[CQ-Contest] Contesting in the Sunlight [was: SO1R and SO2R]

[Leigh S. Jones, KR6X]

Condensed:
N2IC wrote:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve London" <n2icarrl at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Contesting in the Sunlight [was: SO1R and SO2R]

> There's another aspect of SO2R that makes it less useful than you might
> think --- SO2R is only useful when you have a band that you can
> effectively CQ on, and other bands that are effective for S&P at the
> same time. From here in the western USA, in a DX contest, at this part
> of the sunspot cycle, there are only about 8 hours per day that CQing is
> effective. The other 16 hours are spent doing S&P with one radio.  In
> addition, often during those 8 hours of CQing, there aren't many other
> open bands - S&P on the second radio just isn't very effective.

Having extensive experience and early experience I need to inject another
reason that limits the effectiveness of using two radios or two receivers
during DX contests -- specifically the fatigue factor.  Multi-radio 
operation
is all about feeding separate audio signals into stereo headphones and
dividing your attention between the left and the right ears.  It can be done
when S&P is effective on two bands, and it can be done when CQing is
effective on two bands.  Alternating CQ's on different bands is one of the
more relaxing multi-radio modes, and often provides an operator with a
very good way to test the usefulness of switching bands.

But CQing on one band with simultaneous S&P on the other band, or
S&P on two bands at once will tire an operator mentally to such a degree
that more frequent sleep breaks are required and will result in overall
score reduction during a 48 hour contest even for those operators who
believe they are receiving a boost.

Now, I'm going to have to admit to a level of innocence in this.  I did
most of my major single operator contesting during the 1970's decade
and exclusively from California.  But I did do 5-6 major efforts during the
90's as well, and a few in the past 5 years.  There's a chance that I
would overlook a possible reality that operating elsewhere in the US or
the world would be essentially so easy that fatigue does not enter as a
factor in scoring.

And, I'm going to have to express certainty that there are many operators
who have more stamina than I did when I was a fit and trim 20-25 year
old.  I no longer underestimate the abilities of other leaders in the
contesting fraternity as I did in my cocky teenage years.

But lets face it -- a 48 hour DX contest is a stamina event like a marathon.
Being practiced with multiple rigs is as much about developing the
stamina needed to maintain knife-edge focus on your use of time as it is
for single rig operation.  Multi-rig operation is a lot like being motivated
to run faster by someone chasing you with a whip during a marathon.
For a while your score climbs faster.  Then, fatigue sets in and your
efficient use of time begins to slip while you know only that it feels that
you are still working very hard to do everything quickly.  There's a limit
to how much you can improve yourself through diligent practice.

> Frankly, the biggest advantage to SO2R at this part of the sunspot cycle
> is to stave off boredom and sleep during those long hours in the middle
> of the night when I am "running" JA's on 40 meters. With the drop in JA
> activity, "crawl" would be a better description than "run".

Because the nightly JA run is such a crawl (frankly, by comparison to
a good EU run from W1 these days, every JA run from the US West
Coast on any band has always been a crawl) may seem to be an example
of an opportunity to use multiple receivers without excessively tiring
oneself.  But the nature of the 40M JA run is dictated largely by
station capability rather than operating hours.  One can exit the 40M JA
run to check on 80M, 160M or 20M and make up the time when you
return because you'll generate a little pile-up of fresh contacts and
quickly work through it.  For the JA run, it will work as well to spend
45 minutes on 40M followed by 15 minutes on 80M as it will to keep
CQing on 40M and tune 80M with a second receiver.  Either way
you'll still work all the JA's who hear you loud enough to think calling
is worthwhile.  Lets ignore that the multipliers don't respond this way.

But in this case, to stave off boredom and sleep translates into working
harder now and being more fatigued later -- probably meaning trouble
copying weaker 20M European signals during the run in the morning
and hurting your score later.