WQ6X WINs another QRP NAQP RTTY GiG

Aside from the NAQP RTTY GiG itself, this radiosport weekend was about putting the pair
of RigExpert (PLUS & TI-5000) devices through a number of experimental configurations. 
Because there is no RTTY audio connections on the Ramona side of the remote connection,
a number of "Kludges" have been devised to encode/decode the RTTY tones from the originating
end (Concord, Ca. - EB section).

Using a pair of audio isolation blocks, audio from the Windoze-7 laptop is fed into the 1/8"
microphone socket on the K3/0 Mini control head.  Receive audio (after processing thru the
array of Analog and/or DSP filters) is fed to the laptop mic 1/8" socket.  The same pair of Autek
QF-1A analog filters used to create the stereo Cw effect also enable the peaking of high tones
(left Ch.) and low tones (right Ch.).   While peaking the tones by ear improves reception, as it turns out, an even better approach is to peak the left/right frequencies to produce the best decoding (based only on the MMTTY decoding display) that transforms the "garble" into reasonably perfect text copy,

As it turns out, the operating difficulty for this GiG had nothing to do with audio quality and everything
to do with local internet connection quality.  It was THIS situation that was the determination of when (and for how long) to take a break from the contest.  Evidently, something/someone in the vicinity
was overloading the internet creating noticeable signal latency.  A workaround was made possible
by loading up the the radio DVK memories (before the contest) to call CQ (F1), send an exchange (F2) and send a TU message (F3).  While the internet was splotchy on the Concord end, sending from the DVK memories was sent w/o any latency.

Behind the scenes Saturday morning and evening was the Space-Wx situation, which altho
it looks good (according to the numbers) in fact, the real truth is much worse than that. 
The numbers often don't take into account the REAL world of radio operations.

While technically WQ6X made considerably more QSOs in this event that the February GiG,
there were noticeable differences; the Canadian turnout was considerably lacking, while other
than KP4, virtually no Caribbean stations were heard (much less worked).

Because two tuning knobs are employed running remote RTTY (the FT-2000 for frequency logging and the K3/0-Mini for actually running the remote radio), it made sense to find clear frequencies
(often above the 100khz offset from the bottom of the band) and call CQ.  Running a given frequency works until another station (who allegedly can't hear me) moves into the vicinity of the run frequency, obliterating my CQ calls.  Tracking run frequencies shows the WQ6X run frequency to either creep
up or down as stations move in on my slot.

Opening a new band with searching and pouncing (S&P) brings a determination of signal copyability, while noting whether there is transmit RFI (in the remote shack) and any receive anomalies on that particular band.

Running a Stepp-IR yagi for 20, 15 & 10, it is crucial to manually switch the antenna band as well (there is no band-data cable installed at the Ramona QTH).  While running QRP into a high-SWR match won't hurt anything, it is clearly a waste of time.

Frequency-wise, 10-meters was another no-show.  Daytime hours were largely split between
20 & 15.  While propagation was largely the same for both bands, stations seemed to bounce between bands, offering the opportunity to work the same station again, often for multiplier credit.

When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X took 1st-place for QRP Assisted.

DiD YOU work the NAQP RTTY contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR Log?