Wisdom from CQ-Contest
From Contesting
Contents |
N6TR on Canned Speech - 1992
The K1EA DVP keyer sounds like a neat piece of hardware. I think we have all dreamed of operating a phone contest without a micro-phone. I doubt many of use will actually do this in a serious contest, but having it available to handle the routine QSOs will certainly decrease the fatigue factor. However, there are appear to be some expectations that I feel are unrealistic with this device.
First off, while the comparison of a live voice to the recorded voice proves the hardware is working, this does not mean your live voice and the recorded voiced are going to sound the same during the course of a contest. There are two major reasons this is true. First, your voice and what you say will change depend- ing on your rate and target audience. The other is that your voice is going to change during the contest as you use it up. You could create a number of different messages that are appro priate for different times of the contest with different rate situations, but you may have a hard time predicting the situation and how your voice will be sounding ahead of time. Is this important? Does it matter if people know you are using such a device? This is a point that will probably be debated, but I feel that if non contesters can tell you are using some sort of prerecorded message, they are less likely to give you a contact. Most phone contests require you to appeal to a larger audience than just the contesters. The people at the top of the boxes all know they are giving a performance during the contest and it is necessary to lure in the non contesters so they will help you out.
Many of these people are listening to you while doing something else in the shack. They turned on their radio and tuned in a
loud station and are "reading the mail". Eventually, you need to get the person to go over to the radio, press down their PTT
switch and say their callsign. The most effective way to do this is to make your performance interesting and fun so they want to
be a part of it.
If they are comfortable listening to you and start feeling like they know you, and you say something like: "Only 2 hours to go
and I need 200 contacts to break the record", they will probably make an effort to work you. I have operated the California QSO Party a number of times from California. In 1982, I set a new record mostly because of the rates I had in the last couple of hours. I used the technique of saying how many minutes were left in the contest and how many QSOs I needed. The response was amazing. Even some of the members of the household came and watched me operate.
As the contest wears on you, and your voice changes. This can be part of the act. If you sound like you can barely talk, you can use that to your advantage. I have had many "sympathy" contacts on Sunday.
To me, the use of a DVP keyer would eliminate my ability to draw in non contesters. I would sterilize my operation to the point
that it is no longer a human performance. I don't work many phone contests seriously these days (maybe one or two a year),
but I do search around for a few hours on Sunday and help guys out. I think I would be less likely to work someone using such a
device. For some reason I feel insulted if someone is using it to try to work me. If he can't take the time to really talk to me, why should I go to the effort to work him? I really do not enjoy working people who are using a CQ tape and then answer me
with a totally different voice than the one I heard in the CQ.
Another issue with this type of operation is the image contesters portray to the rest of the amateur community. Phone contests are
much more visible than CW contests. If you have ever listened around 20 phone minutes before the sprint starts and compare it
to what is happening 5 minutes into the contest, you may feel ashamed to call yourself a contester. I am not sure what effect
universal use of the DVP device would have on this image, but I am afraid it would not be good. If people catch on to the fact
that we are calling CQ over and over again by just pressing a button, I would have a hard time feeling that their use of the
frequency might not be more worthy.
I know it is the same thing as punching the button on your memory keyer, but the CW bands are not as crowded as the phone bands and there are not anywhere the number of people listening to us. Also, it is possible to use a memory keyer without anyone being
able to tell the difference between a live performance and a prerecorded on. Again, I feel strongly that this is impossible
on the second day of the contest unless you keep rerecording your messages over as your voice changes, or just never use your live
voice.
The recorded receiver audio feature is another matter. This can be used without any impact to your performance. This feature
alone may be worth the money. I plan to support the DVP card with my logging program mainly because of this.
My point in writing this is to make sure people think about how this device will affect their score in ways they may not of
before reading this. If I have made you think seriously about some of the potential downfalls about using this device, then I
have achieved my goal.
Has anyone thought about how to efficiently handle the multitude of stations who call you with just the last two letters of their
call? Boy I hate phone contests anymore!! Maybe the DVP can record "Please whole callsigns only" in 100 different languages.
