so ive been doing single op for a few years now, mostly on 40 and 20 during sweepstakes and the occasional DX contest, and i keep seeing the top scores from guys running SO2R and i guess im just wondering at what point it makes sense to actually set that up vs just getting better at running a pile on one radio

like i get the basic idea, you work a station on radio 1 while scanning for mults on radio 2, but actually implementing that without blowing up your front ends or getting RF into everything seems like a whole project in itself. i have a K3 and an old FT-950 sitting around that i barely use anymore so the hardware is kind of already there, but the filtering and antenna switching side of it sounds like a rabbit hole

is there a point where your single radio rate is good enough that SO2R just adds noise (literally and figuratively) to your operating, or does it really make that much of a difference even for mid-tier contesters. my best effort was maybe 800 QSOs in a 24 hour period so im not breaking any records here but i do take it semi-seriously

honestly 800 QSOs in 24 hrs is decent and yeah SO2R will help you but the setup pain is real. the biggest thing people underestimate is the interlocking — you absolutely need something to keep both radios from transmitting at the same time or you will hear a very bad sound and have a very bad day. look at the YCCC SO2R box or build something with the microHAM stuff, its not cheap but its way less expensive than replacing finals

for what its worth i ran a similar setup with a K3 and an old Icom for a couple years before i upgraded and the biggest gain wasnt even the mult hunting, it was being able to keep a run frequency on one radio while the other one calls CQ during the slow periods. you hold your run freq and still pull in a few extra Qs, adds up over a 48 hour contest more than youd think

the filtering question depends on your antennas more than anything. if theyre close together and on similar bands youre going to need bandpass filters, W3NQN design is the classic choice, lots of guys build them. if your antennas are far apart or youre only doing 40/15 combo type stuff you might get away with less

i tried this last CQWW and kind of half-assed it tbh, had two radios going but no real interlocking just sort of tried to be careful and it worked out ok but i was sweating the whole time. probably not the right approach for a serious effort

one thing nobody really talks about is the cognitive load, like switching your brain between two QSOs at different stages is genuinely tiring in a way that just running a pile isnt. i found myself making more logging errors when i was trying to juggle both radios than when i just focused on one. maybe thats just a practice thing but worth mentioning if youre thinking about trying it mid-contest for the first time