[WWYC] Re: 48h

[Stefan v. Baltz, DL1IAO]

I went 48h straight in CQ WW CW 2000 for the first time.  I took a short break after the first 24h for a light meal, shower and fresh air outside but did not sleep.  I felt alert for the first 40-42h but lost concentration for the last 6 hours.  This was mainly due to the high bands closing to US and the rate dropping abruptly.  At that time I did much better with CQing rather than S&P where I tended to just listen to stations but not working them.  Unfortunately I did not realize this until about 90min to go.  I did not feel sleepy in the meaning of that my eyes would close but I began to stare at the radio display or the rotor control box for a long time.  At the end my concentration returned completely and I needed one more hour to fall asleep.

>From my experience the following points are true:

- As a young guy you should be able to do 24h straight any time, no matter how much sleep/work you had before the contest.  However, I had difficulties doing this at age 13-16.  Continously getting better (for how long?)
- Same true for 36h contests providing 2 full 6 hour rest periods to catch up with sleep
- For 48h I agree with K5ZD that you must want to do this very badly
- Getting psyched several days/weeks before helps to build up the amount of motivation you have during the contest.  The longer and better you have planned the higher will be the barrier to quit if condx/rate/station/alertness go downhill
- Being in good physical shape and sleeping a lot the week before helps
- I usually donīt feel too hungry and eat (few) sandwiches I have prepared for the first 24h, and fruits (mainly bananas).  If you are a "sweet" guy chocolate or cookies make you feel full and may give back concentration
- I drink water, juice and some coke
- For the 2nd 24h I have 3-4 coffee drinks with me of which I usually need at least 1 at Sunday morning to get over sunrise time.  Depends on physical shape, band conditions etc.
- If you feel extremely sleepy but the bands are hot, standing up, running around, catching fresh air and/or taking a shower helps somewhat
- Once you decide to sleep waking up after multiples of 90min epochs really is easier
- Sometimes as little as 10-20min of sleep can be enough to get back to business.  But donīt forget to purchase 2 solid mechanical alarm clocks which cannot be ignored.
- Print out and prepare rate/propagation/summary sheets of previous efforts or of your competition and continously compare with your actual score.
- Try to set many little goals in the progress of the contest.  Try to break the next 100 QSOs, 100K points, 10 multipliers etc.
- Watch the total score move beyond the next million and enjoy the feeling.  Then relax for 10sec, get your favourite sweets and break the next million!


Good luck,

Stefan, 26 yrs
DL1IAO@contesting.com



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