You could use separate transmitters pointing into different directions and have it in the appropriate language for each
different beam heading. Japanese for 300 degrees, Spanish for 150 degrees and a random language for 30 degrees.
73
Tree N6TR
N6AA on pileup management - 1998
Periodically this reflector is subjected to well-intentioned advice about CQ-ing stations signing their callsigns after every QSO.
Managing a pile-up by judicious callsign rationing is an advanced operating technique that, if executed properly, can squeeze a few extra contacts out of an operating period. Since small differences in operating skill rarely affect contest outcomes, many contests can be won without ever mastering such skills. In fact, most entrants are rarely in situations where such action even matters.
However, there are advantages to not signing after every QSO.
1) If you can make another contact without signing your call, the time you would have used to sign the call can simply be used to make additional contacts.
2) By keeping some potential callers off balance until they know who you are, you may be able to reduce the size of an excessively large pile-up to a size where you can copy callsigns.
3) There are a number of highly-skilled operators with small signals. If these individuals sense that you will allow their skill to get them through, ahead of competitors with bigger signals, they will stick around, trying to work you. If they sense that you are a plain-vanilla operator, signing your call every time and then working the loudest station, they will go away since they know how weak they are.
4) If you are a common CQ-ing station, many S&P'ers will call you only once. When two stations reply, and you finish the first contact extremely rapidly, and give the second station the impression that you know he was there, he may call again, even if you completely missed his callsign.
There is a downside, in that you may cause other operators to take actions that may lower your rate. Certain operators may feel that their superior stations and/or favorable locations entitle them to know your callsign where their identification skills and experience are not advanced enough to determine it, or enough about you to know whether to call, without hearing you actually sign it. They may QRM your weak, target stations by sending, "Call?" They may work you without knowing your call, which of course, is usually only bad if they are duplicates.
There is considerable skill involved in maximizing the benefits while minimizing the liabilities incurred.
The callsign-signing decision may change after every contact. Factors that may impact the individual decisions include:
1) Do you already know the callsign of another station in your pile-up?
2) How many people are tuning the band listening, and what percentage of them have already worked you? Have you made 10 or 5000 QSO's on the band?
3) What is your signal like in your target area?
4) Is your call EE5E or KH5K/JQ9YXJ/M?
5) Do you have an overall picture of what is going on in your pile-up?
5a) Can you say something like, "There are now 5 or 6 calling, and 3 or so have been there for some time. There have been no new additions to the pile- up during the last few contacts?"
5b) Or, can you say, "One weak guy, with a long call, has been here for a while. He sends fast and always zero beats the last station. Maybe I can
sneak him through."
5c) Or, are you simply struggling to copy callsigns, and therefore unaware of your pile-up structure?
Summary:
If you feel that the callsign should be signed after every contact, this strongly indicates that your operating skills have developed to the stage where you should indeed sign your call after every contact.
However, when you give unconditioned advice to others suggesting that they absolutely always do the same, note that you are primarily broadcasting your skill level rather than giving good counsel.
73,
Dick Norton, N6AA
K1AR on the secret of success - 2005
Shhhh...it's a Secret!
You know, this radio stuff is actually pretty easy. Unfortunately, it has become overly complicated by the technoids/over-analyzers of the world, most of which have never actually won a contest. So, here's the secret to winning (and don't tell ANYONE ELSE):
1) Put up some decent antennas at a reasonable location that favors your interests in contesting (e.g., NM for SS, NH or D4 for CQ WW). Beams are good -- doesn't really matter what kind or how many elements. Try to include some device to turn a few of them. Wires add value. Verts can be good, too. 2) Buy a couple used IC781s 3) Buy a couple of decent amps that put out around 1500W +/-. 4) If you really want to hang out there, get some SO2R crap and wire it all together. 5) Install a PC with a logging program. 6) Wait for your favorite contest and operate it. 7) Send your score in.
