> I've been thinking about joining up with some friends in the January NA QSO
> Party to operate as a multi entry. But when I looked over the rules and
> thought about it some more I realized that I had some questions, which I
> hope can be answered here.
I think people often psych themselves out because they think they need
to do too much other than simply turning on the radio during a contest
and having fun, so my answers will be in the spirit of keeping things
simple and maximizing enjoyment.
> 1. Pretty basic first question, what's the strategy for operating with two
> stations? Running and picking up mults, or just trying to run on two
> different bands?
Yes.
Consider what you would do as a single op with one radio: you would do
some CQing and some tuning, striving for the balance that would
maximize your score. M/2 is exactly the same, except with two guys.
The only additional detail is that you want to avoid being on the same
band as your partner.
> 2. If you keep a separate log for each station (xcvr) as required by the
> rules, how do you dupe check if station 1 later operates on a band that
> station 2 was on earlier? Or is each xcvr confined to a specific band(s)?
If using computers to maintain your log, then network them together
and utilize the capabilities of the program to track
station1/station2. If you are logging on paper, then keep a seperate
log for each station but keep the dupesheets by band, and pass the
dupe pack and forth as appropriate.
In many situations, it is easier to decide to segregate the bands
among the stations before beginning, like station1 is 160/40/15 and
station2 is 80/20/10.
> 3. Do people use more than two xcvrs, but then only transmit from two at
> any given time?
Nah, only in special circumastance where it might be easier, like if
walk into a station like W3LPL and there are six transceivers setup
and everything is hardwired to a given band.
> Sorry to sound so dull here, but I'd like to try to do things right...
I think the key to success is to be less ambitions when just starting
out at something. Doing an M/2 is a perfect example.
Setting up two rigs and computer logging is a pretty ambitious first
step. You will probably discover you have inter-station interference
(or maybe you won't!), or that your operating table isn't big enough
for two guys to operate together, or whatever. Once you operate the
contest you will have a bunch of ideas about how to make things
better. Write these things down, and act on them. Little by little
your station and your scores will improve.
As I said before, people often get psyched out by trying to
overprepare and then don't end up doing much in the contest. The
morla of the story is:
Don't be one of those people I often hear making post-contest comments
like, "well, I didn't operate the contest because my packet link was
down" or "my logging program doesn't support this contest, so I didn't
operate."
Get on and do it, and then afterwards take the time to contemplate
improvements.
--Trey, N5KO
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