[CQ-Contest] WAE QTC Question

[Mike Smith VE9AA]

Lee:

I enjoy WAE a lot but am not an old hand at it.  Maybe 15-20 times over the
years.

I expect you'll get an array of answers and as is normal in contesting.:

"It depends" seems to apply here.

Myself, it's a judgment call based on quite a few things. SOME, just off the
top of my head are:

At the opening bell, no.  It's late in EU and some of those guys will play
for a few hours and never be back.
If you're using time handing out QTC's, you won't get called by SOME of
those callers ever again.  Stack the log.
I don't take QTC's in the first hour or two.
If the station is super weak or a lot of QRN (no matter how many QTC's I
have)..it's just gonna be a fight.
On 80m-no.  On 40m - maybe, if:
Things are slow/slowish and signals are good.  QTC's have no
band/weight.just points.

Some EU's won't ask for QTC's until the last 7-8 hours of the contest.
(some will never ask)
WAE is like SS..Slow on Sunday.  They have gobs of time and will ask you on
Sunday if you're running.

I used to run around the bands trying to give away QTCs the whole contest
and literally got turned down 90% of the time.  It seemed like a big waste
of time. Now I don't bother unless it's someone I have sent half a batch to
or I just heard them asking their callers for QTC's.

If things are really slow, say repeated CQs on 10m and a strong station
comes on and asks....even if I only have 3 QTC's..sure..he'll chase me down
later or I might stumble across him later.

When things are hot/heavy/noisy and you have callers, generally I won't do
QTC's.
If things are slow, I'll give them pretty much always when asked..even one !

So, yeah, it depends.

hi

The more you play in WAE, the more you can decide for yourself what it
depends on.

Mike VE9AA
Hi all...

So, what is the smallest number of QTCs that makes sense to bother with?

For example, I've worked 101 stations and have sent 100 QTCs.  So, for the
next caller, I only have 1 available.  It doesn't seem worth it to send
just one, with the slight overhead required.  But what does make sense - 2,
3, 5...??

I suppose the perspective is different for EU stations vs. non-EU.

What say?

73 de Lee, AA4GA

Mike, Coreen & Corey
Keswick Ridge, NB