At the beginning of the year, as I was pre-loading my [physical] desk calendar (remember those?). Somehow only the Mexican RTTY contest made it into the Feb 1st slot. Friday afternoon, while testing the RTTY Kludge for running remotely from Ramona, rummaging thru the WA7BNM Contest Calendar, I noted 5 other events (6 if you count the private FOC contest).
In time-based order, those events are:
- [X] - Vermont QSO Party (VQP)
- [X] - European Union (EU) DX Contest
- [X] - Mexican RTTY Contest (XE-RTTY)
- [X] - Minnesota QSO Party (MQP)
- [X] - British Columbia QSO Party (BCQP)
- [X] - NA SPRINT Cw Contest
For starters, I have mixed emotions about the Vermont QSO Party (VQP). Timewise starting at 00:00z (4pm PST) gives us early access to VT counties on 15, 20, 40 and hopefully 80-meters
before Friday evening is over. It also has a long duration, ending at 4pm (PST) on Sunday.
What it does NoT have is a plethora of operators in Vermont. Overall, the same stations were
worked on multiple bands, CW and Ssb. The last VT station made it to the log at 22:54z on Saturday.
before Friday evening is over. It also has a long duration, ending at 4pm (PST) on Sunday.
What it does NoT have is a plethora of operators in Vermont. Overall, the same stations were
worked on multiple bands, CW and Ssb. The last VT station made it to the log at 22:54z on Saturday.
Running QRP DiD NoT prevent me from working every VT station heard, the difficulty was NoT hearing VT stations to work in the first place. I could hear Europe and work England (M4T) using
the Stepp-IR yagi @55'. I really don't think VT stations were skipping over me. There were no
VT stations to skip over me - if there were, they would show up on the spotting networks and
SDR receivers (which they didn't).
the Stepp-IR yagi @55'. I really don't think VT stations were skipping over me. There were no
VT stations to skip over me - if there were, they would show up on the spotting networks and
SDR receivers (which they didn't).
In a similar way, the MNQP (Minnesota) QSO Party GiG was also a disappointment. It starts at 14:00z and 10 hours later it's over. Ending at 4pm (PST) deprives West Coast stations from working Minnesota on 40 and 80 meters. With a yagi array @100' I MIGHT be able to work Minnesota on
40-meters in the afternoon. While I can get access to the WA6TQT 4-Square vertical array in Anza, that superb directive antenna is worthless before around 6pm (PST) - 02:00z. Needless to say,
I submitted a log with less than a dozen contacts. Other QSO parties solve this problem with a
2nd run on Sunday, which still does not give us access to 40 and 80 meters.
40-meters in the afternoon. While I can get access to the WA6TQT 4-Square vertical array in Anza, that superb directive antenna is worthless before around 6pm (PST) - 02:00z. Needless to say,
I submitted a log with less than a dozen contacts. Other QSO parties solve this problem with a
2nd run on Sunday, which still does not give us access to 40 and 80 meters.
For the Cw SPRINT GiG, a misunderstanding of the evening's social schedule induced me to call it quits at 02:02z (6:02 PM). Altho I was pre-assigned to an SCCC contest team (#2), luckily
only WA6URY was the only one on my team - he got to "suffer" from my dismal 69 QSO log submission. Normally in the SPRINT contest, I've never had an opportunity to bemoan "I coulda been
a contenduh", altho running QRP has changed all that; at least according to results published in recent National Contest Journals.
only WA6URY was the only one on my team - he got to "suffer" from my dismal 69 QSO log submission. Normally in the SPRINT contest, I've never had an opportunity to bemoan "I coulda been
a contenduh", altho running QRP has changed all that; at least according to results published in recent National Contest Journals.
In the middle of it all, was the EU DX contest and the aforementioned XE RTTY contest. For RTTY, using the recently documented remote-PTT method ([CLICK HERE] to read that),
the same thing was accomplished using the FT-1000mp (a backup transceiver) in Alameda as the K3/0-Mini PTT switch. It's ironic that while I discovered this method using the FT-2000 transceiver, this weekend's use attempt (with the FT-2000) was a complete DuD
(a dismal failure). With no QRP category, I dialed the power down to 55-watts and ran Single-OP Low Power (SOLP).
the same thing was accomplished using the FT-1000mp (a backup transceiver) in Alameda as the K3/0-Mini PTT switch. It's ironic that while I discovered this method using the FT-2000 transceiver, this weekend's use attempt (with the FT-2000) was a complete DuD
(a dismal failure). With no QRP category, I dialed the power down to 55-watts and ran Single-OP Low Power (SOLP).
The EUDX contest was also a DuD! Throughout the weekend we were plagued by geomagnetic storms (K-Index = 4) most of the time. What few hearable EU signals had a disruptive [polar] flutter
to them, or (in the case of OM2VL) a weird buzzing sound caused by the geo-storm, not anything wrong with his transmitter apparatus. Being unable to run mixed-mode in this GiG, I upped the power to 88-watts and put KA8JBK followed by M4T into the log. Submitting a 4-point score and a 2-QSO Log is enough for WQ6X to say "I Wuz THERE!".
to them, or (in the case of OM2VL) a weird buzzing sound caused by the geo-storm, not anything wrong with his transmitter apparatus. Being unable to run mixed-mode in this GiG, I upped the power to 88-watts and put KA8JBK followed by M4T into the log. Submitting a 4-point score and a 2-QSO Log is enough for WQ6X to say "I Wuz THERE!".
of people. Once the morass of people made their exit, I found space on the rumpus room floor to setup the K3/0-Mini and RRC-1258 interface box for a demonstration of running the Ramona station remotely.
Tuning around 75-meters just before 10Pm I checked into the Western Country Cousins net (W6CCN) on 3.970. Later listening on 3.785 there was W2VP working Europe and encouraging others to join in. He could hear the EU stations that I couldn't thanks to being on the E. Coast - EU is just "a skip across the pond". Suddenly, the laptop battery died, taking the internet connection with it - end of demonstration.
This last weekend demonstration demonstrates once again the advantages of Utility vs. Futility
during radiosport weekends. According to the 3830 Stats, WQ6X took a 1st-place in the QRP Assisted Mixed-mode category. Amazing, from complaining to 1st-place - who woulda thunk it? (certainly NoT Me).
DiD YOU work the 6-contest radiosport weekend opening the month of February 2025?
Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?
