[CQ-Contest] Contesting tip o' the week

[jpescatore at aol.com]

Anyone who has spent any time in a pileup has decided *not* to maximize QSOs, they are chasing a particular station! That might be in a contest for a multiplier, might be outside of contests when chasing a DXCC new one. 
If I'm playing DXer between contests and there is some Caribbean station I've never confirmed with a pileup on 12m but they don't do LotW, I probably won't waste the time chasing them - not going to help put an X in that row on my DXCC band country. I'll go have a QSO with someone vs. wasting time in a pileup. During a contest, I don't care about LotW - my decision on spending time in a pileup is based on that little line in N1MM that shows Qs/Mult.
But, during contests, there are a lot of people out there doing just that - mostly making Qs to  chase awards (like the DXCC challenge)  and using various types of software that tell them if you are using LotW or not. As K5ZD says,  good reason to upload to LotW. 
73 John K3TN