[SECC] Winning SS

[brian wilcox]

These statements are based on a full on - 24 hour effort. Your mileage may vary.

My strategy the last couple of years running SSB @ K4SSU has been to run well into the morning hours. My goal is have 1000 q's before hitting the sack for a few hours. 1000 q's generally show around  2 to 3 am (local). I will try to go longer this year as the rate @ 3 to 4am is better than it is 7 or 8am. The rate Sunday mornings are close to some of the worse late Sunday afternoon hourly totals. POOR. Those are the hardest/toughest hours of the contest for me. HOWEVER, the BIC theory applies. Everybody gets 24 hours and everybody feels this pain somewhere in their time allocation.  
I don't operate SO2R (yet) and operate unassisted so I find most mults come to me simply putting a signal their way. Point NW to get the KL7,SD, WY, VE9 etcs... I chased only 1 multiplier last year as the rest came to me thru rate focus v. mult chasing. KP4 was the evasive one. I had to find him for the sweep and did so 1st thing Sunday morning finding him CQ'ing on 15m.
You have to call CQ. There are a great # of 'casual' ops that will get on for just a few hours during the weekend that will not CQ BUT will answer. You have to get these guys in your log. That is a big part of the Sunday effort. These guys being in YOUR log is key. 

Turn the tables - if you aren't doing a FT effort, get on Sunday afternoon. I would love to jump in with just a few hours to go with a fresh call and watch the rate meter explode. That goes for QRP as well. I run QRP from home and would bet a 200 hour(s) is possible with a fresh call on Sunday afternoon. Take advantage of the signals incoming to hold your frequency. They can.

Whatever you do - get on and have some fun. It would be nice to win the gavel again!!  I'll be in there, from somewhere. Go SECC  73's NA4BW