This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
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we go, welcome to... Good evening, everyone.
It's time for HamTalk Live. It's episode number
275, a contesting primer with KZeroMD, recorded
live on Thursday, October 7th, 2021. I'm your
host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in
to this episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're
joined by... Dr. Scott Wright, KZeroMD, and we'll
take your calls live in just a few minutes. Last
week here on the show we had Joe Eisenberg, KZeroNEB,
here to talk about some new kits and some new
soldering tools and stuff. So if you missed that
you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com or
you can use your favorite podcast app or you
can also catch us on YouTube. and on the weekends
uh... on saturday afternoons about three thirty
p m eastern time uh... the show is rebroadcast
over on w t w w shortwave that's five zero eight
five on your am dial and uh... you can take a
listen to the show uh... over shortwave on on
saturdays so uh... tonight we're going to talk
about getting started with contesting so uh...
if you have some questions get those ready to
go and uh... here in a little bit we'll give
you a chance to call in and uh... ask your questions
the phone number for that i'll go ahead and give
it to you uh... it's eight five nine nine eight
two seventy three 73 we'll give out that number
again here in just a second So you can write
it down or punch it in have it ready to go You
can also tweet us. It's at ham talk live on Twitter
And if you're logged in to Spreaker you can type
in the comments as well that will work But once
again the phone number to call later on in the
show will be eight five nine nine eight two 7373.
So I'll be back with Scott right after this word
from Tower Electronics right here on HamDog Live.
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Your host Neil Rapp may be too radial short of
a full ground system, but he's back now with
more HamTalk Live. Welcome back to HamTalk Live.
Tower Electronics will be in Pressview, Florida,
October the 9th. That's this weekend on Saturday,
where you can visit them anytime at PL -259 .com.
So welcome back to ham talk live tonight. Dr.
Scott Wright k0md joins us on the Orlando amateur
radio club and hamcation zoom line Scott is an
excellent contester. He's been on several the
expeditions and he's the past editor of the National
Contest Journal His day job is working for Mayo
Clinic teaching cardiology Scott lives in Rochester,
Minnesota and is a graduate of the University
of Kentucky. So good evening, Scott. Thanks for
coming on the show and talking about some contesting
tonight. You're welcome. I don't know if you
heard my theme song at the University of Kentucky
fight song. I had to play it for you. It's a
joy to be with you as always. And my congratulations
to the men's football team at the University
of Kentucky who are having a tremendous season.
I hope my contest season goes as well as their
football season so far. Yeah, it's been a nice
change, although we've been on the rise here
for the last couple of years, but having a great
season. And I had to text Andy Malusi, KK4LWR,
after we beat Florida, had to rub it in. So I
did that. But yeah, it's been nice. It truly
has. I'm so happy for the fan base, the players,
the coach, the university, everybody involved.
Yeah, I was down there in Lexington teaching
yesterday and had a few minutes to spare and
started looking at the basketball schedule to
see about maybe going to a game this winter.
So we'll see how that goes. Well, anyway tonight
I thought it'd be a good idea to kind of talk
about getting started in Contesting because we've
got some some big contests here You know, it's
fall and when the winter the weather starts getting
a little more wintry You tend to be indoors more
and you have more uh... motivation to be on the
radio because uh... that's one of the things
that you can do indoors so uh... thought we'd
talk a little bit about uh... you know some of
the contest that that come along with that and
uh... how to get started in it so uh... let let's
just uh... let's just take it from the beginning
here uh... what would you suggest uh... for someone
Wanting to get started in contesting, what should
they do? I think people are really afraid to
contest. They feel that they will be swallowed
up in the sea and freeze and not be able to know
what exchanges to give and how to do it. So what
I suggest is the following. Look at the contest
schedule for the next few months, maybe the next
three months, and just pick one contest a month.
that you might like to try or two or more. For
me, I often have one a weekend I want to do.
So it's a struggle to balance that with work
and family and other stuff. So the way to get
started is to really pick sort of pick a contest
or two or three or four that you want to be involved
in. And those should really probably allow you
to achieve whatever goals that you've set with
the hobby. And for some of us, the goals are
very uh well set you know for me i got started
in contesting because i wanted to get five band
dxcc and uh i'm such a competitive person once
i started contesting i started doing it more
and more i really enjoy it then suddenly contesting
takes over ham radio for me and that's largely
what i do some dxing and mostly contesting Once
you decide which contest you want to do, just
spend 15 minutes reading the rules and then do
a search on YouTube for that contest. You can
watch how someone operates it and you'll see
it's a lot simpler than you thought. But once
you get ready to go, really the first steps with
contesting are to answer just a few questions.
