[ILQSO] operating tips

[Danny Pease]

As N9JF often reminds us, if you are calling CQ ILQP, stop and ask for
mobiles every so often, they will usually be weaker than the rest of the
signals and may very well be a new multiplier for you. They are on a tight
schedule and will not sit in a pileup very long before they move on to more
productive activity. Mobiles will likely be in counties for only 30 minutes
or so, some longer and some may be there even less than 30 minutes. Chasing
the mobiles is necessary for a good score, so it helps everyone to know
where the mobiles are and where they will be later. I really appreciate
those mobiles that can post and mostly stick to a schedule, but as we all
know, things happen and schedules may be off, especially later in the day,
so spotting becomes even more important.

Besides the mobiles, there are many portable operations and those that
operate portable account for many counties that may not get activated
otherwise. Portable have the advantage of being able to sue much better
antennas than the mobile stations and you get the possible bonus of getting
multiple multipliers and QSO points for one QSO! Depending on your software,
you may have to enter a separate QSO for each multiplier, but may of the
contest loggers have changed their software to allow logging several
counties in one QSO and the file created will break each one out as a
separate QSO without you having to do anything. Many contest logging
programs prefer you log mobile, rover and portable stations as /M, or /P to
prevent the software form thinking it is a duplicate contact. 

Mobiles mostly are more productive on CW, but most of them will try on SSB,
if you see one spotted on SSB, you probably better react pretty quickly as
they may not be there more than a couple of minutes.  

County abbreviations: These can be confusing and more than a few use almost
the same letters and can be easily confused. The ILQP log checkers will do
the best they can with incorrect county abbreviations but some will simple
be counted as wrong, such as White (WHIT) when the station you worked was
actually in Whiteside (WTSD). The official list is in the ILQP summary
sheet, found at http://www.w9awe.org/2020%20ILQP%20Summary.pdf Most contest
logging software includes the proper abbreviations, so it is important to
use the correct one to make your software happy. Most mobiles will indicate
what county they are operating from when they call CQ, such as N9JF/SCOT or
N9I/JODA

Don't forget there are many stations outside of Illinois that are looking
for Illinois stations, the final score is much higher if you work as many US
states and up to 5 DX stations. 20 meters or even higher may be more
productive for finding multipliers outside of Illinois, especially early in
the event. We often hear complaints for DX and western states that it is
hard to find Illinois stations on later in the day because so many in
Illinois are concentrating on working other Illinois stations.

40 is usually they best all round band for both in and out of state, but
many days 40 is not good for short skip, don't be afraid to try 75/80 meters
early in the day looking for the close in counties and states. 40 may also
be open to Europe well before sunset, possibly even at the start of the
event.

Be safe and have fun!

Danny W9DP