[RTTY] WPX Tips and Tricks Needed

[Don AA5AU]

Operating times in this contest are usually dictated by propagation.  If 
conditions are good at the start, you keep going until they you get too tired to 
operate or lose propagation.  But since that will be on 40 and 80 Friday night 
for us in NA, it depends on how noisy the low bands are.  If they are quiet, you 
go until you drop.  If they are very noisy, you might want to call it an early 
night.

I don't remember which year it was, but one year in WPX RTTY, I woke up Saturday 
morning expecting to kill 10 and 15 meters to Europe, but there was barely a 
signal on any band 10-20.  A major flare had disrupted everything.  I went back 
to bed and got up a few hours later and it was better but again I decided to 
rest.  A short time later I got up and checked the bands just as they opened up 
big time.  Conditions were great the rest of the weekend and most of my rest had 
already been taken.

One year conditions were so good at the start that I went straight through 30 
hours before stopping.  Good thing because Sunday ended up being a bust for 
propagation.

Problem is how to decide if conditions are too bad to continue.  You don't want 
to rest too much on Saturday thinking the bands are not good only to get worse 
propagation on Sunday.  Historically Sunday is slower than Saturday but I think 
that has been gradually changing now that there is much more activity in this 
contest.  It's second only to CQWW RTTY as far as logs submitted.

Got my KT34M2 up on the 2nd tower Sunday and I'm  P-U-M-P-E-D for this 
weekend!!!

73, Don AA5AU

----- Original Message ----
From: Dick Flanagan <dick at k7vc.com>
To: Alex Malyava <alex.k2bb at gmail.com>
Cc: ed at w0yk.com; RTTY <rtty at contesting.com>
Sent: Tue, February 8, 2011 11:42:53 AM
Subject: Re: [RTTY] WPX Tips and Tricks Needed

Sorry, Alax.

I meant 10 hours on, 9 hours off, 10 hours on, 9 hours off and 
finally a third 10 hours on.  For a total of 30 hours on and 18 hours 
off across the 48 hour of the contest for SO1R.

Dick

At 06:54 AM 2/8/2011, Alex Malyava wrote:
>I did not get it...
>What 10 - 9 - 10 - 9 - 10 supposed to mean?
>
>I have my own schedule for east coast, I call it "6 to 2".
>You get to the radio at 6 am/pm local eastern time and operate till 2 pm/am
>- that gives you maximum result and still leaves a lot of free time for
>family...
>
>But "10 - 9 - 10 - 9 - 10"?
>I feel like I just failed my IQ test :)
>
>Alex K2BB
>
>
>On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 6:17 AM, Ed Muns <ed at w0yk.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sunday, February 06, 2011 7:58 PM, Dick Flanagan asked:
>> > Would 10 - 9 - 10 - 9 - 10 seem a reasonable on/off schedule from the
>> > west coast?
>>
>> I doubt it, but it depends on what your goals are in the contest and what
>> the capability of your station and location are.
>>
>> Ed - W0YK/4
>>
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--
Dick Flanagan K7VC
dick at k7vc.com

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