[CQ-Contest] CQ WW DX SSB Midwest vs East Coast

[Ray Mikula]

I have an informal Competition with a ham who lives on the East Coast (Richmond, VA).   I live in the Midwest (Chicago Northern Suburbs).  In last weeks CQ WW DX SSB contest, he outdid me with many more multipliers.  He had 63 more multipliers on 15M and 92 more multipliers on 10M.  What is interesting and frustrating is that we were both doing S&P (no running at all).  I was operating assisted using the cluster spotting in N1MM and I was very heavily focused on multipliers.  He, on the other hand was listening up and down the bands, snagging contacts.

So, what I’m trying to figure out is how he ended up with so many more multipliers.  Is this the difference between East coast and the Midwest propagation?  Or is it my approach?  Could it be that I missed so many multipliers because they never showed up as spots?  I would have thought that almost everyone that was running would likely get spotted but perhaps that was a really bad assumption.

Overall, we are both little pistols.  His station my have a slight edge as his beam is at 40 feet vs my 35 feet but that is about it.

So, two questions.  

If one is running assisted what balance of clicking multiplier spots vs. tuning up and down the dial tends to be most productive in snagging multipliers?

Second, how much of a difference is there between working a world wide contest from the Midwest vs. the East coast?

Any insights would be appreciated.

73,
Ray Mikula  (W9NZ)

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