so ive been doing single op for a few years now and keep seeing the top scores from guys running SO2R and im wondering if its actually making that big a difference or if im just leaving points on the table with bad operating habits in general

my current setup is a k3 on the main radio and i have an older ic-7300 just sitting there doing basically nothing. i know the basics of SO2R — run on one radio, S&P on the other, swap when the rate drops — but reading about it and actually implementing it seem pretty different. the interlocking and audio routing alone looks like a rabbit hole i might not come back from

anyone actually gone through the transition from SO1R to SO2R and can say whether their scores jumped noticeably or was it more of a marginal thing unless you're already a really clean operator? also curious what people use for SO2R controllers, ive seen the microham stuff mentioned a lot but thats not cheap

honest answer — SO2R helped me way more when conditions were mediocre than when they were great. when the bands are hot you're making contacts fast enough on one radio that the second one almost gets in the way until you really have the muscle memory down. but in a slow period where you're running 20m and it starts to dry up, being able to flip over and work a few guys on 15 without losing your run frequency is huge. that's where the rate really shows up in the log

i used the microham MK2R for a long time and it's solid but yeah it's not cheap. a buddy of mine built something with a pair of bandpass filters and a homebrew switching setup that works surprisingly well for a fraction of the cost, but it took him a while to get the isolation right so he wasnt blowing up his front ends. if you already have the 7300 sitting there i'd honestly just try it with some decent bandpass filters first before dropping money on a controller and see if the two-radio workflow even clicks for you

the rate optimization thing is real but i think people underestimate how much just having a good run frequency matters before any SO2R stuff comes into play. i spent way too long in my first few sweepstakes trying to find a clear spot instead of just planting myself somewhere slightly busy and holding it. once i got more aggressive about that my SO1R scores went up more than i expected

not saying dont do SO2R, just that if there's any sloppiness in the basic operating the second radio sometimes just doubles the chaos lol. but if you're already clean and comfortable then yeah its definitely a multiplier on your effort