Amateur Radio Contesting for Beginners
Contesting is one of the most exciting aspects of amateur radio. Amateur Radio Contesting for Beginners written by radiosport veteran Doug Grant, K1DG, offers ideas to get you started in contesting and tips for building your skills if you are already active.
Here are three tips from the book:
Get on the air frequently before the contest to get a sense of propagation conditions and the call signs that will be on the air during the event.
Talk (or send code) at the same rate of speed as the station you’re contacting – don’t go faster. This will help avoid being asked to repeat so that you can move on to the next contact much quicker.
Use contest logging software to log your contacts. You’ll want contest software that indicates whether a contact is a duplicate, and that will compute your score in real time.