This year, for WQ6X, the NAQP GiGs have been a disappointment, altho I should point out that operations with NX6T have been more productive than ever; while we were "evicted" from Nashville,
we have been welcomed at Radio Ranch (WA6TQT's QTH) atop the mountain in Anza. Having access to STACKED yagi's (40m - 10m) along with 3-Square & 4-Square arrays for 160 & 80
meters makes ALL the difference.
The 3rd weekend in August brings us a bevy of different radiosport events beginning with the SARTG (Scandinavian) RTTY GiG (Part-1), the NAQP (North American QSO Party) Ssb contest (from 11am to 11pm PDT on Saturday) and ending w/SARTG (Part-3) at 1am (Sunday) for 8 hours. In the background of all this was the annual International Lighthouse and Lightship weekend (ILLW) event.
For the SARTG GiG (Part-1), I opened by calling CQ on 21089.89 with no [RBN] results.
In order to say that we gave 10-meters a chance, WQ6X put in a lengthy CQ SARTG call on 28088.88; again with no results and no RBN spots.
When that didn't work, without thinking a switch was made to 20 meters. The antenna tuned weirdly, however KH6ZM became QSO #1 in the WQ6X log; after which I realized I had somehow managed to tune the 3-el 10-m Long John yagi on 20 (with a 1:1 SWR), instead of tuning the CH-250 vertical.
(I guess the Long John became the equivalent of a Buddi-Pole (w/o loading coils). Because the 8JK [phased] Cobra dipoles fill the shack w/RFI on 20-meters (tearing up the Toshiba docking port),
only the CH-250 vertical will give me RFI-free operation on that band.
A considerable amount of time was spent calling "CQ SARTG Test", with few QSOs made for the time spent. Before I realized it, the clock struck 08:00z (1am) ending the 1st 1/3'd of the SARTG RTTY GiG. On Saturday morning, after a 40-minute board meeting for the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA), it was back to SARTG (Part-2), feeling almost as dismal as Friday evening.
With a few RTTY QSOs in the log, it was time for WQ6X (Ron in CA) to make an appearance
in the NAQP GiG.
With NAQP, things were a little split. Running as WQ6X, I encountered the usual receive signal vortex at the Concord location. In general, it seems that stations can hear me much louder than
I can hear them. Until the SFI nears the 100+ point, receive signal levels on 10/15 meters @W7AYT will probably continue to be marginal.
From the mountain-top location @WA6TQT and the "monster" antenna arrays, my 2 operating
shifts for NX6T (1pm to 3pm and 7pm to 9pm) were greeted with AWEsome signal levels and lengthy pileups on ALL bands. Because this was a 100-watt (max.) contest, power amplifiers are not allowed. Nevertheless, NX6T was LOUD all over North America (and I guess into Europe as well).
During the last 2 hours of NAQP, WQ6X bounced from 20 to 40, down to 80/75 (with few stations heard/worked), and finally down to 160 (nothing heard). The last hour was spent making the rounds between 75m and 40m. Because there is a 10-hour limit for Single-OP stations, by 10pm many had already wrapped things up and shut down - Bummer Dewd!
While this weekend's radiosport GiGs HARDLY went the way I woulda expected, most important,
I got to add 3 more contest events to my 3830-Score list for a total of 81 GiGs thus far in 2021.
What about You? DiD YOU work the NAQP or SARTG contests?
Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR LoG?
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