WQ6X Wangles a Wild 7 (make that 6) Contest Weekend

While wrapping things up at my office in Alameda, I took a look at the WA7BNM Contest Calendar and noticed that there are seven (7) radiosport contest GiGs happening this weekend, beginning with the SA-10 contest, the SP-160 GiG, the Tesla Memorial Cw contest, and the 4-hour NA Sprint RTTY GiG; along with OKQP, IDQP and WIQP state QSO parties.  wOw!

Also on the calendar was the YB Dx RTTY contest.  Every year, I look for it and can't find it. 
Maybe it's like Sweepstakes for Indonesians - a domestic (and only domestically heard) contest event.  The same thing happened with the Tesla Memorial contest.  No one ever seems to show
up for the Tesla GiG. Last year, WQ6X actually put a [shocking] 15 QSOs in the log for that event.

On Tuesday (Mar 8) I whimsically pieced together a plan for how this last weekend should, radiosport-wise.  While the main contest elements were present, a number of external factors "conspired" to give me an intellectually - challenged radiosport workout.  For openers, littered throughout the weekend were a number of disparate (but nonetheless frustrating) solar storms; the worst was saved for last, AFTER the contest weekend events were behind us.

Receiving operating approval to run STN-2 @ the WA6TQT Super-site didn't come thru until NooN
on Saturday.  While I would have like to run low power into the 10-meter yagi stacks there, instead, WQ6X run the SA-10 contest live from W7AYT's QTH in Concord.  For 160 later, I was more-or-less all set.

With a Solar Flux Index (SFI) of around 123, 10-meters was certainly open.  The SA-10 GiG being
a South American based contest, the 3-element Long John yagi was pointed Southeast (S/E) most
of the time.  While calling CQ, I would occasionally sweep the yagi due north to grab the (0-point) Zone multipliers.  Running assisted found spots for VK/ZL/KH6 on the bandmap; sweeping the yagi
to the Southwest picked them up quite easily.  Somehow, they popped just above the atmospheric noise created by one of the weekend's solar storms.

In the SA-10 contest SA prefix multipliers are important, as are the zone multipliers from countries around the world.  A lot of those stations don't seem to call CQ so running a frequency is the only
way to pick them up.  While the main focus was the SA-10 GiG, in the daytime I tuned around
looking for calls in the Tesla memorial contest (TMC) - there were none; at least not in W6, or even throughout the USA.  TMC quickly lost my focus, altho I listen to every station as I tune thru them.  The BiG disappointment on Saturday were the QSO parties (altho the OKQP & WIQP parties were reasonably active Sunday afternoon).

The NA Sprint RTTY contest began @23:00z.  Because no one was up to joining me on an SCCC team, I used the 1st hour of the Sprint time to complete the SA-10 contest, knowing that 10-meters will likely be over for the day.  In place of 10-meters of course, the next stop was a move down to the Stew Perry SP-160 contest after the Sprint GiG was over.

I was originally considering running the 160 contest as a Low Power (LP) entry.  At the last minute
the decision was made to run 1400 watts instead.  With the Space-WX things the way they were,
in retrospect it was the correct decision.

After all the radiosport events were safely completed, we were presented with yet another
solar storm.  It didn't seem to have much impact on 75-meter operations Sunday evening,
altho later it DiD put a damper on my usual late-evening shortwave listening period - Bummer Dewd!

Overall, this radiosport weekend put 5 contests on the 3830 list for WQ6X.  Considering all the variables to contend with, I am amazed it was possible to make them all happen during the weekend.

What about YOU?

DiD YOU work any radiosport GiGs last weekend?

Is WQ6X in YOUR Log?