[CQ-Contest] Results - SO2R Layout & Audio Switching Survey

[Hal Kennedy]

This is a fairly long email detailing the answers to a set of questions I
recently asked.  If you are not interested in SO2R station layout...hit
delete, and, sorry for the bandwidth!

First,
Thanks to the 44 ops who took the time to respond to the survey - I really
appreciate it.  I believe that's enough responses to have some statistically
meaningful results.

Second,
As to methodology, I scored obvious answers as they were received.  Where
answers showed a strong bias, e.g., "I do it this way 95% of the time" I
went ahead and scored those as if they were absolute answers.  Where
responses were of the "I do it 50/50" nature, I didn't score them.  I have
not identified any of the respondents in this post, as I did not ask their
permission to do so.

As a recap, the following questions were asked:

1.  Are you left handed or right handed?
2.  If you operate with radios side by side, do you always have the run
radio to one side (L or R?)and the S&P radio to the other, or do you
exchange?
3.  If you exchange, why?
4.  Other comments welcome..

Those who answered the above questions received a second set of questions
via private email regarding audio switching, which I will cover in a second
posting to the reflector.

Results of the first questions:

1.  RH = 82%,  LH = 18%
Notes:
A. This is reasonably close to the general population which is 13% LH.
B. The question was asked to add to the next answer, and determine if
handedness was a        factor in layout.

2.  With regard to fixed run and S&P radio positions vs. frequent
exchanging:

Fixed radio positions: 52%  Frequent position exchanges: 48%

Of the fixed position stations, 74% have the run radio on the opposite side
of their handedness, i.e., right handers have the run radio on the left 74%
of the time.  26% of the fixed layout stations have the run radio on the
same side as their handedness.   See discussion below.

3.  Of the 48% of the stations that frequently exchange run and S&P radio
positions, there were two dominant reasons why:

A.  Its faster/easier/most flexible, etc.  Typical response: "If the run
radio is on 20 and the S&P radio is on 15, and 20 gets cold and 15 gets hot,
I don't want to lose any time, I just start running on 15 without changing
anything."
B:  Station limitations.  Typical responses:  "Radios are not the same, one
is better for running on the low bands, the other on high bands," or, "Left
radio only has the low band antennas, right radio only has the tri-bander,"
or, "left position has the auto-tune amp, right is a hand tuner" etc.

Of the frequent position exchange stations, 78% change for the faster/easier
reason, 22% for hardware limitations.

Discussion and some conjecture:

Stations that I recognize as frequently in the top ten and have a lot of
SO2R experience are almost all in the 'frequently exchange positions'
category, and give the faster/easier reason.  Nearly all of these ops
indicate they have identical radios and switching that allows either rig on
any antenna.  Note to self: If you want to run with the big dogs, this is
probably the way to go.

For those who used radios in fixed positions, the layout appears to be
driven largely by whether or not they do much hand keying.  There are
significant distinctions between those who do a lot of hand keying and/or
mouse manipulation and those who don't.  Those who mentioned they hand key a
lot (a minority of responses) mostly do so with their dominant hand, and
have their run radios on their dominant side.  Why?  The run radio requires
much less touching - typically just a tweak of the RIT now and then.  Given
the two tasks of working the paddles and tuning the S&P radio, the
preference is to give the paddles to the dominant hand and the S&P tuning to
the non-dominant hand.  Those who did not mention hand keying (the majority
of responses) were those who had the S&P radio with the dominant hand.
These ops only have one hand chore, not two (ignoring the keyboard) - that
being tuning the S&P radio, which they prefer to do with the dominant hand.

Although not asked about, there were a lot of favorable mentions of WRITELOG
and the TTD DXD.    There was one gripe about CT - the super check partial
data is at the top of the screen, making for extra head movement if the
monitor is already above the radios.

Some interesting one-offs:

"I stack the radios...I would strongly advocate against setting the radios
out horizontally."
"The single largest factor has turned out to be the height/location of the
monitor...That height/location factor is critical because you can easily
tire yourself out w/head moves, eye shifts, contrast issues, that are
un-needed, etc."
"Sometimes I wind up running on BOTH radios at the same time - its very
challenging"  [I got this reply from two stations]

I am reluctant to draw conclusions beyond:

1.  Top ops believe the time savings associated with instantly exchanging
positions is very important.
2.  Handedness plays a role in determining the layout in fixed position
stations, with, typically, the S&P radio tuned by the dominant hand unless
that hand is needed a lot for keying, in which case the key gets the
dominant hand and the S&P radio winds up on the weak side.

Again, sorry for the bandwidth.

Hal, N4GG