.

- For a great writeup on SS tips see the results of the 1980 SS (May 1981
QST).  There is a sidebar summarizing the results of a survey sent to the
top finishers.  This 20 year old collection of SS tips is still mandatory
reading for serious SS participants.

Well that's about it, there are many others such as K5ZD, W2RQ, K3LR,
N9RV, K3UA etc... who could shed more light on operating SS from East of
the Mississippi.

73,

John N2NC (@N2NT)
 
John R. Golomb Jr. <kz2s at exit109.com>


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