[CQ-Contest] Analysis on ASSISTED advantage vs UNASSISTED

[Barry]

In my mind, there is no question packet CAN help scores.  I emphasize 
CAN because one must LEARN to use packet effectively.  Packet is an 
operating tool, in some respects just like a second radio.

Two radio (SO2R) ops know that the first few contests they used the 
second radio were very difficult. Learning how and when to use the 
second radio is the key to success.  It is a learned skill, and 
improves with practice.  The second radio, when used at the wrong 
times, can actually negatively impact your score.  If running, it can 
slow down your run rate.  If S/P'ing, it can cause much distraction 
making it take more time to copy a callsign and determine if a call 
is new or a dupe.

Now, go back to the above paragraph and substitute the word "packet" 
for "second radio" (or "two radio.")  It's the same thing!

At first glance, most folks think it's no big deal to use packet.  
Just connect to the Cluster and you know what to do.  Absolutely not! 
 The key to using Packet is knowing how to balance chasing incoming 
spots with running (this is my East Coast perspective, of course).  
Chase too many packet spots and your QSO total, and final score, will 
suffer.  Just look at the SOA score breakdowns in any major contest.  
The top ops will have about twice the QSO total of the next group 
down.  However, they will have almost the same number of mults.  What 
does that tell you?  Too much spot chasing and not enough running.

Personally, I pretty much ignore the packet spots the first 24 hours 
of the contest.  Most of the spotted mults will be gotten anyway, 
without butting heads in a packet pileup.  Speaking of packet 
pileups, haven't you noticed the same people beat you every time?  So 
why do you insist on fighting that same battle over and over?  Just 
to say you beat W3LPL in a pileup?  What about the 200 times they 
(and many others) beat you?

Your next argument may be - How come the SO scores are higher than 
the SOA scores all the time.  First, it's not all the time.  Just 
most of the time.  For example, in the CQWW CW 2003, the top 3 SO 
claimed scores were 7.8, 7.1, and 6.3. The top 3 SOA scores were 9.1, 
8.2, and 7.2.  Second, it's because the SO guys usually have bigger 
stations with multiple towers and monobander stacks.  Most of the SOA 
guys are tribander types.

That's it for my analysis.  Moral of the story - use packet, but use 
it less to help your score.
73,
Barry W2UP

On 6 Apr 2004 Tonno Vahk wrote:

> It is often said that using packet does not help much and Assisted
> results are usually lower than unassisted. Well, just to get some
> numbers I did a little analysis.
> 
> I had 2800 QSOs and 950 mults in WPX SSB SOAB unassisted. I was
> wondering how many more mults I would have worked with packet. David
> was kind to let me have his nice database of all the nearly 30 000
> spots from that weekend.
> 
> I found that there were good spots of about 350 prefixes that I did
> not work. Looking at them I could clearly say that I could have worked
> at 100 of them with ease had I known their frequency and were to turn
> the antenna. With SO2R you don't just find all of them even if you
> tune across them.
> 
> So actually I think that packet would have let me improve my score by
> 1 mio from 6,3 mio to 7,3 mio and that is a hell of a difference,
> probably would have guaranteed 1st place in EU.
> 
> And I guess this holds true in most of the contests...
> 
> 73
> Tonno
> ES5TV
> 
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--
Barry Kutner, W2UP              Internet: w2up at mindspring.com
Newtown, PA                     Frankford Radio Club