Tuesday, November 3, 2020

WQ6X 1/2 Sprints around a Russian Contest (by playing with audio)


It's a GooD thing I had no specific contest plans for this weekend as once again, everything
was all over the place.  Being an off-contest weekend (between CQ W.W. Ssb & November SS Cw),
I was not hoping for much beyond being able to test equipment configurations in Concord & Alameda; which I guess technically DiD happen.  I wrote up the latest experiments in a separate Blog entry
([CLICK HERE] to read it.)

As it turns out,  on the contest agenda there was only the Russian WW MM (Multi-media) Dx
contest and the NA Sprint on Ssb, which I had forgotten about until midway thru the event itself.  Unfortunately, the Russian WW MM contest turned out to be a BiG Ho-Hummer (i.e. a DuD). 
As I wrote in the contest soapbox,the event was more like a state QSO party which has 5x
out-of-area participants looking for those few brave enough to make it all happen for us. 

While it is true that JUST because I can't hear them, they are there nonetheless; spotting networks give us an overall accurate indication of run frequencies.  This weekend's bandmap was relatively empty; especially where Russia is concerned.  What good is it for me to run as an "Assisted" operation when there is no one around to "assist" me?!

By the time I got around to actual contest operation, 20-meters had already shutdown, much earlier than expected, leaving only 40-meters to run.

Surprisingly, there was a POOR turnout for Cw, leaving no alternative but resort to RTTY to have any chance in the Russian contest.


Nevertheless, in-the-end, the 240-point log WAS submitted to the contest website - the contest organizers appreciate it and once in awhile, even a low-scoring log can take an operating award.

Finding little to run, the focus was on continuing to rewire the dual-RX setup at the Concord location.  Tuning around 40-meters ssb while testing filter combinations, I was BLASTED OUT of the chair
by a well-in-progress NA Sprint Ssb contest.  Nearly 2 of the 4 operating hours were already gone. 
The goal became to run remotely as NX6T until it went dry, switch to WQ6X to run locally and then finish remotely again as NX6T.

Because STN-1's hard drive has recently been rolled back to a 2018 image, all the recently added N1MM keyboard macros where gone and MMTY.Exe did not exist in this configuration - work to do before the fun can begin.

Having consumed a 1/2 pint of Peanut Butter Stout, it made sense to load-up the K3's Voice Keyer memories to do most of the talking, leaving me to fumble on JUST the callsigns and operator names.  Then, once logged, it's forgotten.  Fortunately, when I switch bands, N1MM "remembers" your "Vitals" and fills them in for me to work you yet again, but on a new band.


The Sprint contests are unique in that there are no "run frequencies" per se'. Having to move every other QSO of course invites potential pandemonium.  Amazingly, the Sprint operators seemed to shoe-horn them selves around a number of of ragchewers who seemed almost oblivious to our frantic operations going on around them - proof once again that our frequency bands can be shared for multiple-purposes, all at the same time.

Eventually, 40 metes ran dry of new Sprint stations.  Switching to the FT-1000mp locally turned out
to be QUITE a disappointment.  Not only was the location's signal-vortex in full force, QRN levels of an approaching solar storm made an Ssb Sprint from Concord all but impossible.  This left me band-hopping between 40/75 meters as NX6T up to the 04:00z contest end.

What about YOU this weekend?

Did you run the NA Sprint or the Russian WW MM contest?

Is NX6T buried somewhere in YOUR LoG?


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