WQ6X sprints thru 1st-time QRP SPRINT from Anza

Because this is a 5-weekend month, the 4th weekend is relatively quiet (unless you are playing
in the LZ contest in Europe), there is only the NA SPRINT Ssb (4-hour) contest on Saturday afternoon/evening (depending on timezone).  A meeting of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) and clients brought me to Alameda on Saturday.  

Rather than pack up all the remote access
equipment to run (an only) 4-hour contest in
Concord, the decision was to run the event from
my office, which sports a better internet connection anyway.  

Discovering the Ramona remote location to be
utilized by someone else, checking Anza STN-1 (@WA6TQT) found nothing happening, giving me access to the stacked yagi's on 20 & 40 meters
as well as an 80-meter 4-square array.

Also available was a 40-meter Stepp-IR which can
be run separately or in phase with  the stacked yagi's,
providing simultaneous coverage when unsure which
direction propagation is favoring.
It would seem that the antenna switch software failures from last weekend never materialized during the SPRINT contest - Whew!.

Running ANY domestic contest QRP is a challenge unto itself, however the SPRINT contest makes
it an even more daunting operation.  Having access to stacked yagi's make all the difference (kinda), however with no internet spotting in this event, in the beginning it was not easy for stations for hear WQ6X calling CQ, relegating me to calling other stations at first.

Nearly 2-hours netted only 47 QSOs in the log on 20-meters while waiting for 40-meters to open up well enough for a QRP signal to make a reach eastward.  During the next hour, only 12 QSOs made
it to the log on 40-meters - pretty pathetic.  The next 1/2 hour scouting 75-meters produced only 3 QSOs with CA, AZ and CO - switching the 80-meter 4-square between NE and SE seemed to make little difference.  Reluctantly, I spent 20-minutes on 40, moving back to 75m for the last 10 minutes only to snag one more station in CO.

While my original goal was 100 QSOs, considering the weakness of the band conditions,
I am resigned to the fact running QRP (even with an antenna farm), 76 QSOs is a reasonable accomplishment, considering that I was "winging it" throughout the entire SPRINT contest.

DiD YOU work the Ssb NA SPRINT?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Negotiates a Weird, Tricky Quad November Sweepstakes

wOw!  It doesn't get any more difficult than this!  This last weekend's Sweepstakes phone
contest provided the opportunity to operate four different style Sweepstakes operations:

1. Run QRP as W6R from Ramona (SDG Section)
   
2. Run LP as WQ6X from the SF Bay area (EB Section)
3. Run LP as K6QLF briefly from EB section.
4. Put hours in for NX6T's Multi-OP operation from Anza (ORG Section).

Starting @21:00z (1pm), the decision was made to begin by running WQ6X from the East Bay (EB) section.  10-meters was open domestically encouraging swinging the yagi to different directions and calling CQ.  

The usual $13 eBay purchased
hi-fidelity mic developed a cable problem.  The question was how to replace it with the Heil-Pro headset without having to wear it as a headset considering that I prefer wearing classic OWNZONE wireless headsets.

This being an Ssb contest, I mounted
a classic Heil-Pro headset on a classic Electro Voice 664 turned into a cute microphone stand.  Because N1MM plays .WAV files, most of the contest was run by function keys.  Eventually,
54 QSOs made it to the log.

About the time 10-meters was fading, the Ramona station became available for operating as W6R
to fire-up on 15-meters running QRP.  The goal was to S&P and then run frequencies when it was clear that W6R was being heard.  A recent addition to Sweepstakes allows us to self-spot our callsign in order to be seen on the bandmaps.

Starting @01:00z (5pm) I took over the operator spot for NX6T, running remote from the WA6TQT
site in Anza.  Everything ran fine until I attempted to rotate the KT-36 yagi to work KP2M at Radio Reef (where we won the ARRL RTTY-RU contest in 2014).  The antenna switch software dropped
out, requiring a complex restart.  It turns out a recent software update was poorly tested.  The switch server (on STN-1) would randomly terminate itself - first the RX would go silent, then the SWR would skyrocket.  Time lost troubleshooting this problem made for a barely productive operating session.

