Sunday, December 20, 2020

WQ6X Wangles a weirdly-Wild 10-meter contest

I've been calling 2020 the year of "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride".  Another variation of this wild ride has
been this weekend's ARRL 10-meter contest.  Having survived the ARRL-160 contest from Alameda,
for THIS 10-meter contest a major goal was to give the 3-el 10-meter Long John yagi a thorough run. 
Prior to contest operations time was spent behind the radio (the table is on wheels) cleaning up the audio-splitting cables and making sure all the external audio filters were functional within the formal construct of what has become a dual-OP'ing station.

10-meter and 160-meter contests share one particular trait - they are BOTH single band contests.  When the QSO-rate drops, I can't just switch to another band for refuge.  Instead, I get to think of things that can "induce" more QSOs into the log.  Sometimes, just taking a 20 minute break and starting over is all that is needed.

Because this was a "daytime dual-OP" I put in 2-hours (19:00z - 21:00z) remotely to NX6T on Saturday leveraging the opening to South America (SA) on BOTH Cw and Ssb.  Being engaged in audio cable re-routing Friday evening, I missed out on what turned out to be an extended 10-meter opening, which did NoT repeat itself Saturday evening - bummer dewd.  WQ6X officially logged the first 10-meter contact at 18:00z Saturday morning and then again at 21:07z after my shift w/NX6T.

While NX6T's 669 QSOs were impressive (thanks to 1400 watts and a 14mh Stepp-IR antenna), signal levels in Concord left much to be desired.  Calling CQ while sweeping the yagi to various
hoped for locations produced disappointingly dismal results.  When RBN entries are next to none,
I know that W7AYT's Concord location is TRULY a signal-vortex.















When it was all over, NX6T clearly took a 1st-place for San Diego section and prolly a 2nd-place
for the Southwest Division.  Overall, most important overall is the fact that suddenly (yet undeniably)
we have been ushered into Solar Cycle 25 - FINALLY!

While I missed out on Friday evening, soapbox comments all across the continent confirm that
Friday was FAR-Out [man], and, Saturday wasn't so bad either.  What about You?  DiD YOU play
on 10-meters in the ARRL 10-m contest?  DiD You catch some those (until now) rare 10-meter openings?

Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR Log?


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