so ive been doing SO2R for a few years now but i feel like my rates are still way below where they should be. running two IC-7300s and a bandmaster controller with a pair of hex beams stacked at different heights. the setup works fine electrically, no bleedthrough issues or anything like that anymore after i finally got the filtering sorted.

what im struggling with is the actual operating strategy — like when to commit to running a frequency vs when to S&P on radio 2. i feel like i spend too much time babysitting radio 2 and losing momentum on the run frequency. in the last CQWW SSB i had a solid run going on 20m at like 150/hr and i kept dropping down to 40m on radio 2 to grab mults and every time i came back to 20 i had to rebuild the pile. it took like 3-4 QSOs before things got moving again each time.

is there a sweet spot for how long to let the run frequency coast while you work radio 2? or is this just something you kind of develop feel for over time. ive read the K1TTT and N6TR writeups but they seem to assume a level of automation i dont have yet with my setup

yeah this is honestly one of those things that takes a while to dial in and it really does vary by contest and by where you are in the contest cycle. early in a run when the pile is hot you dont want to touch radio 2 at all, maybe just tune around and park it on a mult you know youll want. the real window for radio 2 work is when the rate on radio 1 drops below like 100-120 and youre starting to fish for Qs anyway.

the 3-4 QSO rebuild thing is pretty normal with SSB because people on frequency dont know if youre gone or just between callers. CW is a bit more forgiving because everyone can hear youre not transmitting. one thing that helped me a lot was shortening my CQ to almost the minimum — like just callsign CQ or CQ de [call] and just hammering it fast so callers dont wander. also look at your radio 2 SO2R timing, if youre transmitting on 40 for more than like 12-15 seconds at a stretch youre losing people on 20.

not sure what the bandmaster gives you for interlocking but if you can set a tx timer cutoff on radio 2 that forces you back to monitor radio 1 every N seconds that helps a ton with the attention management piece

I ran into basically the same wall when I first got SO2R working. Honestly for SSB specifically I ended up just accepting that the run rebuilds and adjusting my expectations — if I can average 130/hr across a whole 48 hour contest I'm happy even if individual hours swing around a lot. chasing peak rate is kind of a trap imo because you start making bad decisions about when to move.

one thing that helped me was keeping a sticky note next to the monitor with my target multiplier count by hour, so instead of randomly S&Ping on radio 2 whenever the run slowed down I had an actual goal. like if I was behind on mults I'd be more aggressive with radio 2 even at the cost of run rate, if i was ahead id just let radio 2 sit on a beacon or something and focus on running. kind of obvious in hindsight but it helped me stop second-guessing every band change