Is my station able to do the contest? If your
goal is to be part of a VHF contest but you don't
have any VHF equipment, and that's probably not
the right contest but if you have a have a radio
and an antenna it doesn't matter whether it's
a 25 year old or 50 year old radio or a brand
new transceiver and you have any kind of antenna
portable you know a wire antenna you don't have
to have towers like i have in stacks you can
just use wires and portable antennas then you
can you can do the contest so once you have the
equipment sorted out the really the biggest step
is to make a commitment that you're going to
do computer assisted contesting meaning you need
to have a computer that you can link to your
transceiver because you're going to have to keep
an entry a log entry of every station you work
and the easiest way to do it instead of writing
it on a log book or on a legal pad is to just
type it into a computer and you know there are
multiple logging programs out but for beginners
I recommend two to think about one is free it's
called n1 mm It's easy to use. It has a huge
group, support group that will give you advice
and questions, answer questions. Or you can go
with one that's very popular among newer licensed
TAMs, more recently licensed TAMs, which is the
N3FJP logging software that Scott N3FJP puts
out. Because it's also easy and interfaces well,
and it has almost everything. It could be a logging
program, a contest program, and let you do also
grid chasing and satellite chasing. So really,
you know, once you once you know that you have
the setup to do at the computer link with your
radio and your equipment, then you're ready to
actually get started. And there are a few things
to do before the contest weekend. But those are
the basics. And believe it or not, the hardest
part for me in the mid 2000s was to accept the
fact that I needed to put a computer with my
radio station because up until about 2005 or
six, I didn't use a computer in the shack. Hard
to believe, I know, Neil, but I didn't. Everything
was the EWRL spiral -bound log book. And I'd
had those since 1977 when I was first licensed.
And boy, that was a painful shift to have to
realize it because I thought ham radio was one
place I could be free of computers. But now I
have several in the ham shack, more than I have
in my home office or my work office. But there
are a few things, you know, what you're ready
to do, what you've got everything set up. So
the first thing to do is just get on the air
before the contest and just practice a little
bit. There are plenty of contest -like events
you could do. So in October, there's the School
Club Roundup. Now, the kids that are doing the
School Club Roundup are somewhat competitive,
but they're going to treat you nicely and they're
going to be excited to work you, even if you
work them every day. Same station, because they
don't mind you being a dupe. They're happy to
work you. So get on and try that. Or if you're
a CW operator, get onto CW Ops on Wednesdays
and try their little CW Ops test that they do.
Or find a state QSO party and just get into the
groove of working stations, dialing your VFO
up and down the band, listening and finding a
station. Or using the spotting cluster and then
clicking to move from spot to spot so you can
work the station. So that's one thing to do.
It's just be on the air, be active, even a few
days before the contest to sort of get your...
Get your mind and your body ready to contest.
It's the warm -up that athletes go through before
a competitive game. And I have to do that, especially
when we go overseas. I always try to book two
days ahead of the contest to be overseas because
I want to understand what band conditions are
like from wherever we are. I want to understand
how intense the pile -ups will be. And I just
need to get my mind and body into the contest.
And so once I get used to working, you know,
people from the new QTH, the new location, whether
it's the Caribbean or South America or China,
wherever, then it's easier to work them during
the contest. So be on the air, be active, too.
You know, you know, hang on, Scott, let me stop
you there for a second. You know, practicing,
you know, with the uh... the radio is definitely
a warm up but i also would would say you know
uh... warm up with the computer a little bit
make sure that all your settings are right uh...
you know make sure that you you know the software
and there's always that fight between m one m
m and m three f g p and people get get all you
gotta use this one you know but but both of them
do the job very well uh... but but yet one that
that you're comfortable with and get used to,
you know, how you clear everything out. And one
thing, you know, you've mentioned that you hadn't
had a computer in your shack until later on in
your contesting career. One of the things, you
know, that I've done, which I've always had the
computers in the shack pretty much, but I didn't
have it set up to where it would read the frequency
off of the radio. And it's just so nice to have
the frequency automatically pop in there. So
you don't have, that's just one less thing you
have to worry about. Oh, it sure is. I, it sure
is with the newer radios that have USB connections
and all of the major manufacturers now have radios
like that. It's really simple to set up, but
you're exactly right, Neil, uh, practice with
the computer. Um, I used to use a different program
for logging than for contesting. And then about
a half an hour before the contest, I would start
N1MM, but something wouldn't work. Can you imagine?
