Principle Four: I don’t even need to list this one, it goes without saying. This isn’t the orient express, any time tables or schedules other than the beginning and end times of the contest are subject to change.
Principle Three: Be flexible with the above two. So, one of the ideas for this year was to check FT4 and FT8 when conditions were rough or the rate was falling off for RTTY and pick up those stations we would otherwise miss out on. FT also lends itself to marginal conditions better than RTTY and it is very popular at the moment. Also, FT continues to expand in popularity, and while the rate for FT8 is a major disadvantage, FT4 makes it more palatable. As a result, we probably missed out on some calls that we could have logged. (Now, I’m not a fan of having FT modes available for the RTTY RU, especially since there is now an FT RU, but it’s available per the rules and my personal curmudgeonly opinions do not overrule my desire to achieve the best score possible.) KB8O and I last did ARRL RTTY RU as a group in 2019 (M/S, 1330 Qs) and worked no digital modes other than RTTY. Principle Two: Check the FT modes for unique stations that are not doing RTTY. Also, have a schedule of what times to check other bands – get on 20 earlier than you’d normally expect it to be open if you want the best chance of EU, Middle East, or African countries. As a result, we maintained two stations on-the-air for the entire 30 hour contest. KM8V arrived Sunday afternoon and relieved AB8M. As the sun came up and the bands opened again, we went back to two operators. For the late night hours, KB8O slept and AB8M configured the station to operate both the 80m and 40m transmitter from a single station.
AB8M arrived after 6pm and relieved NQ8O. NQ8O and KB8O started the contest at 1pm ET. This sounds like a no-brainer, but we’re also a pretty social group and ham radio is often a fun excuse to get together. Principle One: Have a schedule to maximize “butts in chair” time.
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