Over the last decade I've fallen in love with SO2R low power when operating
from the U. S. At low power the rates are low enough that there is time to
do something with the 2nd radio.
I've operated from the DX side and love it because it makes me feel like I
am popular. (I'd rather look like Brad Pitt and have hundreds of women
lusting after me, but a pileup on 15 ain't bad).
But I never have operated SO2R from the DX side in a contest.
Is it worth doing? I'll be operating the ARRL CW low power from a beach
house in Puerto Rico with wire verticals at water's edge. My analysis is:
- The only place where I have to worry about multipliers is 10 and
160. On the other bands mults will just happen.
- I'm going to be battling it out with Europe much of the time, so
much of the time I'll be fighting to keep a freq.
Right now I think a 2nd radio might make sense mostly on 10 during the day
and 160 at night. However my fear is that whenever I pay attention to the 2
nd radio I greatly increase the risk of losing my run frequency. If I were
running a KW from ZD8 I might be able to keep my freq but barefoot from KP4
I run a big risk that 20 seconds of silence means someone else owns my spot.
I also find that, at least in the CQWW, 2 radios leads me into temptation in
that I often find myself S&P with both radios, sort of DXing. I might be
having a blast, but my score suffers. I don't think I should be afraid of
this in ARRL because there is nothing to work that is actually interesting.
Does anyone else have experience with this from DX in ARRL?
Should I bother trying to man 2 radios?
During sunspot minimum should I be trying to run on 15 and announce a
listening freq on 10?
What am I not thinking of?
73,
Brooke N2BA
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