Contesting

Record QSOs and Review Mistakes To Get Better To reduce your error rate, you need to know what errors you are making, and try to figure out why you're making them. That starts with reviewing busted contacts indicated by Log Checking Reports (LCRs) in conjunction with listening to a recording of the contact. If you're not recording your contest QSOs, take a look at this presentation from the 2019 International DX Convention by Bob, N6TV, entitled "How to Record an Entire Contest and Learn From Your Mistakes." His methods are very detailed, and can scale to record SO2R contests. Once you have recordings, you can find out if you are miscopying certain letters, whether noise was a factor, or whether you just blew the contact at 3 am on 40 meters because you were fatigued. More Motivation For A Solitary Activity Here's a quote from 2019 CQ Contest Hall Of Famer WA7BNM's Score Distributor website: "Contesting has traditionally been a very lonely sport. You sit in your shack, make QSOs, and then find out how you did at the end. That requires a lot of self-motivation to keep going, particularly when conditions are poor. By watching an online scoreboard while operating, it gives an idea of how you're doing compared to others. You don't have to be in contention for a top-ten score to benefit from watching a scoreboard during a contest. Contesters with very simple stations have been motivated by seeing how they're doing against another club member or buddy with a similar station." Motivation during a solitary activity is not limited to radio contesting. During the current pandemic, traditional gyms are closed, and some states require that people not go outside at all during self- quarantine. This can make exercising a challenge. My preferred mode of aerobic exercise, prior to social distancing restrictions, was a group spin class a few times a week at the local gym. With the right trainers, some good music, and other people sharing the misery, it was something to look forward to. Like everything else, spin classes have gone online - I'm sure you've seen the ads for Peloton, it's just one of the options for spinning at home in conjunction with a human trainer communicating via the internet. I already have a road bicycle, so the solution for me was a variable resistance trainer that I can use in conjunction with whatever device I have on hand (PC, phone, tablet) to use with a virtual reality cycling app. The application that I've grown to like is called Zwift. I ride my road bicycle in place on the trainer. The pedaling effort corresponds to the scene displayed on my iPad, which is mounted on my handlebars, and I can listen to sounds like crowds cheering, the wind blowing, birds tweeting, and the sound of wheels on pavement. I can see metrics on how many miles I've cycled, calories expended, current cadence and heart rate, and so on. There are also other people in the game. Through the app, any time I'm pedaling I can see other cyclists' avatars and see them participating in their "solitary" endeavors. An aspect that really helps to make this a compelling experience are scheduled group events. At any time of day or night - there are international users crossing all time zones - different cycling organizations can sponsor events online, everything from training and casual rides to serious races. During group events, each competitor can see their own metrics and the status of those around them. Spectators and other participants can "thumbs up" any participant. Cyclists in an event can post messages that can be observed by other participants. Somehow this doesn't seem to get abused. After a race, results are calculated and displayed, and anomalies in performance can be flagged automatically. Results are published within minutes, providing immediate reinforcement and reward. How does this cycling stuff relate to radio contesting? Zwift hasn't changed the fundamentals of riding a bicycle. They have done as much as possible to reduce the solitary nature of the activity. Assuming we can get a number of radio contesters to report scores online during contests, we could build on and around that in conjunction with resources that we already use like 3830scores.com to have a more immersive experience during and outside contests: • Show the current competitive position in real time in logging programs • During a contest, have a means to communicate "thumbs-up" types of encouragement messages to contesters from others • Close the months-long open loop between reported scores, and the eventual "official" scores calculated by the contest sponsors, so that both can be displayed in one place • In addition to final standings, be able to show rates, multipliers, and so on as time series information • Keep statistics for each station's performance over time • Have a low-overhead way for sponsors to schedule contest-like events so they can be advertised online and within logging programs, along with a one-click method to upload logs from the logging program after the event • Provide a "radio contest lobby" where anyone looking for a radio activity at any particular moment can find something of interest. Today the closest thing to this is the FT8 segment on a band that is open. While calling CQ might have worked in the past, an internet-coordinated quest like "find at least 5 out of 20 participating stations on 20 meters between 14.030 and 14.045 in the next 30 minutes" might provide a more satisfying experience. Everything I've described enhances or makes it easier to participate in the activity of using a radio to make contacts over the air. Could it also encourage more contest activity? That's all for this time. Remember to send contesting related stories, book reviews, tips, techniques, press releases, errata, schematics, club information, pictures, stories, blog links, and predictions to contest-update@arrl.org 73, Brian N9ADG