[SECC] SS Club Competition - Going for the Gavel

[Hal Kennedy]

Great post Bill - and timely.  I read the mail on several other clubs'
reflectors and they are busy with lots of traffic getting ready for SS.

Here are a few ideas the more advanced planners are putting forward:

1.  Two operators at good stations.  If you have at least a tribander
and wires for 40/80, consider inviting someone over and using both
calls.  The better operator stays on the high bands during the day and
the low bands at night using his own call.  The other operator, using
his own call, stays on 40 and 80 during the day and 20 at night.  Two
good scores can come from one station this way and it's perfectly legal,
provided each entrant uses a separate and distinct transmitter.  Even if
someone can only drop by for an hour or two - coming on the bands late
in the contest as 'fresh meat' can produce tremendous rates and a good
score in a short time.  See #2.

2. A study done at another club shows a good op can get 40-50% of the
top winning score in about 10 hours.  I suspect you can get a very
helpful score for the club in one hour of operating.  ALL SCORES ARE
WELCOME!!!  

3.  There is a concept called HMO - highly motivated operator - which is
discussed in length in the last issue of NCJ.  This practice lead the
NCCC to two SS gavels.  [This is probably a good place to put in the
plug I have been meaning to post for a while - NCJ is a real bargain at
$20 per year.  It has lots of great articles on antennas and station
building, operating strategy, results for the Sprints and NAQPs, etc.
Much more gratifying than spending that $20 bill on, say, a half tank of
gas.  Its for little pistols as well as the big guns.]  HMOs are ops who
give up a chance at personal glory to aid the club score by operating at
two locations under two calls.  Two ops can operate half the contest at
home under their own calls, travel to each other's stations and get on
the air using a different call.  This is legal as long as 'as-yet
unused' transmitters and amps are turned on for the operation under the
second callsign.   

Some of the above may be more than any of us have the motivation for - I
don't know - fortunately, it's not required for us to win as a club.  As
Bill points out, SECC was only a few QSOs short of being the top
mid-sized club last year.  We can win this if each of us who get on
regularly operates just a little more in SS, and those who have lost
interest simply flip on the rig for an hour and submit their score.

See you in SS!  FT CW here, and at least PT but hopefully FT in SSB.

73
Hal
N4GG



-----Original Message-----
From: secc-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:secc-bounces at contesting.com]
On Behalf Of Bill Coleman
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 10:29 PM
To: secc
Subject: [SECC] SS Club Competition - Going for the Gavel


I've spent some time looking at some statistics of the Medium  
category for the SS Affiliated Club Competition. You do realise that  
the SECC took second place to the Southern California Contest Club,  
by less than 12% difference in score, don't you?

And they did it with one additional log -- 35 submitted to our 34.

I think there's a good chance we can win the Medium category in SS.

I pulled some numbers from the web site for last year's results, and  
found a few interesting things:

1) More than 1/3 of our club score came from three people: K4BAI,  
N4PN and N4LR, who put in full-time efforts in both modes.

2) 52% of the operator hours were spent on CW, whereas Phone provided  
54.2% of our score.

3) A few guys that submitted scores for both CW and Phone were very  
lopsided in their results: N4GG, K4TD, W4ATL and K4LW had only 10-20%  
of their points on Phone, whereas KT4Q and AA4LR submitted less than  
1% of their results using CW. Most of this was due to differences in  
time spent. (eg I did all 24 in Phone, but only 1 hour in CW)

--

So, I'm thinking about ways we could improve our score by 12% or  
more, perhaps targeting 4 million points. I think the club can do it,  
but there's a couple of principles that need to be applied.

1) Our club is based on the idea of promoting contest operation -- so  
anything that inhibits someone from operating doesn't sound like a  
good idea. (eg "Gee, Bill, why don't you skip SS CW and let someone  
else submit a better score in that slot?")

2) I like the idea of inclusiveness of the club, so even a newbie  
should feel like his effort counts for something. So, we shouldn't do  
anything to denegrate anyone's efforts (eg "Gee, Bill, 242 pts in 1  
hour of working CW is pretty darn bad -- maybe you should submit that  
score for the Southeaster DX Club....")

--

With that in mind, here's some ideas:

1) More scores. We had 22 members submit scores for SS, with a total  
of 34 logs submitted. That means we have room for 16 more logs and  
still stay in the Medium category. We need to have more people get  
on, and operate in SS and submit their logs.

2) More points. I'm sure everyone is out to make the most points they  
can, in the time they have. Some people turned in impressive scores  
with big efforts. But even the little guys can contribute something  
significant. There may be ways to make more points. For example, this  
year, I know I can only work CW part-time. So, I might as well turn  
on the amp and maybe put myself in the Unlimited category to beef up  
my score.

3) More hours. I'm also sure everyone spends as much time as they can  
contesting. Fall is so tough with 6 major contests in the space of  
7-8 weeks. Not everyone can go full-time. But, if you plan on  
submitting a score, perhaps you can try to work as many hours as you  
can. I know I plan to put in quite a few more hours in CW than the  
measly 1 I did last year.

Whose up for SS this year? I'll be FT in Phone, and PT in CW.


Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901

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