WQ6X Investigates Another 7-Contest Weekend

With all the world-wide confusion about, the month of April quietly slipped into place; wondering what this 1st contest weekend of the has in store for us dedicated radiosport operators around the globe.  Thanks to the WA7BNM Contest Calendar, we can easily figure that out.

After last year's mult-contest weekend, I wrote up a detailed BLOG entry detailing the different components.  ([CLICK HERE] to Read That.)  Making it easier to find out about these events,
here is this weekend's list:

• [x] - Nebraska QSO Party (NEQP)
• [x] - Missouri QSO Party (MOQP)
• [x] - Louisiana QSO Party (LAQP)
• [x] - Mississippi QSO Party (MSQP)
• [x] - SP DX Contest
• [x] - EA RTTY Contest
• [x] - NA Sprint SSB Contest

All the QSO parties begin at 13:00z - 14:00z, which means I have to get up before 6am to
get started.  The European Gigs (SPDX & EARTTY) begin at 16:00 - 9am Pacific time. 

The interesting challenge for this weekend was the fact both antenna towers were experiencing
rotor problems, leaving them unrotatable.  The C-31 yagi (on Tower-1) was fixed at 30-Degrees. 
On Tower-2 the 2-el Shorty-40 was fixed at 30-Degrees while the Stepp-IR (also on that tower) was fixed at 30+90 degrees (120).  This allowed working South America on the high bands as well as Asia by switching the antenna into BI-Directional or 180-mode.

The fixed antenna situation created some unique difficulties.  On 40-meters for example, with the

antenna pointed at 30-degrees, working Asia was all but impossible; only the KW stations made it thru (while NX6T ran 888 watts).  The "F" & "K" beacons could be heard, but at a fraction of the

signal levels normally encountered when the yagi is pointing at around 315-degrees.

 

Fortunately, the antenna positing was correct for the QSO parties, as well as the SP-Dx and EA RTTY contests.  Working into Japan (or even Hawaii) was simply a bonus (each non-US/Canada QSO was worth more points).

Fast-Forward a bit..... It's now Monday morning.  The 7-contest weekend is
long over.  LooKing back, as usual,
the weekend flow hardly went the
way I thought it would. 

Then again, if things always flowed flawlessly, there would be no challenge, and no learning; just a Boring push-button machine operation.  Notice that 3 of the 7 events (listed above) were lined-out; I never found time to pursue them.

Overall, the EA RTTY GiG was a success.  While less than 50% of last year's QSO total made it to the 2020 log, with the poor SFI-index and antenna restrictions, any success is amazing.


While this weekend hardly accomplished a large QSO count,  managing to fit some-aspect of
4 radiosport events into one weekend is always an accomplishment.  What about YOU?

DiD YOU work any of the above contests?

Is NX6T in YOUR LoG?