30 Ham Radio Contest Tips -- Learn from contesting pros

This month, I’m providing a ham radio contest tip-a-day (along with other posts) to help you trigger your own contesting activities.Today’s tip: Learn from contesting pros.Contesting pros are all over the place; on the air, quoted in print, and self-revealing in their write ups about the contest.Yet, the rest of us tend to read the stories, check out the pictures, listen to them on the air in amazement -- and ignore the lessons being taught to us.One of the best ways of learning from a contesting pro is listening to that person running during a contest. Or working a pileup for that new multiplier.One of the best ways of learning propagation is reading about the contesting pro checking 20-meters for that elusive long path opening and scoring a new multiplier.One of the best ways of learning how a station should be set up is by examining the pictures that shows the placement of the hardware, computer, and logging windows used by the contesting pro.No, the learning isn't "in your face." But you can learn a lot from the great contesters out there by looking for the lessons.Scot, K9JY