It just wouldn't work. It'd have been three months
or four months. It's almost like doing a podcast
and your audio doesn't work for your guests,
you know? Yes. So I decided after... Hearing
someone at contest university say this to just
do it. So now the only logging program I use
for logging Contesting and anything ham radio
is in 1mm That way when I need it, it's there
it works and it's ready to go and if it doesn't
work I typically find out before the contest
because there's nothing more defeating that's
trying to start the contest and finding yourself
into two hours of scratching your head and trying
to figure out whether the USB cable is dead or
the computer has a bad port or whether you forgot
to put one correct COM port or one correct baud
rate setting into your N1MM program. Yeah. Excellent
advice because that can be very touchy if you
don't have those settings just right. And what
I do, I use N1MM also. I'm an N1MM fan. But one
of the things That I do is try to Well, I'm losing
my train of thought here Oh the log books I use
in one of them for look for contesting and I
use it for special events and I use it for you
know anything other than very casual you know
just one contact here one contact there but one
of the things that that I kind of caught on to
with somebody in in back in Bloomington and also
kind of stole it from from Val in V9L is You
can have the DX keeper with that's got all the
log book of the world and all these extra columns
in there that would slow you down normally and
you just import it at the end of the contest.
So once you're done, you export it out of N1MM,
you import it into DXKeeper, so that keeps all
of my contacts together. And so that's one way
you can do it, too. Yes, it is. I say I used
to be a Mac user. Let me clarify. I consider
myself bilingual with computers. Not try, but
buy. I use PC, Windows, and Mac. And that's a
necessity for work. I used to have a Mac in my
ham station, but I could never find a good Mac
operating system for contesting. And I asked
N1MM at Dayton if he could build N1MM for the
Mac. And he gave me the most honest answer I've
ever heard. He said, you're asking me to have
2000 hours of programming to save you from buying
a $400 computer. And I said, you have a good
point there. He said, go buy a used PC at Dayton
for a hundred bucks, and that's all you need.
And so I do both. And I used to import into MacLoggerDX
my contesting. And before that, I was using a
Windows -based logging program. But now I use
L -O -T -W as my only logging backup. I mean,
I store my files. I file on the 3 -2 -1 method,
where I have three copies of my log file on two
different media, including one cloud. I mean,
yeah, one copy on at least two different media
in three locations. So I use the cloud, I use
a flash drive and I store them on a couple of
hard drives. But I now use N1MM and then Logbook
of the World. So I've simplified my life and
I'll work people outside of contests and they'll
say, oh, it's nice to work you Scott. This is
our first QSO on 15 meters. Remember working
me in 2018. Well, the truth is I changed my log
out once or twice a year. So I really don't remember
who I've worked. And I feel bad, but you know,
The goal here for me is to make sure the contest
logging program works when it's time to hit the
go button. And so that's what I give up. So yeah,
Neil, very good, very good advice. I think the
next thing you know, one should do with contesting
is once you've made that commitment, once you
have the radio and the computer working and you've
got your logging program set up before the contest,
just set some goals. You know, how many hours
can you work? And just whatever you think you
can do, multiply that by point five, and that's
what you're probably going to do because contesting
is hard work. You know, most people fail to realize
that a 48 -hour contest is more time sitting
in a chair in front of a computer than you spend
during your regular work week. I cannot do a
48 -hour contest and get home from work on Friday
at 5 or 6, start the contest while I'm eating
supper, and go to work on Monday morning feeling
decent. So I'm just not able with my profession
to do a full 48 hours unless I take part of Monday
off and part of Friday off. And I'm not going
to do that for every contest. For a few, I will.
But figure out how many hours you can operate.
And then set some goals. And what I suggest you
do is to follow the advice of Bud Trench and
the November QST, create a little worksheet.
