[TowerTalk] Participating in a contest for the sake of dx?

[Jim Brown]

On Tue,2/9/2016 4:55 PM, dw wrote:
> But I'm not sure how the contest people would feel about that?

As a rabid contester, I can tell you that contesters will welcome your 
QSO IF, and ONLY IF, you play by contesting rules. Here's a quick summary.

1) Read the rules of whatever contest you want to operate. From the 
rules, make sure you know the exchange that YOU send, and who can work 
you for credit (that is, he gets credit for working you, whether you can 
work him on only one band or on multiple bands.

2) On CW,uUse a contest logger or programmable keyer with memories. 
Program that keyer or program with

Your call sent once
Your exchange to him

3) Work fast -- don't waste his time. Send NOTHING extra.

4) Call him by sending your call once, pause a second or so to listen, 
call again once if he hasn't come back to someone.

5) Don't send your exchange until he sends you his and you have copied 
it. Send it ONCE. If he wants a repeat, he'll ask for it. If you missed 
part of his exchange, ask for a repeat by sending something like "NR?" 
or "Zone?" or "NAME?" Ask for the repeat BEFORE sending your exchange -- 
sending your exchange TELLS him that you copied his OK.

6) Send NOTHING extra. No "thanks," or "73" or "good luck in the 
contest." He will acknowledge your exchange by "TU" or "CFM" and then 
his call, which tells other callers he's ready for them.

7) Use the same techniques on phone. Speak your call quickly, plainly 
with careful enunciation, using STANDARD phonetics. Nothing cute.

8) NEVER use "please copy," "73," "good luck in the contest," or other 
time wasters -- they are "lid-isms."

9) Never send anything he's already copied. If he's copied your call, 
never send it again. Send your call again ONLY if he got it wrong. If he 
got your number but not your state, send only your state again. And so on.

If you're going to operate much in contests, download and learn to use a 
good contest logger. N1MM Plus is free, and well supported. You'll need 
to study it to learn how to set it up and use it. It's well worth the 
time and effort. Among other things, it can generate an ADI file that 
you can certify and send to LOTW, or import into your general logger 
(like DXKeeper, also free and excellent).

The reason for using a programmable keyer is so that you don't waste his 
time with mistakes from hand-sent keying. And you can send pretty fast. 
:) Most modern rigs have enough memories to load the few things you need.

73, Jim K9YC