The following are evil distractions:
1) Any new radio product
2) Kenwood anything other than an 850 or perhaps a 930
3) IC-pro blah, blah, pro, blah, blah
4) Unmodified FT1000blah, blah
5) Electric fences
6) Ice
Other advice:
1) Stop reading all of the endless technical banter that people write about this subject and use your newly acquired free time to get on the air and become skilled at understanding propagation, callsigns and your station.
2) Operate enough so that people know your call by simply sending the first few dits.
3) Answer your QSLs.
If you do most of the above, you will do well in contests. Again, my only request is for you to please keep this information to yourself.
73 John, K1AR
N5KO on what REALLY makes you good - 1996
> If I were in your class, what would I appreciate about your
> ability or technique? Or in other words, what would another
> highly accomplished contester know about your skills that I
> miss because I'm just an awed "apprentice"?
> > (If you're too modest to talk about yourself, apply the question
> to the your personal contesting "hero", the guy you vow to beat
> this year.)
In my view, this is one of the true dilemmas of radio contesting. You, as the hypothetical "apprentice," do not have the knowledge or experience to be able to appreciate the skills I have developed that make me the hypothetical "major league contester." And similarly, I take for granted many of the fundamental skills that are necessary for you to advance to the next level.
I like to offer up two quotations that sum up my general beliefs on the topic. The first is from someone in my peer group, and second is from someone who I would categorize as a personal contesting hero from my formative years in contesting, although I doubt he actually knows this :-) ).
"With experience comes knowledge and cunning. I can't stand here and tell you the secrets, as many of them are second nature to me now." -- KR0Y/5
"The best of the best gained their winning edge practicing the basics over and over in numerous forgettable events, often using inadequte radios and second-rate antennas. Discovering how to overcome such obstacles are lessons never forgotten." -- NCJ Profile of N6RO
And now for a bit of a digression:
I have observed many "second tier" (and others down through the neophyte ranks of) contesters think that there is some set of winning "tricks" that the "first tier" contesters use to beat them, and if only someone would let them in on these terrific secrets, they would be first rate contesters themselves. These people are setting themselves up for disappointment, because I'm going to let them in on the biggest secret of all:
"There are no secrets!"
It turns out, as with most things is life, that skill and hard work pay the most reliable dividends in the long run.
Now for some specific advice. None of these things are mandatory to win, but collectively they really add up:
o Know the code. 50 WPM conversational is a nice milestone --note: don't try this at home with pencil and paper.
o Know the bands. Nothing like knowing the right band to be on to improve your score.
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.
o Stay in the chair. You can't be the loudest station on the air if you are not on the air.
And now for some general advice:
o Operate a lot. Experience is king. I learn something every time I operate.
o Solicit advice from a variety of experienced people. Some of the "experts" will be more compatible with you on a personal level than
others, so shop around and get a variety of points of view.
To wit, after I post this message, I will get a few notes from various folks, about half of which will say "I really identified with what you wrote. You're a genius!" and the other half of which will say "You're a moron. Get stuffed!"
--Trey, HC8N (QSL via AA5BT), WN4KKN/6
Improving concentration by K5TR - 2007
> operators, and I'm struck by the fact that I do not seem able to
> consistently get the sort of results they do, even from the same
> station. This is particularly the case in hell-bent contests like
> the CW Sprints, but I have the same feeling about the first evening
> in Sweepstakes, and to a lesser extent in the big DX contests.
There are more things that just focus and concentration - I think much of it is learned by operating many many contests until most of the operating actions and techniques become second nature. It has been very interesting to me over the last few years hosting different operators here at my station. One of the ops has been WM5R - and since he has been coming back for a number of contests year after year I have gotten to see his operating skill evolve.
When Ken did his first ARRL 10 meter contest from here there were a number little things that he was doing or not doing that were making an impact on his score and rate.But the one thing that really struck me was not any one operating style or error - it was that when he was running stations that was about all he could do. He just did not have the mental bandwidth to do anything more than run stations on one radio and get them in the log. He could not think about where he should turn the antenna or answer a short question from me or for that matter use a second radio.
