[LCC] Pondering Sweepstakes, Station Interlocks, Strategies

[w5wz at w5wz.com]

I'm thinking about Sweepstakes, and the Multi/Single Rule.  We've 
operated several years with a simple hardware interlock between two 
transceivers, with an emergency override at each operating position.  It 
works well for a two-radio M/S. Ted KN5O provided the design for that 
one.

I'm currently working on an Arduino based 4-radio interlock for M/S, 
with emergency overrides at each operating position.  Initial prototype 
code and the circuit seems to be working pretty well.  My thinking is 
that with 3 or 4 radios during SS, maybe we can squeeze an extra 5-10 
QSOs per hour out of in-band search and pounce, possibly 100 - 200 more 
over the duration of the contest.

To enable 3 or 4 radio use at my station, I've got a small 
trailer-mounted tower that we can get up about 50 feet, and we've 
already asked to be able to use the ARES groups 100 ft trailer-mounted 
tower for the contest.  We should have a pair of KT34XA available for 
the temporary towers.  Thoughts?

As my radios have a TX INHIBIT, it seems that may be a better way to 
implement than the actual PTT / footswitch.  Does anyone have any 
experience or advice on that?

--Scott