At 03:00z (7pm), it was back to W6R from Ramona on 40-meters - a huge relief from the
previous 2-hours.  The evening was spent bouncing between 40-meters (2-el. Shorty-40)
and 80-meters (Inverted Vee) - both @55' atop the hill in Ramona.

By 07:45z, most of USA was sound asleep so I also caught some sleep to be ready for a 1-hour operation @11:00z (3am), ideally looking for mults.  Just like the CW Sweepstakes 2 weekends ago, my operating stint was a complete HO-Hummer except for VE9KK calling in on my CQ, giving us the NB (New Brunswick) multiplier.

After another sleep break, because the Ramona station was committed to a new operator, I found time to put a few QSOs in the log for WQ6X before taking the 18:00z (10am) to 22:00z (2pm) shift for NX6T.  

The goal during running NX6T was to run frequencies and then S&P when no one was calling in.  10-Meters was quite open as was 15-meters when 10 was worked out.  A few S&P QSOs on 20-meters made the quiet periods at least a bit productive.  Unlike the early morning, 120 QSOs made it into the NX6T log during my 4-hour shift.  

About every 25 minutes, the antenna software server would stop working requiring going through the restart procedure which we had down to approximately 2-minutes, altho occasionally a couple of stations were stranded in the process.

Afterwards I made a brief Sweepstakes entry as K6QLF putting 4 QSOs into its log before discovering that the Ramona site was again available to wrap the contest as W6R.  

Starting at 00:34z (5:30pm) W6R finally made an appearance on 20-meters. 
Within an hour, after 20 QSOs the band "went long" encouraging the exodus down
to 40-meters, where after an hour only 7 new callsigns made it to the log.  At 02:38z there
was just enough time to call CQ on 3779.79 for 8 west coast QSOs in the log and snag SB section (Santa Barbara) as a final multiplier (#45).

The amazing thing is how many stations told me that W6R was their 1st (and maybe only) contact from San Diego (SDG) section.  Likewise, when running as NX6T, I was also amazed at how many times we were the 1st-station for the Orange (ORG) section.  Other "rare" sections in California were LAX and SF - HuH?  wOw!

When it was all over, it would seem that W6R took 1st-place for San Diego (SDG)
section, while NX6T took an overall 1st-place for Multi-OP running low power.

DiD YOU work the 2025 November Sweepstakes phone contest?

Is NX6T, W6R, K6QLF or WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

BLAST's from the PAST: November Sweepstakes Ssb (Part 2)

The days preceding the 2025 ARRL November Sweepstakes ssb contest, I got to looking back in the Ssb Sweepstakes past, since I wrote Part 1 of this Blog.  ([CLICK HERE] to reread that Blog entry.)
Since then, I have written numerous Blogs about Ssb Sweepstakes.  Here is what I found looking back in the archive:

• [X] 2018 - WQ6X Signs up for another SSB Sweepstakes
• [X] 2019 - SS-Ssb 2019: The Radiosport GiG that Faded into Obscurity
• [X] 2020 - WQ6X Survives another Frazzled Dual-OP Sweepstakes
• [X] 2021 - WQ6X Wanders thru a Weirdly Wonderful Ssb Sweepstakes
• [X] 2022 - WQ6X dual-OP's another ad-HOC Ssb Sweepstakes
• [X] 2023 - For WQ6X SS-Ssb is FULL of Surprises
• [X] 2024 - What Do We SaY about Ssb November Sweepstakes?
  
  

1. 2018 - WQ6X Signs up for another SSB Sweepstakes
   
   It is amazing to look at the Solar Flux Index (SFI) in 2018 which was coming up to 75.
   The antenna system @W7AYT's QTH underwent a complete overhaul enabling WQ6X
   to operate from EB section when not putting hours for NX6T.  While the 3000-point score
   won no awards, at least the new antenna configuration got a thorough workout.
   
