KQ4QWH: QSO King

Steve Maley, KQ4QWH, is the undisputed SUPERSTATION Big Gun and QSO King!

Steve’s scores in the SUPERSTATION contest are almost beyond belief, often scoring double the second-place station. He has magnanimously asked that he not be considered for future awards so that others have an opportunity. Steve will still be participating in SUPERSTATION contests as he sees fit, and his score will be reported so that all may bend the knee to the King.

What are Steve's secrets?

1) Your station (and, in particular, your antennas) must not suck! VarAC does not require a tremendous amount of transmitter power, but a poor antenna system seriously affects the contacts you make.

2) Make friends. When your friends beacon, you can see if they have time to chat.

3) Be in your shack AND on the right band when people are actually around and have time to chat! In the U.S., stations begin moving from 20M to 40M about 5:00PM east coast time during the week. If you're on 20M and everyone else is on 40M, you're missing out!

4) Use PSKReporter to see if anyone is hearing you. If the bands suck, go do something else! Also see #1.

5) Part of making friends is having something interesting to say. If all you want to chat about is your rig and the weather, people aren't real interested in chatting with you!

6) Fill out your QRZ.com page. Other stations are going to your page to see what you might want to chat about.

7) Be retired. OK. Being retired really helps in making contacts.

8) Live on the east coast of the United States. Yeah, that helps too particularly in making contacts to Europe.

Finally, call CQ from time to time and see if you can make new friends.