It can be a hand -drawn one or an Excel spreadsheet,
putting in 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10. And just
say, how many QSOs do I want to work on each
band? And be realistic, right? If you say right
now you want to work 600 QSOs on 160, I would
say you're nuts, because no one works that many
QSOS on 160, except in the 160 contest, you know?
But maybe 20 or 30 is enough. But, you know,
for this coming CQ Worldwide Sideband Contest
at the end of October, you can probably work
300 or 400 on 20 meters, because the SFI is high,
and 15 meters will have a few QSOS for you, and
10 will be open. So just figure out how many
QSOS you want to try to work. because most people
work 20 to 40 an hour. The really good contesters
can do 50 to 100, especially if you're in a high
populated area like the East Coast or the West
Coast. Or if you're in the Caribbean, you can
sometimes work two to 300 an hour. But it's very
few hams who can work over 200 an hour, very
few hams in the US who have even 100 an hour
as a rate or 150 an hour as a rate. Most of us
are much less. So just be reasonable. and then
divide the number of QSOs per band and then use
that as a guide, you know, of maybe when you
move from 40 meters to 80 or to 160. A good rule
of thumb as well, Neil, is don't spend hour upon
hour on 160. Go there for 15 to 20 minutes at
the top or bottom of every hour. You know, it's
like the old submarine from the hunt for red
October. You know, they will turn starboard at
15 minutes past the hour. Well, that was of course
fiction in the movie, but it's true. You know,
most of us who contest will go to 160. It's been
15 minutes at most every hour at night. and then
we'll spend time on 80 and 40 and sometimes 20,
depending on how late 20 is open. But set some
goals. That's what I'm doing. In fact, I'm just
starting the process now. For the last weekend
of October for CQ Worldwide, I've got some due
diligence to do to figure out how many QSOs I
want to try to make. It might be 800. It might
be 1600. I've got to do that figure out because
I've scored between those two numbers consistently
the last 11, 12 years. I'll look at my blog postings
from the past and try to figure out what I can
do and then I'll add 10 % to push myself to see
if I can do it. So I think setting goals is important.
I set goals every year for my ham station believe
it or not. Goals on what I want to change and
improve and goals that I want to achieve like
how many new countries do I want to work? How
many other awards do I want to try to get so
that I can make sure that I've achieved something
with ham radio that I will look back and say
I'm glad I did it. Now one of the goals that
you suggested to My high school club back when
I was teaching high school was to you know get
on CQ worldwide and and knock out a hundred countries
or a hundred entities technically and That was
a good goal because you know we had to come back
an extra day and a few few more hours to punch
that out but but we really liked you know getting
the DX and I probably like DX just as well as
contesting so you know CQ Worldwide is a great
time to kind of get some of both you know commit
to a few hours of operating and then you know
look for the DX and get a bunch of different
countries and you know you can knock out a couple
hundred in a short amount of time but not maybe
a couple hundred different entities. But the
hundred, I think, was a good goal. But you had
to spend some serious time that weekend to make
it work. Yes, you did. And I remember helping
you all, challenging your team to that goal at
Dayton or around Dayton. And I think we incentivized
the students to achieve it. And they did. And
they got the incentive. So I was delighted for
them. You know, Neil, I often set a goal of four
band DXCC for every contest I enter that's a
DX contest. Now, I have a station and an antenna
array that allows that. So my goal for every
contest is to have a hundred different countries
on four bands. And when the SFI is high enough,
it's five. I've never tried six band DXCC because
generally 10 and 160 are hot or open a lot at
different times of the sunspot cycle. But the
really good contest stations like K3LR and K5ZD
and John Doerr, K1AR and Craig Thompson, K9CT,
and I'm going to stop here because I don't want
to not mention many others. There are another
100 who I could. We'll get that many countries
four or five band DXCC in a contest weekend.
If you're like me and your life is busy and you
don't have three hours in the morning to get
on 20 meters, 40, and then three hours in the
evening to be on 80. You can compress your operating
fund into a contest weekend and you can achieve
those ham goals. And I liked, you know, Neil
and I were licensed at about the same time. And
when we were young, it was really hard to get
DXCC. I mean, it took a lifetime to almost get
it because you had to work 100 countries and
get the cards and get them checked and turned
in. Now with computer logging and LOTW, you can
go from no DXCC to two or three band DXCC after
a contest weekend and the AWRLL will award you
the award. So yeah, that's really a good point,
Neil. All right, well, we're overdue for a break.
