so ive been doing contests for about 3 years now, mostly SS and CQWW, single op single radio, and i keep reading about SO2R and watching guys on 3830 post these insane rates and im wondering if its actually worth getting into or if its one of those things that only pays off if youre already super competitive

my current setup is a K3 into a hexbeam and a 40m wire, nothing fancy. i know SO2R means a second radio basically running simultaneously and doing multiplier hunting on the second radio while you CQ on the first but i guess my question is more like... how much of the rate improvement is from SO2R specifically vs just better antennas and operating skill. because i feel like i could still improve a lot just on operating technique before i drop another 2 grand on a second rig

also the interlocking and audio switching stuff looks like a nightmare to set up correctly without RF getting into everything. anyone gone through that process and have opinions on whether its worth it for someone doing maybe 20-25 hours of a 48hr contest

honest answer — for 20-25 hours of a 48hr contest youre probably leaving more points on the table from operating habits than from not having SO2R. like the fundamentals matter way more than people admit. running a clean CQ loop, knowing when to S&P vs run, keeping your exchange crisp and not chatting, using the band decoder properly so youre not wasting time — all that stuff adds up way more than a second radio if youre not already dialed in

that said i did set up SO2R a few years back with two K2s and an Array Solutions bandmaster and it absolutely changed my scores in CQWW. but i also had like 5 years of single radio contesting under my belt before that and i think that foundation mattered. the interlocking isnt that bad if you use a proper SO2R controller, the Array Solutions unit handles most of it, the real headache is your antennas and making sure you dont blow a preamp when you transmit on the second radio while the first one is in receive. separate antennas per band for each radio is really the right way to do it and thats where the cost and complexity actually lives

so yeah id say get your rate up on single radio first, if youre consistently doing 80+ qsos/hr on 20m during a run then maybe look at SO2R, otherwise its just adding complexity

the RF isolation thing is real and dont underestimate it. i fried the front end on my second radio the first time i tried SO2R because i thought my bandpass filters were good enough and they werent, not with the antennas i had. ended up with two radios that were 40ft apart on the same tower and still had issues until i got the stubs sorted out

for what its worth though even just using the second radio to passively monitor a second band while youre running on the first one is useful, you dont have to be full dual-transmit SO2R to get some of the benefit. just having headphones on one ear for the second band so you can hear when a mult shows up is something