[MiQP-Mail] MiQP-KALKASKA COUNTY

[Morse, Earl (E.A.)]

You are looking at it wrong.

Admittedly it can take years to build the skills and stations that some
operators compete with but you need to remember that above all you are
competing against yourself and having fun.  Makes no sense to suffer for
12 hours on the radio and I can admit to having turned radios off and
quit in the middle of competition when I realized I wasn't having fun.

Right now everyone is in the pre contest frenzy of making station
improvements, sharpening their pencils, and developing their strategies.
It is now that you need to ask yourself what can I improve before April
18th?  Move that antenna a little higher or change from that 80M gutter
mounted whip to a real 80M dipole.  Is my computer working?  Is my
logging software up to date and functioning? (Heaven help you if you are
paper logging and trying to run stations on 20M in the afternoon)
Should I be making an effort to memorize the county list and county
abbreviations?  Maybe some code practice everyday?  Now is the time to
be tweaking all those little things because on April 18th its too late.

Then when you have your gameplan it is ready, set, go and have a blast.
Do your best and call CQ a lot (and N8SS every time you hear him).
Above all you should be having fun during this time.  When it is all
over, calculate your score and see how you did.  If you have a score
from last year, see how you improved.  If this is your first score then
you have put your stake in the ground to which you will compare your
future scores.

One thing I do after a contest and sometimes during it is a post-mortem.
I write down everything that didn't go well and some of the things that
did go well and make a note to fix or change them by next time.  It's my
continuous improvement process.  My post-mortem items might include, fix
logging software to allow duping mobiles as they change counties, modify
antenna switch to allow both 40M antennas to be used by either radio, go
to 80 meters earlier, reduce fan audio noise in amplifier, etc, etc.  If
you don't make any changes from year to year then the only thing that is
going to make your score better is a propagation improvement.  That
usually also makes everyone's score better.

I operate CW/SSB because I welcome the extra activity.  Also, it is very
difficult to win with only one mode though some stations certainly put
in respectable single mode scores.  Looking at the Kent County results
from last year, if all the same players get on and do about the same a
low power entry could win with 100 QSOs but don't worry about that.
Compete against yourself first, then against those in your county or
club, and finally with time you will find yourself competing for the
overall spots.

Don't let crappy antennas get you down.  Look at what K9TM did last year
from Monroe county.  Hastily erected dipoles on 80-40-20M and operating
out of a garage on a card table.  If I hadn't bought his neighbors new
rototillers with loose spark plug wires he might have even beat the high
power category with low power.  Good thing he is mobiling this year.

So what is everyone doing to prepare?  Anybody wondering what antenna
they should put up for the weekend?  Or what strategy to use?  I would
share my rate sheet if someone was wondering where and when those QSOs
happened.

Earl
N8SS
WAYN


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Message: 3
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:25:33 -0400
From: Richards <jruing at ameritech.net>
Subject: Re: [MiQP-Mail] MiQP-KALKASKA COUNTY
To: Scott Yost <nm8rmedic at gmail.com>
Cc: MiQP-Mail at miqp.org
Message-ID: <49C7012D.9010503 at ameritech.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I have a different take on it, ... at least this year.

While I am interested in contesting.... somewhat... I am
deterred by the scoring multipliers.   I live in Kent County and that
is a rather busy ham county, so I can hardly be the only one from
around here... and because I am new at ham radio, and still learning
CW... but working on it... I do not see how I could be competitive
against   1) CW/SSB ops,  and  2)  more experienced, better equipped
SSB-only ops -who have more and better antennas.

Given the circumstances, I may just play around and make contacts
with the real contesters.   I really feel I need to reserve my "rookie"
year for when I can do CW and use the multiplier in that.

So... pour me a beer and I will cry in it...  well.... after drinking
most
of it!

=============  K8JHR  ======================