So we're going to take a break and we'll come
back and talk some more about contesting and
answer some of your questions when we come back
with Dr. Scott Wright K zero MD. After this word
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radios. Join the conversation. Give us a call
at 859 -982 -7373. Again, the number to call
is 859 -982 -7373. Or if you'd rather type than
talk, tweet us at HamTalk Live. Now, here's Neil
Rapp with more HamTalk Live. Copy 594 from HamTalk
Live. Welcome back to Ham Talk Live. We're on
the air every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
Time, right here at HamTalkLive .com. And be
sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram. And here in just a little bit, we're
going to get to your questions. We've had some
come in on Twitter, but phone lines will be open
shortly. And let me give you that phone number.
It's 859 -982. 7373 again 859 -982 -7373 is the
phone number so we'll get to those but first
As always, it's time for the Joke of the Week.
Now it's time for the HamTalk Live Ham Radio
Joke of the Week, the part of the show where
Rick tells us a ham radio joke. The HamTalk Live
Ham Radio Joke of the Week is brought to you
by QRM Labs. Now, here's Rick Garrett in 9GSU
with today's HamTalk Live Joke of the Week. Chain
of pawn shops only for amateur radio operators.
I'm gonna call it ham hocks This has been the
ham talk live ham radio joke of the week with
Rick Garrett in nine GSU Tune in again next week
for another joke from Rick Well, there you go
Scott, what do you think ham hocks I Think you
don't pay him enough. He's a really good Could
you contest for my hammock? Yes, you can. And
if you look at Buddy Poles in the Caribbean,
they show it on YouTube. Yep. Yep. There you
go. All right. You'll get a good contest while
you're doing it. I would get a sunburn while
I'm contesting. My skin tone. Well, it's, uh,
it's time for your call. So if you have a question,
give us a call. Uh, eight, five, nine, nine,
eight, two, 73 73. Uh, now's the time to call.
Uh, you can also tweet us at ham talk live. And
if you're listening to us on WTWW or on the podcast
version of the show, uh, we're not here. This
is, uh, done live on Thursdays. So, um, I've
got a few questions on Twitter here, but I know
you had a kind of a list and you mentioned the
November QST, which is just now starting to show
up. And there's a pretty nice little section
in there about getting started in contesting.
Yeah, there sure is. I want to commend Bob Enderbitzen
and Becky Schoenfeld for putting this together.
They really got sponsorship from HRO to build
this contesting section. It's a few pages starting
about page 64. It has a contest calendar on page
65. It's got some performance tips from Bud Trench
AA3B, a world premier contester. It's got propagation
tools on page 70 and how to use those. It's got
how to set goals on pages 68 to 69 by Bud. And
then it's just got Contesting News and Don'ts
from the Florida Contest Group. So they've got
a very diverse group of recommendations and ideas.
And they've got some beautiful Yesu radios on
the front and the back of this. And they've got
somebody at a multi -contest station. It must
be K9CT station because it's an all flex station
on the cover of this insert. And I've sent my
note of appreciation to Becky and suggested they
consider making these few pages as a sort of
a as a small monograph or something as a as a
small bundle to give out at contest meetings
contest university and and uh you know w9 dxcc
and w4 dxcc type meetings and i think they're
going to try to do that so it's really i've already
torn it out of my qst don't tell the league now
that i've torn it out of qst it comes out and
i'm staving it because i've actually learned
some things even though i'm considered a Experienced
contest or Neil. So yeah, well, let's go to the
questions and you know time flies Yeah times
getting close here. So, Brettwy7bg says, my greatest
difficulty in contesting has been logging and
submitting logs. Every contest wants different
information in the various fields of the log
file, a different exchange, different format.
So how do you sort that out? Brett, that's a
great question, and I've been there. I know exactly
what you mean and the challenges you're facing.
