[CQ-Contest] The Value of Spotting Networks

[Art Searle W2NRA]

Hi Paul

You wrote: "If you're just jumping . . ."

What do you mean me?  I don't do this!  I'm was just making the point that
you could do this.  I get enough UBNs due to my poor antennas and weak
received signals, especially on 40, 80 & 160.  But I believe that a serious
effort that combines quickly jumping through the band map for multipliers
and careful tuning will benefit your score.  Please take what I say with a
grain of salt.  I am not a serious contester.  I just play.  My biggest
problem is the lack of "in the chair time."  And like you said careful
tuning got me some weak mults, that had they been spots, I could not have
competed in the pileups.

73 Art W2NRA


> Thanks Art,

> I am fairly comfortable with logging software but one thing I never
> do is assume the cluster is correct. If you're just jumping from
> spot to spot and relying on others to provide all the info, you
> must have a pretty high UBN rate. It also takes the fun out of
> tuning for that weak rare one.

> In the contests where I use the cluster, it's for a specific
> purpose and I always verify the callsign myself first. A lot of
> the time I'm just trying to get new countries and other counters.
> If all that gets spotted in a DXcontest is domestic spots, that's
> no good either. And, quite frankly, as one responder pointed out,
> not all the good stuff gets spotted.

> No, I've resolved to wean myself off the cluster and go it alone
> in major contests. I did better this past weekend without it than
> I did last year with it; granted I have an amp and a better
> antenna system now.