so ive been doing contests seriously for maybe 3 years now and i keep reading about SO2R and watching videos of these high rate stations and honestly it looks insane. like how are these guys even keeping track of two radios at once while logging and calling CQ and listening for dupes. my brain hurts just thinking about it.

right now im running a single K3 into a 2el yagi on 20 and a trapped vertical for 40/80, nothing fancy. i usually end up somewhere in the middle of the pack on the 3830 scores for my category. been thinking about picking up a used IC-7300 or maybe a second K3 if i can find a deal, and trying to actually do SO2R properly for next years CQ WW.

but like, is the rate improvement actually worth setting up all the band switching stuff, the antenna switching, the SO2R controller, dealing with RFI between the two radios... it seems like you could spend more time managing the complexity than actually working stations. anyone here actually done the switch from SO1R to SO2R and have thoughts on whether it was worth it? and how long did it take before it stopped feeling like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time

honestly it took me probably two full contest seasons before SO2R felt anywhere close to natural. first year i think i actually put up worse scores than my SO1R setup because i kept getting confused about which radio i was transmitting on and made a bunch of dumb mistakes. the RFI problem between radios is real too, especially if your antennas arent well separated — i had a situation during SS phone where my 20m signal was getting into the second receiver so bad i could barely copy anything on 40.

that said once it clicks it really does make a difference. not just for running rate but for S&P too, you can be calling CQ on one band while hunting mults on the other and thats where you really start pulling ahead. the key thing nobody tells you up front is that the SO2R controller and your logging software integration has to be solid or the whole thing falls apart. i use N1MM+ with a Microham MK2R and that combo has been rock solid for me. if your keyer and radio switching isnt automated and synced to the log you'll go nuts trying to do it manually.

so yeah worth it if youre serious, but budget time to set it up properly before a contest not the night before like i did the first time

the two K3s route is a good call if you go that way, the filtering on those is tight enough that you can run them closer together without as many desense issues compared to mixing radio brands. i tried mixing a K3 with an FTDX101 for a while and getting the audio levels and keying delays matched up was kind of a pain.

one thing i'd add — dont underestimate just getting your SO1R rate up first. a lot of people jump to SO2R thinking its going to fix rate problems that are really antenna or operating technique problems. like if youre only doing 80 qsos an hour SO1R, adding a second radio isnt magically going to double that, you gotta fix the fundamentals first. work on your exchange timing, your CQ rhythm, knowing when to move vs stay on a run frequency. those things transfer directly and they're honestly more impactful than most hardware changes.