When you go to a contest -only software program,
like N1MM, at the end of the contest, you can
simply, under the file, say, generate Cabrillo
file, because this was historically a problem
for all contests and several smart hands, including
Trey in 6TR, I think. came up with a format called
the Cabrillo format and that's a contest format
and it has everything that the contest sponsor
needs. So N1MM and I think N3FJP both build the
required data points into the program, the software,
then when you click generate Cabrillo file, It
will generate all of those and then you can just
simply take the Cabrillo file and upload it to
the contest sponsor and that's all you have to
do. It's that simple. Yeah, I like it because
you know you got to go in there and you got to
tell it all this stuff But it's just a form to
fill out you know you you fill in your you know
your grid square and your power And you know
your call sign of course and and that kind of
thing and then it takes care of doing all that
so yeah, I really like in 1mm for that because
You just don't have to worry about it. Take it
copy and paste and go Yes, that's a really good
point. Let's just make this clear for the listeners
tonight. When you set up N1MM in your logging
program, you only have to put your name and address
and email, call sign, and your grid square state
and CQ and ITU zones in once. And then from then
on, for the life of N1MM, for software, it remembers
it. So you don't even have to fill it out for
a recontest. It's there permanently. And that's
one of the nice features of this program. uh...
follows up to uh... you know that the cabrillo
has a header with all sorts of fields and it's
kinda hard to figure out what to fill in and
the contest organizers often aren't clear on
this and and i think that that kinda deflects
over to again the logging software i think they're
they're kinda relying on the logging software
and the logging software is kinda relying on
on the contest uh... folks to to exchange that
information to to kinda alleviate some of that
Is that accurate? That is. It is. And Brad, I've
never had trouble with my Krabillo files. Once
I generate them, I just upload them to the contest
sponsor. And that's generally all I need to do.
If I have made a mistake in setting up the M1MM,
like putting in the wrong name for my contest
club, or I quickly see that and I can fix it.
But yeah, and you asked about FT8. I don't contest
with FT8 yet. I know that most software programs
have trouble using FT8. I know there are some
that work, but if you contact Ed Munz, Whiskey
Zero, Yankee Kilo, I think, Ed is the contest
manager for the RIDI and FT8 contest for the
league, and he can help you find a program or
recommend some programs for you for FT8. Yeah,
Brett also says some contest exchanges don't
work with some modes and typically it's the FT8
or FT4, you know, the ones with shorter amount
of characters for the contest exchange. And I
remember, you know, it was a big deal with School
Club Roundup, which by the way is just, you know,
a couple of weeks away here. You know that FT8
wouldn't work because we couldn't send the contest
exchange. You know you can change it to send
it but the problem is you got to get the people
who are working you to send it back to send theirs
and so that didn't always happen and that caused
some issues at field day one time too. I think
the first year FT8 came out we logged all kinds
of contacts on FT8 and none of them We're valid
for the contest. Oh, I know field day is not
a contest but it is But we had to throw all those
out so yeah Okay, so some good advice there Lisa
contact their Brett for you. So thanks for listening
and thanks for writing in with your Questions
here and hope that helped And if you have a question,
give us a call at 859 -982 -7373. We're going
to finish things up here. I think we're through
what we have here. But I know you had some more
things from the QST article and some other things
that you wanted to talk about. So let's pick
back up on the agenda here. I want to give everyone
one really good contest tip, which is a secret.
Uh, Neil, can we just keep the secret between
us? Do you think anyone else? No, there's nobody
else listening and 10 ,000 of our favorite listeners.
If you're doing, if you're doing a CW contest
and you want to call the station. Even if you
click on the spot, these two secrets will help
you dramatically. Number one, make sure the call
sign matches what the spot says, because many
times the people spotting it have copied it wrong,
and then you'll miss that point and get a real
deduction. So that's number one. Number two,
don't call them exactly on frequency. call them
50 or 100 or 200 Hertz below or above. And if
your CW speed is not all that good, call them
a little slower than they're going because your
call will take longer to send and they will hear
the last letter or two of your call after everyone
else has stopped. The biggest challenge I have
contesting in the Caribbean with CW. when the
rates can go consistently 2 to 300 an hour, is
that CW sounds like radio teletype when everyone
calls on the same frequency. So I used the RID
on my radio to go up and down so that I could
actually hear the stations and call them. And
I guess there's a bonus tip too, Neil, and that
is that this is good for DXing too. If you have
two receivers in your rig, And you can tell what
frequency the contest station has just heard
the other station calling them. Transmit on that
frequency as soon as the other station's done
and you may be heard. Because not everyone listens.
