[UK-CONTEST] IOTA G0MTN SO12Mixed LP Unassisted

[Peter Bowyer]

> Good advice Peter, just hope that you don't get criticised  in Rad Com
like we did at gw6J a couple of years ago for speaking too fast!

There's always someone who doesn't like what you do or how you do it. You
can't please all of the people all of the time...

When it comes down to it, running a contest station is, essentially, a
selfish thing - you don't go to a rare island just to give other people an
extra multiplier, you do it so you stand a better chance of winning. And you
manage the pileup accordingly. But as we all know, efficiency decreases with
the size of the pileup, so you have to do something to stop it getting out
of hand. You don't have the luxury of a long stay like DXpeditions such as
D68C do, and you can't promise you'll work everybody who wants to work you -
you need to manage things so that callsigns pop out of the pileup one at a
time and the rate meter stays pinned to the end-stop.

The inevitable consequence is that some people, perhaps a lot of people,
will get fed up and call someone else. You can't do anything about that - if
you're already working upwards of 200 an hour, then you're at full capacity.
But you should (IMHO) do the pileup management in such a way that you don't
p*ss people off such that they write angry letters.

> What disturbed me more was a number of EU conterst stations who were not
giving their iota number on the exchange.

Well, there's a rule about that - the contest manager should hear your
views.

> Plus all the stations that insisted on giving part calls only, despite me
asking for full calls only,

The southern europeans will always do this, whatever you tell them. They
also have a curious tendancy to hear their own call letters when you're
going back to someone entirely different. Personally I find it often easier
to go with the flow, and I will often go back to 2-letter callers if it
looks like that's the most effiecient way to get rid of them. Full calls,
repeated once if it's a short one, are always going to be the most
efficient, but you can work up a decent rate going back to 2-letter callers
if you get into a rythmn.

Peter G4MJS