John "Bee" Bartscherer, N1GNV, shared 10 contesting tips for the new contester and those with lower power stations trying to compete with the "big gun" stations.

John writes:

"I'm at best a casual contester. My modest station includes a 100 W HF rig and a wire antenna up about 30 feet. Squarely in 'peanut whistle' territory, for sure, compared to many others. But I do enjoy getting on the air and working stations all over the US and the world. With just a bit of effort, you can often get your Worked All States, or DXCC Award, in a single weekend. If you're new to HF, or contesting, here are 10 tips for you.

1. Read the contest rules. Understand what bands you can use, what your entry category will be, and what the 'exchange' is. Simply, that's the information you will give to the other station and he/she will give to you. Note that by tradition, in a contest everyone has a 59 or 599 signal.
2. Get with the program. Specifically, a logging program. There are quite a few options out there. My personal choice is the N1MM Logger. It's free and has an amazing array of features. It's updated regularly and has an extremely active online support community. Most current logging software will interface with just about any modern HF radio.
3. More Butt-in-Chair Operating-Time = more contacts. Turn off distractions like texting, Facebook, email, TV, broadcast radio, etc. Concentrate. But don't forget to take breaks. For 5 minutes every hour, get up, stretch, get some fresh air and a glass of water or a cup of coffee.
4. Set an achievable goal. Face it. If you're not an experienced contester with a 'big gun' station (yet!) you're not going to win. But you can certainly try to beat your score in last year's contest. Try to work DXCC in a weekend, or outscore your buddy across town.
5. Study propagation forecasts and get a sense of what bands are likely to be open to areas you want to work, and at what times. This will help you come up with a basic plan. But remember that band openings can occur at any time, so if you're operating in a category that allows it, keep an eye on the DX cluster because those openings can often be brief but intense.
6. Don't waste time in pileups early in the contest, especially if you have a 'little pistol' station like mine. Sure, give those rare ones a call or two, you may get lucky. You're competing with guys running plenty of power into big antennas. Go back to them later in the contest, after they've worked all the 'big guns.' Often enough they'll be begging for contacts and you'll work them easily.
7. Work those mults! Most contests include 'multipliers' in their scoring system. Basically, your score is calculated like this: You get a set number of points for each contact. Then, depending on the contest, you get an additional mult for each new country, state, county, etc. that you work. Multiply your QSO points by the number of mults to calculate your total score. Working more mults makes a much bigger difference in your score than another contact in the same country or state. Again, read the rules for the contest you're operating in.
8. Know those knobs! Try to familiarize yourself with the controls on your radio. Just about every rig has an attenuator, a pre-amp, an RF gain control, and a noise blanker. Most also include an IF shift or pass-band tuning adjustment. An old trick that QRP (very low power) operators use is to turn OFF the pre-amp and turn ON some attenuation. That may seem counterintuitive, but now if a station is loud to you, the chances are much better that you're also loud to them. Let their big antennas and high power do the 'heavy lifting.' Similarly, turning down your RF gain can knock down a nearby (in frequency) high-power station so that you can work a weaker station.
9. Use standard phonetics. My call is N1GNV. Years ago, I enjoyed having a small vegetable garden. It was kind of fun to announce my call as 'No One Grows Nicer Vegetables' on the local repeater or among ham radio friends. In a contest, however, that only causes confusion and mistakes -- and is considered poor practice. November One Golf November Victor is what the other guy is expecting to hear. In noisy or otherwise difficult conditions, I might say "Golf November Victor, Germany Norway Victoria" but that's about it.
10. Listen before you call. Make sure you've got the other station's call and exchange. You can even pre-enter it in your logging software. Listen to his pattern. Does he say 'QRZ?' after each contact? You want to make sure you're transmitting when he's listening. Work him (making sure he's got YOUR call correct!), hit enter, and he's in your log. Move on to the next one.