[SECC] SS Tips

[Jay Pryor]

>I would be interested in seeing SS tips from you all.  Might help some of
>our membership this weekend.
>
>I'll be high power, so some of my advice may not apply to someone going LP
>or QRP.  I actually think AA4GA, W4OC, K9AY, K4OGG, etc might have more
>useful tips for the club at large.


1.  I guess one tip from a low power perspective is to start in the extra 
portion of the 20M band.  The big guns will be .025 and up, and for the 
past several years I have had no trouble finding room a little below 
14.025, with rates around 60/hr. to start.

2.  Don't wait too late to go to 40M.  If you wait until it goes long, you 
will (obviously) miss some of the close-in stations and mults.

3.  We always hear about SS on Sunday afternoon.  You know going into the 
contest that Sunday afternoon is going to be slow. It can be so slow that 
it's painful, especially for low power folks.  Leave yourself some off time 
so that you can take it on Sunday afternoon.  In addition, I have never had 
much luck going late into Sunday evening.  I will probably not operate past 
8 p.m. local time on Sunday.

4.  Remember the number one tip for any contest: call CQ.  If you are not 
real comfortable with CW, call CQ at your comfortable speed on Sunday 
afternoon.  I guarantee you that the 24-hr contesters will be thankful you 
are there and will gladly send at a speed in your comfort zone.

5.  If a CQing station is going faster than you can easily copy, just 
listen long enough so that you can get the exchange.  When you have it, 
give him a call.  I used to do that all the time.

6.  I've been listening to tapes of CWSS for the past week, driving to and 
from work.  It helps me get the feel of the contest before the starting 
bell.  You might find a good station and tape some of his QSOs so you can 
learn how he/she does it.  Somewhere I have a tape of CWSS when W4AN was 
operating Val's station.

Having said all this -- bear in mind that as much as I enjoy CWSS, I've 
never done particularly well in it!

Good luck and I hope to see you all this weekend.

- Jay, K4OGG


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