People just don't pay attention. They just keep
banging on F4, F4, which is your call sign on
M1, M2, M3, FJP. And it doesn't get them anywhere,
you know? And one bit of advice, if you call
three, four, five times and they don't hear you,
Stop Move on come back in ten minutes Because
on the other end station you're calling they
may have loud noise. They may have someone who's
creating a lot of interference Or they just may
be tired and they need to take a break and then
they'll hear you within ten minutes I can't tell
you how many times I have been contesting running
full legal power With a seven over seven stack
on 15 meters, and I can't seem to work HK or
Hotel Charlie, right? So I'll just stop and I'll
come back an hour later in their first call.
I get it. So don't waste time. Don't waste 10
minutes in a pile up. Give them two, three, four
calls. The big contest is just a good one. Say
call twice and move. But for those of us who
live outside of the East Coast, you might have
to do it three or four times, but then move on
and come back because they're still going to
be there. They're still going to work for you.
But You know, don't waste a lot of time trying
to work one station when you can get them in
a half an hour later though It'll take you one
-fifth the time Yeah, very good advice Well,
what else do you have for us? We're actually
kind of at the end of our time here we can go
a few more minutes if you want but What else
do you have here for us before we we sign off
tonight? You know, just a couple of observations,
if I may, on contesting. One, there is no single
best contest radio. Now, I use ICOM radios. I've
had an Ellicraft in the past. I've never owned
a Yesu radio, but I've used one in a contest
and I like them a lot. Have great affection for
Kenwood radios. I like Flex radios. So there's
no single best contest radio, despite what your
neighbor, the super contestor, says. Any radio
is better than no radio. Secondly, just learn
how to use the filter buttons, make them sometimes
wider, make them sometimes more narrow, and sometimes
turn down the RF gain. Instead of maximizing
it, turn it down so that the noise goes down,
so your ears don't burn out from all the static
crashes and all the other QRM or QR Mary, as
we call it. And on sideband contesting, We like
to say that 20 meters is where the wild one roams
and what we mean by that is there is so much
splatter and distortion on 20 and It gets worse
in the late part of the day and then 40 has it
So if you have a chance to go to the higher frequencies
of 10 and 15 meters, you can get a respite from
all of them challenges, the auditory challenges
of 40 and 20, and just have some peace and tranquility
on 15 and 10, and then go back to 20 and 40.
But remember, sideband contesting can be hard,
and there's no way to get rid of all the splatter,
except turn the RF gain down so that your ears,
your hearing, and your mind are not overloaded
with all of the wrong information as you're trying
to hear the contest station give their exchange.
All right. Well some great stuff Scott. Thank
you so much for sharing your your secrets here
and yeah, we'll just keep it amongst us friends
here, but Thanks for coming on and talking a
little bit about this and You know, we've got
a school club roundup this month. We've got CQ
worldwide this month you know some some great
opportunities to jump in and get started and
And band conditions are always good during a
contest, right? There you will never find more
stations on that you do during a contest and
bands that you thought were dead Will have stations
on them So don't forget to try 10 and 15 this
month and don't forget to go down to 160 at least
for 10 minutes at the top or bottom of every
hour from sundown to sunrise and Most importantly
as Rob Sherwood says enjoy it. Have fun. Don't
let your competitive spirits ruin contesting
for you Enjoy it and relax and do it. And then
when you're tired, stop, go watch a television
show, take a nap, have a meal, then come back
refreshed. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's, uh, that's
very important. So thank you so much for being
here. And, uh, as always, we learned a lot from
you, uh, anytime you're on. And so thank you
again. And, um, I'll be talking with you soon.
Thank you, Neil, and it's a pleasure and I look
forward to working you this month and hopefully
seek you worldwide for hearing you on for a contest
coming up later this year. 73, my friend. 73.
Well, that is a wrap for this week's edition
of HamTalk Live. Thanks to my guest, Dr. Scott
Wright, KZeroMD. and everybody out there in cyberspace
for listening and typing in tonight. And I invite
you back next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern
time. We have three guests coming on next week.
We have Michael Coulter, W8CI from Hamvention,
Mark Brown in for BCD from Huntsville and Michael
Colley. And I got to get used to this new call
W4ORL from Hamcation. And they're going to be
talking about the challenges of the pandemic
with HamFest and where things stand with kind
of the big three HamFest. So they will all be
here next week and we'll take your calls as well.
So for a list of all of our upcoming guests,
go to HamTalkLive .com and if you like the show,
please leave us a review. That's all we ask.
So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG saying
seven three, seven five and may the good DX be
yours.