During the IOTA, GiG, the condx were so poor, the decision was to run Cw ONLY.
This weekend brought us 2 GiGs on separate days which WQ6X ran QRP.
This is inspiring me to put together a club presentation on utilizing the MFJ-1026 and TIMEWAVE ANC-4 noise phase boxes to eliminate the noise at the RX front end, before it can take over the RF
pre-amps and flood the I-F system.
At 23:51z calling CQ on 21014.14, the band was open to Asia, putting JA6GCE, JA0FVU, JS1NDM, JM1SZY, JF2FIU, JF3BFS & JO7KMB into the log, with many stateside stations off the other end of the Stepp-IR set to run Bi-directional.
Hearing the Russian "K" and "F" military beacons on ~7.039 (the "M" beacon has been AWOL for some time), at least made it clear that there was propagation to Asia. This brought hope that already-worked JA's
would materialize on 40-meters.
- [X]- Islands on the Air (IOTA) - Saturday @1200z for 24-hours
- [X]- Flight of the Bumble Bees QRP Contest - Sunday @17:00z for 4 hours
For IOTA, after resolving a few last-minute discrepancies, WQ6X was on the air remotely from
Ramona with the 1st QSO at 13:46 on 20-meters, working K4RUN, V85NPV, BY5SSB, VE7JKZ, V47EM & XE1AY - not a shabby way to start. Being the 4th weekend of the month, after 15 QSOs the radio was shutdown as I made the trek to the Oakland Yacht Club (in Alameda) for the monthly club meeting of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA). Our guest speaker was Mike K6MKF, who gave us an informative presentation on how amateur radio came into being in New England around 1904.
Ramona with the 1st QSO at 13:46 on 20-meters, working K4RUN, V85NPV, BY5SSB, VE7JKZ, V47EM & XE1AY - not a shabby way to start. Being the 4th weekend of the month, after 15 QSOs the radio was shutdown as I made the trek to the Oakland Yacht Club (in Alameda) for the monthly club meeting of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA). Our guest speaker was Mike K6MKF, who gave us an informative presentation on how amateur radio came into being in New England around 1904.
After the presentation, I sat down to a battery operated ICOM 7300 feeding a horizontal J-pole
atop the story yacht club meeting. The goal was to tune around the Ssb portions of the bands
looking for island stations. Unfortunately, the electronic device RFI is so pervasive at the yacht
club no Ssb signals could be copied. Moving down to 20-Cw, N9RV came in LOUD and Clear followed by V85NPV, verifying the antenna works, passing radio signals as well as power supply squeals.
atop the story yacht club meeting. The goal was to tune around the Ssb portions of the bands
looking for island stations. Unfortunately, the electronic device RFI is so pervasive at the yacht
club no Ssb signals could be copied. Moving down to 20-Cw, N9RV came in LOUD and Clear followed by V85NPV, verifying the antenna works, passing radio signals as well as power supply squeals.
pre-amps and flood the I-F system.
I arrived back in Concord at 22:30z just in time to be drawn into troubleshooting an Xmit audio problem with STN-2 @WA6TQT's setup in Anza. After an hour+ it was clear that a human needed
to be physically dispatched to the radio site for a close-up cable inspection.
to be physically dispatched to the radio site for a close-up cable inspection.
By the time I got into the groove (QSO-wise), the contest was already 1/2 over. 15-meters quickly disappeared, relegating a move to 20-meters. As the solar flux continues to drop, 20-meters once again becomes THE Dx band. Also lately, 40-meters has been opening later (03:15z), with skip distance(s) considerably less (than springtime), along with elevated noise-levels during the summer months.
Several trips to 80-meters yielded only one QSO (w/K7ARE). Not only were there no other callers, but there were also no bandmap spots for the band. Back to 40-meters, after working N2GC @05:05z, no other new stations were heard., giving me a reason to grab some sleep until 10:15z.
would materialize on 40-meters.
While many JA's stations were indeed present, being Sunday evening in Japan, most were engaged in some sort of JA-only JCC contest, not the IOTA GiG.
At 10:15z, S&P'ing put JH2FIU, JG1LFR and JN1THL into log (along w/N3QE off the back of the beam).
The last hour of the IOTA was a COMPLETE DuD! When the IOTA contest ended at precisely @ 12:00z (5am), I promptly went back to bed for another 5-hours, returning to the OP chair just in time to activate the
4-hour ARS Bumble Bee QRP event.
In the Bumble Bee GiG all QSOs were worth 1-point, with BB stations (operating portable away from their home QTH) giving us multipliers for each numbered BB station worked. According to the rules, all station were required to run 5-watts or less. Considering this was already a QRP weekend, the BB contest fit right into my QRP goals.
When it was all over, WQ6X took a distant 2nd-place in the IOTA 12-hour category and
a close 3rd-place in the Bumble Bee GiG. Bottom-line - 2 more contests were added to
my 3830 score ToTaL.
a close 3rd-place in the Bumble Bee GiG. Bottom-line - 2 more contests were added to
my 3830 score ToTaL.
DiD YOU work the IOTA and/or Bumble contest GiGs?
Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?
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