30 Ham Radio Contest Tips -- Have a guest op checklist

This month, I’m providing a ham radio contest tip-a-day (along with other posts) to help you trigger your own contesting activities.Today’s tip: Have a guest op checklist.One of the great privileges I've had over my contesting career has been to operate from some of the great multi-operator stations: K4JA, W0AIH, K9NS, TI5N and others.But with great stations comes great responsibilities. Outside of the operating, it was always my intent to minimize the effort of the host of the station to care for me.It means I developed a checklist of what I needed to bring to the guest station so as to maximize my comfort and minimize what was needed to be provided by the host station.Everyone's checklist will be different. But here are some categories to consider:

• Sleeping. Bring your own pillow?
• Beverages. Do you like a specific type of soda? Bring it.
• Food. Favorite snacks or specific types of food you use to contest.
• CW key. Used to your own? Bring it.

As noted, the list can be varied, different for different operators, and change based upon the host station.But, be a great guest operator -- implement a guest op checklist.Scot, K9JY