so ive been running single op for years now, mostly CW sprints and the occasional phone sweepstakes, and i keep reading about SO2R guys absolutely cleaning up on rate but every time i try to think through the logistics it seems like im adding complexity without actually understanding the payoff well enough to justify rewiring half my shack

like right now i have an IC-7300 as my main rig and an older FT-950 sitting on the shelf doing nothing, so the hardware is kind of already there. my station grounding is decent, beverages are out for 80/160, and i run a 2el on 40 that i can rotate. the antenna switching and bandpass filtering side of things is what scares me honestly. i know if i dont have proper isolation between the two rigs i'm just going to be deaf on one radio while the other transmits

but setting that aside for a second - for guys who actually run SO2R regularly, what does your workflow look like during a high rate period? do you basically just run on radio 1 and use radio 2 for S&P between contacts, or is there some other approach that works better? and is there a point in contest score where SO2R stops mattering much vs just having better antennas or a better rate on a single radio

the antenna isolation question is the real thing you need to solve first, everything else is technique you pick up over time. i ran without proper bandpass filters my first SO2R attempt during the ARRL 10m contest and basically made both radios useless on adjacent bands. microHAM or Array Solutions filters are the usual answer, expensive but you only cry once. some guys DIY the filtering with good results but you need to know what you're doing with coax and toroids.

workflow wise, yeah the classic approach is run on radio 1, use radio 2 to find your next run freq or pick off mults while you're waiting for the pile to answer. the tricky part is training your brain to copy a callsign on one ear while your other ear is already on the S&P radio listening for something useful. takes a few contests to not completely fall apart at 120/hour. i'd say start in a slower contest where you have breathing room, not a sprint where the exchange is already compressed and everything moves fast

and honestly - better antennas beats SO2R almost every time for raw rate. SO2R really shines for mult hunting late in a contest when your run rate drops off and you need to pick up those last few states or zones without leaving your run frequency

i tried SO2R once during a state QSO party and it was kind of a disaster but i learned a lot. the bandpass filter thing the other guy mentioned is real, i didn't have them and it was rough. but also i hadn't set up any kind of interlocking so both radios could transmit simultaneously which is apparently very bad for several reasons

the N1MM+ SO2R integration is actually pretty solid if you havent looked at it, theres a whole section in the docs about setting it up and it handles a lot of the switching logic automatically assuming your radio control cables are wired up right. that part helped me more than anything once i got it configured