Mark Pride is a veteran contester from New England and former leader of the renowned Yankee Clipper Contest Club. With more than six decades of ham radio experience, he’s done it all—from building top-performing stations to running at world-class rates—but what he enjoys most these days is mentoring. Whether it’s a brand-new op or someone trying to bump up their score, Mark has a gift for teaching the tough stuff—and he’s probably forgotten more than most of us will ever learn. He joins Kevin Thomas W1DED remotely, as Kevin prepares for a run at CQ WPX from Turks and Caicos as VP5E. The conversation is practical and packed with tips—from managing pileup cadence to handling partial calls. Mark walks through the small changes that add up, like when to use function keys (always), how to avoid N1MM pitfalls (don’t touch the mouse), and why consistency and clarity are your best tools. If you're looking to level up for CQ WPX—or your next contest weekend—this one’s worth a listen. Join the conversation and subscribe to W1DED Worldwide Ham Radio.
It's sad that the people that behave badly with talking over folks and giving their callsign multiple times, get rewarded by responding to them right away. I understand why, but doesn't this just reward bad behavior? That's why they do it, because it works. Another great video on contesting! Thanks for putting this together! 73 de WA4CB Doug
Another great presentation from a highly experienced contester! I especially liked his reference to having great contest-type audio and enunciation. Like the type of his audio on the video... clear, higher pitched punchy, and distinct. While my favorite is CW contesting, when I do get into the SSB ones, I hear too many stations with bassy, mushy audio compounded by their lack of enunciation, and sometimes talking too fast. Throw that into tons of QRM with everyone practically on top of each other, it can be messy and fatiguing to listen to. While Mark is in the enviable position of having a great station and antennas in the northern east coast, his presentation focused mainly on running and managing pileups. Many (like myself in AZ) are in antenna restricted HOAs having to use compromised stealth antennas. Running becomes a minor part of the contest, so S&P is the majority of my operation. I can run sparingly to JA, Oceania, and USA, but Europe is generally out of the question unless propagation dictates otherwise...usually for a very limited time. When I do encounter "runners", especially when not using spotting assistance to find out who it is, I find it frustrating in pileups when they just say "QRZ?" after each QSO, sometimes only giving their callsign every 10-15 Q's. It's just as easy to say "Thanks, *callsign*". I can understand if it's a big pileup, maybe give your callsign every 3 Q's, with phonetics. Otherwise, it's a waste of time for the S&P ops. If no callsign is given after 3 Q's I'll just move on. Another pet peeve of mine (and others) is the "Please copy (exchange)" ops. Keeping your exchange as short as possible will increase your and the other station's rates over the long haul. Anyway, keep up the great videos, Kevin. I'll look for you at VP5E this weekend, and good luck! 73, Bob K7JQ
First off, great choice for an interview- K1RX has been so many times over the past decades in my log- big thanks! Top operator with big signal at all times, kudos! Me, being a 100w+wire antenna guy most of my 50+ham radio years, find guys like K1RX a blessing. I've heard a lot of useful tips and pointers, plus the insight into the big gun's mind- thanks a lot! I agree with WA4CB's comment above. While I understand a big gun reasoning (in terms of getting the loudest & rudest callers first and done with, as quickly as possible- for maximizing QSO numbers and getting their "noise" off my frequency)- I find this practice extremely damaging to ham radio etiquette and ham spirit! Moreover, this directly provides incentives to rude behavior of bully callers with excessive power and the lack of skills or ham spirit. The others, getting trampled over with illegal kilowatts and big antennas, learn a bitter lesson that polite/proper behavior in a pileup is not a virtue, but also a detrimental flaw! Some might just give up calling and move on, others will join in the incessant calling... Maybe "rewarding" the rude incessant callers is a must in a contest, however, rewarding them in a DXpedition pileup is just plain wrong! I admire a DX who don't tolerate calling, when the DX picked up different letters or another partial call. Sticking to your original pickup teaches everyone on the frequency a valuable lesson that may eventually imprint in the KW bully's mind also.. My two cents anyway!
Great video! Mark Pride is an amazing op, and an all around nice fellow. How he picks up my watery sounding backscatter signal despite hordes of Europeans calling him astounds me.
Interesting video! Although I have no interest in (now) in contesting, Enjoyed it in the 80's. I can really appreciate the effort that can go into it! Kudos to streamlining it! Thanks for posting! Recently I have trying my hand at POTA, both hunting and activating. I do enjoy it...BUT. I'm a bit amazed/surprised at how many times folks are intentionally stepped on or "tuned-up" on. I think the favorite is a whistle. I'm sure these folks have been out there for years, but I hear it way too often. I've enjoyed the hobby since the mid 70's. My 3 cents (adjusted for inflation)
Mark is a good friend. Seldom do you meet someone like him, who combines world-class skill with technical prowess, and the heart of a teacher and mentor.
I always enjoy videos featuring excellent contest operators or DXers. Both of those aspects of the hobby have been my focus for almost all of the 67 years I have been licensed. Needing only confirmation from a legit P5 (I worked a "slim") there's not a lot of DX for me to chase these days. I hold 7 B DXCC so I will work a new band counter if I can but that's pretty much it. For decades I was an avid contest operator. I was spoiled because I was one of the crew at the no longer existing NK7U mega station. There I got to work alongside many great operators including N6MJ and KL9A both of whom have been featured in "how to" contest videos. I also did reasonably well from my own, much less elaborate, station. These days given age I can no longer keep my butt in the chair for much of any contest. I generally shoot for 6-8 hours and give it my best shot---which I will do this weekend in WPX using the club call KS7AR
Mr. Pride is an amazing mentor and friend. I am always glad for an opportunity to learn from him and grateful for his generosity with his time and resources.
Thanks for the nice comments. I agree that answering someone with lousy audio just to get them out of the way is not the proper message but when you respond with "your audio is bad" hopefully they will look into the problem and fix it. Many callers that I report with bad audio, appreciate hearing this and actually take action. Thanks! Sometimes they are simply not aware of the issue - maybe a remote setup that has issues or something locally. I try to pass the word to stations about the poor audio and how it just does not help you or the DX station running the pileup. The limited English speaking skills does not help them receive the message too. Oh well. 73, Mark, K1RX
It's a pileup. That's the way the game is played. It's the rugby field, not teatime. It has always been that way for good or ill.
