been running SO2R for about 6 months now and my rates are still pretty bad compared to the big guns. got the microham mk2r+ with n1mm and two ic7300s. bandpass filters installed, antennas are ok (beam + wires). during cq ww ssb last weekend i was only hitting maybe 80-90 qso/hr at best and thats with decent conditions

watching some of the contest videos online these guys are just flying through contacts and im wondering if its technique or what. do you use different cq messages for each radio? how do you handle the audio switching when someone calls on radio 2 while your cqing on radio 1? feel like im missing something fundamental here

sounds like you got the hardware part down so probably technique. biggest thing is having your function keys mapped right and practicing the audio switching. i use different cq messages on each radio - radio 1 gets the full callsign but radio 2 just gets the suffix most of the time. also make sure your running spots to radio 2 and not trying to tune around manually while cqing on 1. takes months to get the muscle memory down dont worry

Rate isn't everything man. I've seen guys with fancy SO2R setups get beat by simple SO1R stations because they spent too much time fiddling with the switching instead of just making contacts. That said, are you using the band map effectively? Most of my rate comes from working the pile that builds up on radio 2 while I'm CQing on radio 1. Also check your interlock settings - if there's any delay when you switch radios it kills the flow completely.