WQ6X Turns Birthday into Training Weekend

Every birthday I remind myself the importance of learning everyday, until I finally drop - 30-plus years from now.  This last weekend was actually an expression of this learning.  It seemed like everyone was compelling me to "Doit" their way.  In the end, I DiD Doit their way; and when it was all over @00:00z Monday morning (5pm Pdt), looking back, we all made it all work.

In my Biofeedback work, I encourage clients to take things to "the next level"; if you are not up for
a challenge, then work with someone else.  Often, what SEEMS challenging is simply different "aspects" [of experience] not yet appropriately integrated into our conscious experience.

This weekend began with running the FOC QSO party as NX6T remotely, first from Alameda, then Concord; it became SWL'ing, became sleep, became a Toastmasters "Train the Trainer" workshop, became a return to W7AYT just in time for the FOC BW QSO party to end. 
The AQP (Alabama QSO party) never materialized at NX6T or W7AYT.  Before mode-shifting to RTTY, 4 (four) Texas QSO Party stations made it to the log.

By 01:00z, switching modes to RTTY, I found 2 hours to run the NA Sprint remotely as NX6T, followed by the last 0:33 minutes as WQ6X running the FT-1000mp transceiver @ 100-watts (full duty) RTTY.

Most more expensive but wimpy radios can only
run RTTY at 50% duty-cycle, or risk heat-explosion. 
The 1000mp is barely warm at 100-watts full-duty RTTY; a reason I like to run RTTY with the Yaesu.

FOC QSO Party
This is my 3rd participation in this September event commemorating Bill Windle, G8VG
(hence the CQ BW call).  Most FOC GiGs are for members only, however THIS event not
only allows non-members to play, but to work BOTH members and non-Members during this "operating event" (not a contest).

The FOCBW event is unique in that log submissions are NoT wanted. 
Instead, (per their instructions), I sent an e-mail (one for NX6T and one for WQ6X) detailing
how many QSOs were made overall and the number of FOC members worked.  These e-mails
are based on the honor system.  It's not difficult to verify my submitted numbers (behind the scene)
so there is no point in my submitting false numbers. 

Sending an e-mail like these in 2017 resulted in the above 1st-place certificate; something I was

not expecting to receive.  This is yet another reason to follow the contest sponsor's "instructions"
for score reporting.

Before/during the RTTY Sprint event I tuned 20 meters (and then 40) looking for 'Bama stations;
by AQP's 03:00z ending time the N1MM+ AQP log had 0 (count 'em, ZERO) QSOs in the log.  The Alabama people should follow TQP's example and give us some more time to work them on Sunday.

RTTY SPRINT
All by themselves, Sprint contests are "weird" events; take a weird event, run it in RTTY and
it becomes REALLY Weird.  This year while there were no evident space-WX storms, overall
the condx. SUCKED; the 3830 soapbox consensus said much the same thing.

At W7AYT, 20-meters was largely a no-Show; making QSOs on 40 and 80 required the "crowbar" approach.

After all the contest hoopla died down, I setup  a Zoom session with Jon (KK6VLO) giving him

control of the desktop on this computer so he could poke around the Winbox APP to troubleshoot

the RemoteRig's RRC-1258 connection problem to W7AYT's router.  Within the hour the Elecraft

K3/0 was fully remotable once again. 

 

I spent the next couple of hours listening to stations on 75-m Ssb, comparing signal levels between Fallbrook (SDG section) and Concord (EB section); what a learning experience.   I find it interesting

to call CQ on one computer (the K3/0 or FT-1000mp) while listening for that call on the other end.  Overall, it would seem that NX6T is stronger in Concord than WQ6X is in Fallbrook.

On Sunday only TQP (Part 2) was left to run.  Having K3/0 remote access to NX6T allowed me to test-drive remote running from the Cw context.  At 20:00z when it was all over I was confronted with the task of taking screen shots of the stats, making and submitting Cabrillo files and writing up each event for the 3830Scores website.  Because the FOC GiGs are not listed on the 3830 website there was nothing to write up about it, except here in the contest BLOG.

 

To wrap the weekend, more time was spent SWL'ing.  While waiting for Radio New Zealand (RNZI)
to sign-on @ 08:00z, I began tuning thru the "UTE" frequency areas just in time to hear some code groups in Spanish on 4.724 USB followed by an abrupt signoff. 

At 07:45z I heard what sounded like a Cw beacon sending "3JWV 3JWV 3JWV de QH4P QH4P".  Checking back from time to time, these calls went on for a couple of hours.  While no one seems to "officially" know what these transmissions are about, from the DXWorld.Com website it is clear that these signals are being heard around the world.

From beginning to end, this weekend was about learning something new. 
Adding SWL activities to things makes it even more interesting.

What about you?  Do YOU ever SWL?
What have YOU found on frequencies in-between the amateur bands?

DiD YOU work FOC BW, AQP, TQP or the RTTY Sprint contests?
Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR Log?