Over the years I have seen this change, Ken can now process much more information, he can use the second radio, he can answer my questions etc. He is no longer just doing all he can to work guys and get them logged.
I have seen this evolve slowly over time and each year of the 10 meter contest he was doing a better job of operating. It was not only the 'mental bandwidth' issue but many things that were learned by doing contests over and over - improving his skills with each one.
I still almost always learn something every time I operate a contest.
> To the extent that I can isolate the problem, I think it lies in the
> inability to keep myself totally focused in the moment. Even in the
> midst of a 120-150 hour on CW I find myself not always totally
> "zoomed in" on the pileup. Watching good ops, they seem to have a
> really special focus that I find hard to maintain, even for a 4-hour
> sprint.
> If there's anything to be done about this, I'd like to try, even
> though at age 65 I am inevitably losing some of my edge. So I'm
> wondering what others have done about this, whether there are
> particular techniques that you use to help stay focused. I don't
> know what I'm looking for here, so any suggestions would be welcome.
> If you want to send them to me off the reflector, I'll summarize
> anonymously.
I don't know what will work for you but here are a few the things that have really helped me over the years.
- Contests have a duration that is fixed. The contest ends in 4, 12, 24, 36 or 48 hours. You can not get any of the time back that passes by during the contest. I found that once I really understood that it helped me stay in the moment and not think about my place in the results or what I will be doing next week or whatever. The time is NOW. The time is now to make contacts.
- I have learned to push myself through the rough spots and low points.Instead of letting them get you down you need to learn how to push
and work through these points. You must keep pushing if you want to have a good score. There will be some pain along the way, there will
be times when you are having problems finding rate or a frequency or whatever but you need to keep going - this is no time to give up.
The contest will be over at a fixed time - you can rest then.
- I find I do best if I do not have rate sheets or projections of how I should be doing - as often as not these can just be very depressing if you are not doing as well as you were hoping or as well as last year. So over the years I have avoided having these around or setting goals like that - it just did not work for me. As I have done more and more contests I have gotten to the point that even if I am not doing as well as last years rates or score I do not let that bother me - because I have learned that even if you are not doing as well as your 10th place score from last year you could be
winning the contest. You just need to keep pushing forward.
- I keep pushing myself to tune the second radio, to keep callingCQ etc. Sometimes it is hard to keep it going when the rate sags in a DX contest to 20/hour but it is the slow hours that that are the hard ones - they are also the ones that you have the most chance of improving on percentage wise. Changing a 20 hour to a 30 hour is a much bigger deal than changing a 100 hour to a 110 hour. The slow times are very important.
Anyway - maybe there will be something useful in all of that rambling. Those are some of the things I have worked on over the years to help me do better in contests. I also hope that it is not to scattered as I just typed that off the top of my head.
-- George Fremin III - K5TR
How do you get better? by K5ZD - 2008
"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" the guy asked his cab driver. The reply, "Practice. Practice. Practice."
I think we all can acknowledge that practice is an important part of learning and improving any skill. Sports players practice, sometimes for years. Kids learning musical instruments practice. Very few people are a "natural" who can just pick something up and be instantly good at it.
Why does no one ever talk about practice with regard to radio contests?
I find the SS CW contest is the best single thing I can do to be ready for WW CW. Why? Because it lets me practice my SO2R techniques. After doing SS CW, I find I can sit down in WW CW and immediately go into SO2R mode without much thought or effort.
Other ways to practice in radio contests:
- Start at the bottom of the band and see how fast you can search and pounce your way to the top. Then go back to the bottom and do it again. The first time is about knowing how to acquire the next signal and dump in your call (or decide to keep tuning). The second pass is the valuable one. It helps you practice call sign recognition, duping skills, and how to dig between the fast loud guys.
