30 Ham Radio Contest Tips -- Review Newsletter for Contest DXpeditions

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: Review Newsletter for Contest DXpeditions.I've written in this series about the need to update your multiplier files in order to capture the correct country and zone for those operators going off to far-away places to give the deserving their needed multiplier in the contest.However, there is a difference between what your computer remembers and what you know so that you can recognize what you are hearing during the contest. At 3 AM local time, weird callsigns from far away places don't make much sense and you are liable to tune away silently because you are tired -- and miss the juicy multiplier passively waiting for you to work it in your multiplier file.There are dozens of little known stations and DXpeditions on the air for major contests. The only way to know about them is to read your favorite DX or Contesting Newsletter.These newsletters will -- week by week -- update us on the stations planning on being active in the contest. Reading your favorite newsletter will help you know that "this one is a multiplier" when you hear it on the air during the contest.Scot, K9JY