   
2. 2019 - SS-Ssb 2019: The Radiosport GiG that Faded into Obscurity
   
   
   This Blog post accomplish a pre-blog look back at Sweepstakes events I have run in the distant past.  Overall, the operation that weekend was a tough run, with bands fading out prematurely.   I bitched about the time wasted by saying "PLEASE COPY", made it necessary for repeats of Check and Section.  The final result was a 1st-place for EB section and a 2nd for PAC Division.
   
   
3. 2020 - WQ6X Survives another Frazzled Dual-OP Sweepstakes
   
   
   The 2020 Sweepstakes was not much to get excited about other than taking another
   1st-place for EB section and a 2nd-place for PAC division.  I would've expected more competition, but evidently not.  On the NX6T end of the contest, it would seem that we
   took a VERY CLOSE 2nd-place behind WW4LL with a possible S-West Division win if
   the Arizona Outlaws (AOC) were "asleep at the wheel".
   
   
4. 2021 - WQ6X Wanders thru a Weirdly Wonderful Ssb Sweepstakes
   
   
   This Sweepstakes was not super exciting, however NX6T and WQ6X both turned in super adequate results.  NX6T claimed 3rd-place overall and took a 1st-place for the Southwest Division and San Diego section, while WQ6X earned 2nd-place for PAC Division and another 1st-place for East Bay (EB) section.  Almost more important was enhancing the use of stereo Ssb audio to make frequency running more effective.
   
   
   
5. 2022 - WQ6X dual-OP's another ad-HOC Ssb Sweepstakes
   
   
   While this was truly an ad-HOC Sweepstakes operation, there is nothing ad-HOC about the results: NX6T took another 1st place for ORG section and Southwest division.  Not only did WQ6X take 1st-place for East Bay (EB) section, but surprisingly received a PAC Division
   winner plaque in the mail nearly a year later.  Another ad-HOC aspect of this operation
   was turning an Electro Voice 664 into a mic stand for the Heil headset microphone.
   
   
   
6. 2023 - For WQ6X SS-Ssb is FULL of Surprises
   
   
   For this event the goal was to run QRP remote from Ramona and set a Southwest Division section record, while assisting NX6T to a similar division win.  When it was all over NX6T DiD take the division and a strong 2nd-place to WX4W.  WQ6X of course won the division but set
   a division record.  The BiG surprise was finding out that the measly 46k point score was #1 Overall in the SOU (Single Op Unlimited) QRP category.  wOw!  How cool is THAT?
   
   
   
7. 2024 - What Do We SaY about Ssb November Sweepstakes?
   
   
   This year's November Sweepstakes event was a hopeful reprise of last year's division
   wins and maybe more.  It was also another opportunity to perfect the art of Stereo Ssb,
   a hardware technique I have written about several times ([CLICK HERE]).  When it was all
   over, NX6T took 4th-place as a multi-OP while WQ6X took 3rd in the SOU QRP category.  However, BOTH operations scored wins for the Southwest Division - how COOL is THAT?

With all of this behind me, there are now plans to run yet another triple-OP operation for this year's November Sweepstakes phone contest.

Have YOU run the November Sweepstakes phone contest?

Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Weaves a Weird WAE + JIDX Contest Weekend

Between the two Sweepstakes weekends, is a tri-cluster of disparate radiosport events that
are [theoretically at least] worth spending OP-time engaging with.  The classic trio of GiGs is:

• [X] - WAE RTTY Contest
• [X] - Japanese JIDX Ssb Contest
• [X] - OK/OM Cw Contest

An unfortunate under-pinning to the weekend were numerous Space-WX storms, that altho short
in duration, left geomagnetic artifacts (short-fading in particular), creating an extra challenge for readable copy.

