Russ Pillsbury writes:
> PS: For example, I worked 154 stations on 2 meters this sprint. The top
> station in this area worked 226 q's. If we take 150 stations, and work them
> on 6 and 2, and then work half of those stations on 222 and 432, and then
> work half of them on 903 and 1296, we come up with a total of 525 q's in
> just 4 hours. That's 2.2 qso's per minute including band changes, with no
> time out to drink or pee! It might be fun to do it once, but it's not my
> idea of a good contest.
These contests are called sprints.
Sprint: 1. To run or race at full speed, esp. for a short distance.
This sort of rate is often acheived in HF contests and sometime
even on 6 meters. I just looked at the last two all band
HF contest efforts I did.
In the WPX SSB contest I made 546 contacts in the first 4 hours.
It is true I only made 43 band changes in that 4 hours....
In the SS SSB I usually make between 550 and 600 QSO in
the first 4 hours and the exchange is about 5 to 6 times
as long as the one in the VHF contests.
These rates are not that fast - in the 10 meter
contest I had four consecutive hours on Sat. morning
that totaled 731 contacts. Of course I did not have
to change bands.
In most of these HF contests I dont even get out of the
chair for 6 to 9 hours at a time or more. Of course many
of them last 36 or 48 hours so I dont get much if
any sleep either. When I do a VHF contest - I operate it
the same way. Back when I was starting out in contesting
I was told that the only way to make contacts was to
stay in the chair in front of the radio.
This even applies to VHF contesting - and maybe even
to a larger degree - due to the fact that band openings
are very short and VERY unpredictable.
--
George Fremin III
Johnson City, Texas "Experiment trumps theory."
K5TR (ex.WB5VZL) -- Dave Leeson W6NL
geoiii@kkn.net
830-868-2510
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr
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