Contesting, as I have said before, is an exercise in engineering.  They write the rules.  You design your station and strategy to maximize your score within those rules.  In such an arbitrary or contrived pursuit, it is often difficult to discern whether proposed rule changes are significant or important.  One of the latest targets is SO2R operation.  Let’s break down the reasons why the present categories exist:

• Single Operator, power levels:  Power changes your strategy.  But, other things created equal, you’ll certainly make more contacts running higher power, regardless of strategy.  Power is a bolt-on advantage.
• Single Operator, assisted:  Assistance makes use of information or skills (in the antiquated case of loggers) of additional operators who do not actually operate.  Clearly, one operator is not doing all of the operating.
• Multi-Operator:  Clearly, adding additional transmitters increases your ability to attract QSOs by CQing.

Where does SO2R fit into this?  As expert K5ZD has observed, SO2R is something that you grow into being able to leverage.  This suggests that SO2R is predominantly a skill, at least on CW and Phone and perhaps to a lesser extent on RTTY (although, I will say that I think CW is more natural than RTTY).  Adding SO2R costs less than adding an amplifier.  So, it’s not a matter of haves and have-nots.  My scores sagged the first times I did SO2R—clearly not a bolt-on advantage here.

W4PA made an interesting observation about the M/S category recently:  Why is no one clamoring for MS1R, MS2R, MS3R, etc, categories?  Or in M/M for that matter?  Because these  guys are more interested in winning by pushing the state-of-the-art than by creating a new category for themselves.

Am I opposed to an SO2R category?  Not specifically.  If such a distinction were to be made, it should be included in a limited/unlimited distinction like the T/S category in WPX.  Fix all of the category “problems” in one motion.  But, until such a limited category is created, leave SO alone!

I cruised by eHam for the first time in a long time the other day.  As, I’ve mentioned here before, I left due to the low SNR and because the forums weren’t exactly, um, inspirational.  There was one of the perennial Contest-Anticontest threads raging in the Contesting forum.  The originator sarcastically “thanked” contesters for “trashing” the bands during the CQ WW CW contest last weekend.  I skimmed through the bashing from both sides until I got to a poster who said, “Thank you, contesters, for giving me some contacts.”

You’re quite welcome!  This guy knows what’s up.  He’s new to HF and had a terrible time making contacts outside of contests.  A lot of us started out in his shoes.  Honestly, when I first got on HF at 14, I didn’t feel like I had anything to say to older people on the radio—that’s why I left repeaterland.  Now that I’ve done some stuff, that’s different…but, I still like contesting.  Over the past five years, I’ve found friends that I’ve operated, built antennas, strategized, or just plain shook hands with.  Some of the most interesting people I know are contesters.  Tell me that ’59’ contacts are impersonal!

This is a great hobby.  Life is too short to bash any of your fellow hams!

N6TR has posted the draft Sprint results. Although I’m disappointed with my overall effort and score, I’m pleased that I missed the golden log by one busted QSO. I may not QSY fast, yet; but, at least I’m pretty accurate. The guys who do this contest well still amaze me.

When I put the teams together, KJ9C always says, “There’s a big party in Indy this weekend; I don’t know if I’ll be in any shape to contest.” Then, he swoops in and stomps me.  This is the second year he’s done that. K4LT always has a beer before a contest to keep the jitters down. Maybe there’s something to that. I don’t think it tastes good enough even if my scores did go up…

I started to work on my backlog of bureau (“buro”) QSLs last night.  Like many contesters, I find QSLing to be an enormous chore, especially via the bureaus.  But, as I am fond of saying, contesting is a marketing game; a nice QSL may be as important to operator you contacted as the QSO was to your score.

One of the fascinating things about the bureau cards is that they come in chunks by country.  I’ve received a lot of cards for my CE/K8GU operation in August 2006.  It seems as though Chile was highly sought-after in Europe, especially on CW.  I must have been pretty loud up there, too, with the antenna at the edge of the cliff.

Working through the QSLs did bring back memories of learning to work a pile-up and log on paper.  You see, I didn’t have a computer suitable for logging along on the trip.  So, I had to log on paper.  I entered the entire log into my computer on the flight home.  (At Sarah’s prodding, I had read Harry Potter on the way down.)  It’s a good thing I entered the entire log because I left the log in the back of the seat pocket in front of me.

Anyhow, I’m getting the itch to be DX again…

The Sprint, as I have written before, is a CW operator’s contest. Last night, the usual Thursday night gang, plus some, gathered for another happy half-hour of Sprint practice. But, the rules were different: high-power (1.5 kW) was permitted and no duplicate contacts (per band) were allowed. I felt puny, especially on 40 and 80 after the masses left 20 meters. Looking at 3830 this morning, I notice that almost everybody ran high power. 12 dB makes a difference…(not to mention that I have about the smallest antennas of anyone who participates.)