so ive been doing contests for maybe 3 years now and im starting to hit a wall with my scores. been running single radio, mostly S&P with some CQ runs when the band opens up nicely. last CQWW i did about 800 QSOs on SSB and felt like i left a lot on the table, especially during the slower periods where i was just sitting there waiting for callers.

a buddy of mine runs SO2R and says it completely changed his contest experience, like he can keep his rate up by hunting mults on the second radio while the first one is just sitting there between contacts. makes sense in theory but im not sure my station is ready for it or if i even have the headspace to manage two radios at once during a 48 hour event. i already feel like im juggling enough just keeping the log, watching the cluster, and trying to not miss dupes.

anyone gone through this transition and was it actually worth the hassle? and whats the minimum you'd really need to do it properly without just causing a mess of intermod between the two rigs

honest answer — it depends a lot on your antennas more than your radios. i ran SO2R for two years with a pair of K3s and thought i was doing it right, but i was losing half my brain cycles to RF getting into everything because my antennas were only like 40ft apart. the interstation interference is the real enemy, not the operating technique itself.

the mental load thing is real too. first few contests you try it youre gonna cost yourself QSOs because youre fumbling between radios and missing calls on both. i'd say start by just monitoring the second radio passively, like tune it to a mult you need and just glance at it when your run frequency goes quiet. dont try to actually work two pileups simultaneously until you've got the monitoring habit down cold. took me probably 4 or 5 contests before it started feeling natural and my rate actually went up instead of down.

for filters you really want bandpass filters on both radios, the Array Solutions or 4O3A ones are what most serious contesters use. without them youre just asking for problems especially if youre on 40 and 15 at the same time.

800 QSOs in CQWW SSB is pretty solid for single radio honestly, dont sell yourself short. i dabbled with SO2R a couple years ago and went back to single radio because i felt like i was doing both badly instead of one thing well. maybe thats just me though, some guys take to it really fast.

what i did find helped my rate more than anything was just being more aggressive about when to switch between running and S&P. like a lot of guys run until they dry up completely and then go hunt, but ive had better luck setting a threshold — if i get less than like 60 an hour for more than 10 minutes i start S&P and look for fresh multipliers, then come back and try a new run freq. keeps the log moving even when propagation gets weird