Most of the secrets have been well covered, So I will just add a few
comments, starting with Treys excellent ideas.
>>o Know your station. Knowing whether or not your station has the
gusto to run people or crack pileups under given conditions
on a given band is a real time saver.
ESPECIALLY know when your antennas are RELATIVELY most effective,
for many of us the BEST band at any given time, in any given direction,
may not be OUR BEST band.
>>o Stay in the chair. You can't be the loudest station on the air
if you are not on the air.
See below, but the ability to stay with it is probably the main
"secret" to better scores.
>>And now for some general advice:
>>o Operate a lot. Experience is king. I learn something every time I
operate.
Whenever I run across K1AR in an event where neither of us is out for blood,
one of us will comment "just practicing" to the other. Operate in every
event you have the opportunity to. A few minutes to exercise your brain,
to relax, for some diversion is fine. A few hours with a specific practice
goal is better. You can hit a good propagation period late in a contest
and practice running, or you can pick a gray line situation and practice
finding stations, or you can turn on packet and practice pile up busting.
While playing in contests may well be enough for many of us, (I find it
fun, and relaxing, and I like to support lots of events) most will find
a few favorite events in which we actually want to compete at some level.
Decide what contests you plan to be competetive in, well in advance and
maximize your effort. Rest up, have the station ready to work perfectly,
plan to operate the full amount of time allowed, or if your not mentally
and/or physically able to operate the full time, develope a strategy to
get the rest you need and operate during the most productive hours.
(I am not good at this so I usually work 48 hours where possible and
don't go for blood in contests that require off time). Taking the family
out to dinner is NOT an example of a good strategy to maximize your
productive time and get the rest you need.
Competing against a friend, who is a known quantity, is helpful. It can
keep both ops interested in contesting. The best long term competition
is with yourself. You will contest longer and more often if your
relative improvement is your primary source of contest gratification.
My last personal secret. Be a cherry picker. Develope the mantra that
points is points. The DXer in many of us really wants to make the
super 40 meter skew path rare, exotic contact, but the contester must
be making a half dozen QSOS and working a few garden variety mults during
most of those openings. A DL and a G are worth more to me than a single
V85. If your chief pleasure is working the neat stuff, that is great,
but it will impede your ability to make your optimal score. (notice
how excited guys get at Field Day when they work a KL7 or KH6???
no mults, sometimes guys waste many minutes calling in pileups to work
neat stuff).
73 Chas k3ww@fast.net
http://www.users.fast.net/~k3ww
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