so ive been doing single op for years and finally got a second radio set up for SO2R. running an IC-7300 on the main and a borrowed FT-991A on the second. interlock is handled with a basic MK2R+ and the antennas are at least 90 degrees offset so the isolation is decent enough that im not blowing up my front ends, most of the time anyway.

the problem i ran into during the last CQ WW is that my rate actually DROPPED compared to SO1R. which i know sounds ridiculous but i think im spending too much mental energy managing the second radio and not enough just cranking through QSOs on the run frequency. i watched some of the SO2R guys in the contesting videos and they make it look completely seamless but in practice i keep missing my own CQs or fumbling the exchange because im half listening to something on radio 2 while trying to talk on radio 1.

is this just something that takes dozens of contests to get comfortable with or am i missing some fundamental setup thing that makes it click. also curious how people handle the audio mixing — right now i have the two radios panned hard left and right in my headphones and i find it more distracting than helpful. wondering if mono mixing both to center is actually better for some people or if i just need to train my brain to separate them

yeah the rate drop is totally normal when you're starting SO2R, honestly expected it to take me about 5-6 serious contests before i stopped feeling like i was patting my head and rubbing my stomach at the same time. the audio thing is interesting though — i went through the same thing with hard L/R panning and hated it. what worked for me was putting the run radio at maybe 60% center and the S&P radio panned maybe 30% to one side, not hard pan. that way your brain starts to associate direction with priority without getting overwhelmed. some guys swear by mono but i feel like you lose the ability to split your attention that way.

the bigger thing honestly is setting up N1MM or whatever logger you're using so the SO2R automation is doing as much work as possible. if you're manually switching focus between the two radios you're burning cycles that should be going into the exchange. let the macros and the keyer handle the CQ timing on radio 1 while you tune radio 2 in between. once that becomes muscle memory the rate starts to come back up and then some

the 991A as a second radio is probably not helping you — the receive audio on that thing has a bit of lag in the DSP chain compared to the 7300 and when you're trying to do fast S&P on radio 2 that slight sluggishness adds up. not saying it wont work but if you ever get a chance to try something like an older Icom or a dedicated second contest radio youll notice the difference. anyway thats kind of a tangent.

for the mental load thing i found it helps a lot to be really strict early on about WHEN you even look at radio 2. like dont touch it mid-exchange, only use it during your own CQ transmission window. sounds obvious but i kept breaking my own rule because i could hear a juicy mult on the second radio and id try to work it at the wrong moment and then miss my own callsign coming back. just takes discipline and eventually it becomes automatic