[CQ-Contest] Sleeping during ARRL DX Contest

[George Fremin III]

On Fri, May 05, 2006 at 09:43:10AM -0700, Tree Tyree N6TR wrote:
> 
> W4PA writes:
> 
> > Tree...I don't think you we're joking here (?) - but anything more than a 1
> > hour nap during a major DX contest strikes me as being a huge mistake.  48
> > hours straight is even better if the op thinks they aren't going to lose
> > anything on Sunday after sunrise from the battle fatigue. 
> > 
> > My 8P9PA log from ARRL DX CW three months ago shows 379 QSO's in the log
> > between midnight and 6 a.m. local time Sunday - this includes 30 minutes in two
> > 15 minute stretches where I fell asleep in the operating chair at the key.  379
> > Q's/5.5 hours = 69 QSO's/hr.  I think taking a break would have been a major
> 
> No - I was serious.

I think that it really is a question of how tired you are 
and how much it will affect your QSO rate and your error rate
on Sunday.  I have done the ARRL DX contest twice as DX on SSB
and I think that it can be a close call.  Once I did the full
48 and once I took a nap for 1.5 hours in the wee hours of
Sunday when things were slow.

I think the rest was worth it - and I feel that my score 
was better with the nap.

I would not take 5 hours off.

There are some hours where things get very slow on Sunday morning.

CQ WW would be a diffrent game since there are mults you could 
miss and there are stations all over the world to work that are 
not sleeping.  The problem with ARRL DX is that by 08z or so on Sunday
all the casual guys are asleep and all the others you have worked.
It is safe to take a nap and/or a shower to perk you up for as 
fast a finish as you can on Sunday.

-- 
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii at kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr