[CQ-Contest] SO2R -- revised opinion?

[Pete Smith]

At 06:55 PM 11/10/2005, Art Boyars wrote:
>In an earlier incarnation of the "SO2R should be a separate clas from 'real' single op" discussion, I voted "no."  I felt that if you had the hardware and the skill to jump to the second radio to grab the new QSO or mult there, and to jump back to the "run" radio without losing the freq, more power to you.  (I have also opined that you get darn little slack in reclaiming the run freq.)  However, I might be changing my mind.
>
>I did a lot of slow S&P in SS CW.  I'd get a CQer lined up, and all of a sudden he would stop -- even in the middle of his own call.  After the first couple of times, I realized that these guys were breaking off the CQ to make a call on the second radio.  Harumph! They were costing ME time.  Not veddy proper 'tall.  (I maybe recall somebody interrupting sending me their report; sounded like they had something going on the second radio.)
>
>Then, after SS CW, I saw some people mention the "dueling CQs" mode of a logging program.  Well!  My slow little bulb began its feeble glow.  Alternating CQs on two bands or two freq's.
>
>Neither of these techniques fits my moral understanding of how far we should allow SO2R to go.  Please: second radio is S&P only.  And if you start a CQ, listen for answers.
>
>Disclaimer:  One time K**** and I were working a pretty dead band at W#### in a DX test (CW, of course), with two complete rigs available.  We implemented a "wet ware" version of dueling CQs, one of us near the bottom of the band, one near the top.  It was cute then (we made about three QSOs in 15 minutes), and it wan't really bothering anybody (band completely uncrowded).  But having seen what was going on in SS CW, I'll not do it again.
>
>So, let the discussion begin.
>
>73, Art K3KU

It all depends on how SO2R is done, in my opinion.

First, let's clear something up - "dueling CQs" have been a reality in situations like SS Sundays for at least a decade, maybe longer. Like many SO2R practices, they can be done right or wrong, at the right time or the wrong time.  In many cases, the wrong time means being counterproductive, not simply impolite.  On Sunday during SS, I think almost anything that results in more QSOs, for both the SO2R op and the people he/she works, is by definition a good thing.

I think that SO2R and SO1R can coexist just fine so long as both groups of ops behave themselves.  For the SO2R ops, that means not being unreasonable about insisting "this is my frequency" when returning from an extended sojourn on the other radio.  For the SO1R ops, it means not cutting SO2Rs *less* slack than you would another SO1R with regard to grabbing a run frequency.

I ran dueling CQs for most of SS Sunday afternoon (no off time left to give, but that's another story).  I *never* had answers simultaneously on both radios, and even with the lengthy SS exchange, I never had a run frequency wrested away from me.  Things just weren't busy enough, and SO2R was the only thing that made it interesting enough to keep going.  Now on 15 and 20 on Saturday morning during CQWW, it wouldn't work, but a sensible SO2R op wouldn't try it then anyhow.

73, Pete N4ZR