[WWYC] Iota 2000

Sun, 6 Aug 2000 19:33:47 +0200

Hello!

I can maybee give you some tips about contest 
strategy. I'm not a super SOAB op. but I am 
getting better and better and it will be fun to 
see my improvement since last year......

As you probably know it's very important to run. 
Whenever you can run then run!. The guy who get 
called the most wins! BUT you should also S&P. 
When I work I moslty run and then make a quick 
scan of the band and don't waste time calling 
countries you already have. If they say their 
call and then QRZ then try to call them but if 
they have a big pile, then tune on!
After you've done a scan of the band then go 
back to run mode. It is very good to do SO2R 
because you can always scan another band for 
mults. It's very good in summer time because you 
can scan 10m (which is pretty quite on the 
summer) and whenever a new mult appears then 
work it. The same goes to 160M.....if you don't 
have a good antenna and a amp on this band it's 
pretty hard to run. I guess that you guys in the 
center of Europe have a bit advantage on 160m 
because you're in the middle of all the easy 
mults.

If you don't have two radios then go and check 
the bands from time to time and scan them. You 
don't need to make slow scans just tune across 
it and if you hear new mults then work it, make 
sure you don't miss any of em. A very important 
thing is that you don't waste time calling those 
juicy stations with a huge pile on Saturday, 
they will be there on Sunday and begging for 
QSO's and then you maybee just need to spend 2 
mins in the pile instead of 30.

As SM3SGP said, running is the best way to get 
mults and I guess he's pretty right about that 
but don't forget to scan the bands sometimes.
If you want good tips it's good to read all the 
contest articles at contesting.com. Most of them 
are from NA stations and they use a bit diffrent 
strategy then we do in EU, atleast the times!.

In the mornings I've tried beaming VK longpath 
on 20m sometimes and It actually pays 
off.......and remember that 20m can be HOT 
nighttime and also in the mornings when the 
sular flux is soo high.

Many contesters forget that they are contesting 
and not DXing. Don't call the DX stations you 
don't need if you don't get them on the first 
call, don't be stubborn and if you're in a freq 
fight then give up.....don't waste 10minutes in 
a freq fight when you can get a new one on 
3minutes (if not on 40m....hehe, it can take 
hours to find good freq :)). 

Also remember when you are trying to find a good 
run freq, it's better to have a clear freq at 
21100 than a noisy one at 21010, that's the 
freqs for the M/M stations. You can ask the 
stations sometimes if the freq is clear, it sure 
is worth doing.

About sleep strategy......remeber that it's 
better to take a 4 hour offtime of those 48 
hours and be a bit more awake then staying up 
for the whole contest and not being 
concentrated, and remember to try sleeping in 90 
minutes periods....it actually helps.
A thing I do when I get really tired is that I 
go out and run some. If it's summer this is no 
problem but in winter time it isn't that nice(It 
can be like 25 degrees below 0 here in Sweden) 
but it is sure worth it and atleast I get a bit 
more motivated.

I'm always better on Sunday then Saturday. 
That's a thing I gotta work on. Often when I 
contest I'm a guest op and sometimes I'm on a 
bus like 5 hours before the contest and that 
really lower my motivation so I try to have 
everything set up a day before the contest and 
then sleeeep before. This is really a problem 
because the hours before a contest the 
adranaline is pumping and you can only think 
about one thing, the contest! Try to empty your 
head before the contest!

In smaller contests it very good to make single 
band entries, even if there isn't a single band 
category. If you work a contest single band you 
get a bit more experienced of that band and then 
you're more competive in SOAB. Maybee you didn't 
know about that LP opening to SA on 15m, maybee 
you didn't know that it was possible to work VK 
easily at that time on 80m and so on.

It's very good to ask "super ops" about the 
strategies, and remember that the most effective 
way to learn things is to work a lot of radio 
and take part of those M/S operations with 
experienced ops (A thing that I gotta do more).

Always have two antennas per each band. My new 
tower that i recentrly bought will probably hold 
a 6/6/6 el triband stack so I will cover most of 
the directions but sometimes I may have the two 
top 6el tribanders at JA and maybee a weak SA 
call in, then it's good to be able to switch 
antenna to maybee a dipole or something. The 2nd 
antenna don't need to be yagi, just have a 
vertical or a dipole!

Ok, there you have some of my tips.....it's just 
my opinoins so it's nothing to complain at :)

73 // Mike (SM3WMV // SM3W) 
#6 WWYC (World Wide Young Contesters)
Visit "http://home.swipnet.se/contest/wwyc/" for more info

Keep up the hamspirit and enjoy ham radio contesting!

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