N6KI & WQ6X run another miraculous CQ 160 contest

NX6T - all remotely run.

At NX6T, 160 meter contests are always a challenge.
With only a 70' high 160 Inverted Vee and a 160-Loop with horrible efficiency, it's amazing that we are as LOUD as we are, where we are; of course 1350 watts helps a little. In January, N6KI & WQ6X dual-OP'd the CQ 160 CW contest, amassing 834 QSOs (in 14 countries);
a passable 145k points for our efforts.
[CLICK HERE] to read about that.

NX6T watching WQ6X on STN-1

For this year's CQ 160 SSB contest N6KI and WQ6X did another one of our infamous Dual-OP operations; WQ6X running entirely remote and N6KI running a combination of on-site operating, as well as remote.

With the new and improved Wi-Fi router and microwave dish, two stations can easily share internet bandwidth @ NX6T.  The webcam works better than ever - as we shall see.


While condx. were poor, nothing was worse than the noise-levels encountered during this February contest; not surprising with A-Index=16 and K-Index=3.

Unfortunately, by the time of the 160 SSB GiG I had run out of the fabulous Popcornopolis caramel corn and had to (horror of horrors!) do without; altho I always have plenty of industrial-strength Kona coffee ready to go.   Next to good propagation, a 160 operator's best friend is KONA Coffee.

Running Daytime Remote

No matter how great the propagation,
a VOX circuit that can't keep up with remote internet access can ruin the smooth operator flow that I often experience when running a frequency remotely.

In retrospect, I have no CLUE what made the problem come and go; so if
I dropped out mid-sentence, no it's not because I was drunk (not THAT time anyway), it was due to irregular VOX-latency.
Probably the BEST word I can think
of to describe this year's CQ 160 SSB contest is "ordinary" or "plain". 

The contest meandered along both evenings with nothing spectacular; until some IDIOT starts sending strings of Cw DITs on top of WEAK stations, exactly at the same moment of their reply, making a dozen repeats sometimes necessary. Is this guy REALLY THAT BORED? wOw! - Go Figure!

On the other end of the excitement, the most incredible QSO I made in this 160 contest was with none other than WA6URY in Bellflower; not far from NX6T. What makes this QSO with Daniel so unique? Well, he was running WA6URY remotely from TOKYO while I ran NX6T from the SF bay area; neither of us were actually sitting in the ham shack sporting the radio we were running remotely.

LooK closely to see the 160 Inv-V

By Sunday morning Sunrise 160 meters was gone on the left coast, effectively ending the CQ 160 contest for NX6T. Our 410 QSOs in 11 countries and 51 states/provinces while not spectacular, demonstrated what can be done with a "mere" inverted Vee only 70' high; and 1350-watts; AND
a 900' elevation.

NX6T Ending Screen

Probably the only REAL thing of substance to happen that weekend was when people from the local San Diego TV station - KPBS- came by to interview Dennis (N6KI) (in the NX6T "Nash-Ville" radio shack) for their upcoming documentary on Vietnam. While the interview was happening, I JUST happened to turn on the NX6T web CAM and using my Snapshot 3.0 utility captured a freeze-frame from that interview.

KPBS Interview

Did YOU play in the CQ 160 SSB Contest?

Is NX6T in YOUR Log?