- Work a QSO party or smaller DX contest that is focused on one area. See if you can work every station you hear from that area. Again, this helps you practice recognizing signals from a target area and duping skills.
- Work Field Day running high power. No better simulation for practicing running skills. :)
- Work RTTY contests to learn SO2R skills. In RTTY, the computer is doing the brain work and the QSOs have a fairly consistent timing and pattern. This frees you to practice the keyboarding skills of jumping between the two logging windows. For even higher level of practice, try running on two bands at the same time (while never transmitting on two bands at once). The goal is to do it so smoothly that no one listening can tell what you are doing!
- Search and pounce in a contest using low power. Almost everything I learned about busting pileups came from my early years in ham radio with 100 watts and wires in trees. You take a different approach when you are not the loudest guy in the pileup. Learn that different approach and then be amazed when you apply it while running a KW!
- W4AN used to do work in his shack with two radios turned on listening to two different stations. He would practice copying both. You probably won't be able to copy solid on both, but you will learn how to quickly shift focus back and forth. The goal is to get this skill happening without thinking.
- Get on the air between contests and make some QSOs. Nothing helps your CW sending more than having to think and send at the same time. :)
Most of all, have fun!
Randy, K5ZD
How do you get better? A few more ideas by KQ2M - 2008
Lots of excellent suggestions/techniques and ideas from those who know. Here are a few more....
1) The CQWW Log database is an INCREDIBLE source of operating information/strategies and techniques based on ops actually working people in the contests!
Go here for phone logs or here for CWand click on the log that you want to see.
Want to know what propagation paths are/were possible on a given weekend? Then read the M/M, M/2 and single band logs of serious competitors.
Want to see what the competition was doing in your category? Then look at their log.
Even with having operated contests seriously for 35 years and still having most of the logs (with handwritten notations!), I am still learning; and "reading" the logs of others is an invaluable source of operating ideas/ information and strategy. With a few hours of "study" I can quickly figure out what I am doing better than others and what I can improve.
Also, looking at my old logs is also a good review of band conditions at various points of past cycles that I may have forgotten about, including those easily missed and obscure, short-lived band openings.
2) I "operate" daily with five computers and LCD's watching and trading in the stock/bond/commodities and other markets in "real-time". In these exceptionally volatile times, nothing prepares you for the mental/physical demands of SO2R like the mental focus required to watch and then integrate the visual and text information from five computer screens with 100 charts+ and 400+ quotron symbols, plus simultaneously watching CNBC and answering my office phone. Of course I am also making split-second "real-time" decisions to buy/sell while all this is happening, just like the split-second operating decisions we must make during a contest. However, unlike contests, there are no time-outs or rest periods when the markets are open!
3) Listen to complex music (all types from Jazz to Classical to Rock, etc.) and try to pick out all the instrumental and vocal parts, one by one. When you get good at that, "dial it up a notch" and then try to "see" the artist actually playing their part of the piece with the actual fingering while you are focusing on them. The focus on the next artist and the next and so on.
The more complexity and detail that you can "see", the more successfully you are training your brain to develop concentration and focus and to multi-task.
4) I regularly watch DX-Summit on one of my computers to get the "feel" of daily propagation as it changes around the world. I also check the various www.noaa.gov solar activity websites and monitor auroral cndx and A/K/SF indices in real time. After a while of doing this on a daily basis, I can usually reasonably predict the A/K/SF indices just by looking at DX Summit spots and seeing what bands they are on.
Although a lot of unusual propagation paths and weak stations are not spotted, overall this is a very useful strategy for learning current propagation and what to expect during a contest. Despite the often busted callsigns, this is an excellent way to become familiar with the DX and DXpedition callsigns BEFORE the contest, so you know who to look for DURING the contest.
5) There are a myriad of other ways you can take things from your daily life and work and make them tools for training your mind and body and improving your operating skills. All it takes is a little imagination and creativity plus effort, and having fun.
There is a simple equation that I use every day:
Learning = Improving skills = Having fun!
73 and CU in CQWW CW!
Bob KQ2M
