>From WNY you cannot work much of anything within 500 miles on 20, 15 or 10
>unless there is sporadic E. In other words on 20m I cannot work W1, W2, W3,
>northern W4, W8 and most of W9. That is a lot of stations I miss out on when
>on 20m. I have to work those stations on 40m early and 80m during the night.
>And without sunspots even 80m goes long and I can't work close in there either.
I believe I still have the WNY SS Phone record. That year I had just put up my
tower and the only antenna I had was an 80/40 meter trap dipole up at 80 feet.
Nothing else. So I geared my strategy around what I had and operated mostly
40m with a lot of 80m. I loaded the antenna on 20m in an attempt to get some
mults. I missed a few. But 1563 QSO's later I set a section record. That is
what SS is all about, find a strategy that works for your location and station
and antennas, and you can still do well. Maybe not top 10 but at least in your
section. Top ten low power is still doable in the northeast
With a once per band SS contest, forget that, strategy is out the window and
big antennas rule.
Sure Sunday gets pretty slow. That is partly due to working stations faster
early in the contest (like we are all doing) and running out of stations to
work later on. Part of SS is gutting it out on Sunday. Not unlike ARRL 160m
where the first night is good and the second night is a test of sticking it out
to the end.
Perhaps the biggest factor is we are all getting older and don't have the
patience for slow rates or long periods of time in the chair. I myself have
moved on to other things. And I used to operate phone SS every year. I keep
telling myself I'm going to contest again, and maybe I will, but it is no
longer #1 on my list of things to do.
And whomever mentioned "promote the contest" is right. I suppose we all know
when the contests are but why is there so little contest promotion? At most you
see a blurb on the web site a few days before the contest. Used to be that
clubs promoted the club competition and got club members active and there was
some excitement generated. Myself, I don't really see much of that anymore. Of
course I am in an area that is void of any contest clubs.
73 Scott W2LC
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