so ive been running single op for years now, mostly CQWW and sweepstakes, and im finally starting to think seriously about setting up a proper SO2R station. right now i just have the one radio (IC-7300) and a second radio sitting on the shelf that i picked up last year, a used TS-590SG that i got for like 400 bucks. both decent HF rigs but making them play together without one killing the other is obviously the whole problem.

my antennas are kind of a mess — a 40m dipole up at about 35 feet and a tribander at 45 that covers 10/15/20. so not exactly an optimized SO2R antenna farm. i know the real stations running this stuff have separate antennas for each radio with a ton of isolation but im wondering if theres a middle ground where i can at least get the second radio going for S&P while the main radio is running a frequency.

mainly asking because last SS i felt like i was leaving a lot of mults on the table by not being able to hunt sections while holding a run frequency. the rate drops killed me every time i went searching. anyone actually run a budget SO2R setup that was more than just an exercise in frustration

yeah the antenna isolation thing is the real headache, not the radios. i ran a cobbled together SO2R for about two years on a shoestring and honestly the biggest thing that helped wasnt fancy bandpass filters or anything like that — it was just being really disciplined about which bands i ran simultaneously. like never 40 and 80 at the same time, and 20 with 10 worked okay with the tribander because youre not dealing with harmonics the same way.

the 590 and 7300 should play pretty okay together if you keep them on different bands, the issue is when people try to run adjacent bands and then wonder why their S meter is pegged. get a pair of ICE bandpass filters if you can find them used, they show up on QRZ classifieds occasionally. that made more difference for me than any other single thing.

for the software side, N1MM with SO2R mode and a cheap footswitch for PTT switching between radios changed my sweepstakes score significantly. i think i went from like 18k to almost 24k once i got comfortable enough with the workflow to not constantly make stupid mistakes on the wrong radio. the first few contests youre going to transmit on the wrong rig at least a dozen times, just accept it now.

honestly for Sweepstakes specifically i'd argue that SO2R gives you less of an edge than in something like CQWW just because SS is so mult-heavy and the mults are sections not entities, so you kinda have to work everything anyway. the rate optimization matters more in phone SS than CW in my experience just because the QSO times are longer and having something to do while youre waiting for the pile to clear on 40 is useful.

that said your setup could probably work. the tribander on one radio and the 40m dipole on the other and just never cross-band when the bands are within a harmonic relationship of each other. its not ideal but people have done worse. what are you using for radio control and keying, thats almost more important than the antenna situation for getting started