Because the decision was to run remote from the Anza (WA6TQT) QTH, I had to provide radio
control and RTTY decoding on the client side of the connection.  This was tricky as the MSI gaming laptop used for the weekend has only a single combined mic/headphone socket.  To enable split audio for running RTTY, I moved an old Toshiba Dynadok  port replicator from its home computer
(an ancient Windoze-7 Toshiba laptop) to the USB line on the MSI laptop.  At the Concord location, using swapped audio requires the use of audio isolation blocks to prevent ground loops. Using the Dynadok provides the necessary isolation w/o signal degradation.

Plugging a classic RigExpert PLUS unit into the MSI USB line provided computer control but no PTT (I was too lazy to patch the RigExpert ACC PTT-line connection to the footswitch jack on the control head - VOX to the rescue, altho getting the mic/vox settings adjusted properly required delicate menu settings.

A significant advantage of running radiosport from the Anza location is having access to stacked Yagi's on 40 thru 10-meters and a 4-Square vertical array for 80-meters.  All these antennas resulted in 31 countries being worked in only 17 CQ Zones.  Other than Brazil, most of South America was poorly represented in the WAE contest (they were prolly futilely looking for non-existent JA stations
in the JIDX contest).

While STN-1 is generally more complex to navigate, because most of the time was spent running RTTY, most of the complexity was on the local end.  Another advantage to controlling the radio locally is being able to put N1MM in auto-CQ mode.  We have a policy of NoT running auto-CQ when we run N1MM from the remote end - if the internet connection were to disappear, the radio would be calling CQ on its own, theoretically forever.

During the WAE contest operating period, until the 07:00z JIDX start, solar storms obliterated band conditions, even on 40-meters and delayed an opening to Japan, prompting me to seek some sleep.  Somewhere around 10:00z, I heard many JA stations conversing amongst themselves, with very few actually calling CQ JIDX.  In the last year, this has become a noticeably increasing phenomenon.

To the JIDX contest committee's credit, they FINALLY have introduced a web log-submission page, eliminating the need to attach our log files to e-mails.  Unfortunately, clicking on all the other links (allegedly to view results of past contests and print certificates), took us to a BLANK page - evidently the rest of this website upgrade need LoTs of WORK.

The OK/OM contest was even worse, altho this was largely a function of poor propagation conditions leftover from the solar storms.  Because only 40-meter contacts were made, it made sense to submit a SOSB/40 LP log.

When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X took 23rd place overall, 10th for NA, 9th for
USA and 1st for W6 - not bad for cobbling together a workable RTTY equipment conglomeration.

DiD YOU work the WAE-RTTY, JIDX-Ssb or OK/OM-Cw contests?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Wings yet another Triple-OP CW Sweepstakes

Typically, before a major radiosport contest, I visit the hosting website for the upcoming
event, reviewing scores from recent years and investigating the possibility of setting a
new score record - which becomes more difficult each year.

For Cw Sweepstakes 2025, I created 3 operating goals:

1. Reprise WQ6X's Southwest Division win, while taking a shot at besting the all-time
   high score for the Southwest Division set by WQ6X in the 2024 Sweepstakes event.
2. Operate the FT-2000 from W7AYT's QTH, taking 1st-place for the East Bay (EB) ARRL section.
3. Put in some op-time with team-NX6T, securing a repeat of last year's surprising overall
   Multi-Single LP win.

Leading (leaning?) into the contest weekend was a series of geomagnetic storms contributing
to higher noise levels, as well as some devastatingly slow-fading; add to that randomly increasing internet dropouts, made Sunday a long, overall frustrating operating period on Sunday.

If I suddenly disappeared on you, only to come back a minute later, that was due

to randomly repeating internet drop-outs at the Concord location I was running from.  

During several pileups the station would come back to me only to have my internet drop 

at that very moment and I would miss the QSO - Bummer Dewd.

As a warmup exercise, K6QLF was activated mainly on 10-meters, sweeping the 3-el. 10-meter Long John yagi while calling CQ.  To best last year's SOULP score for East Bay required making 50+ QSOs in 33+ ARRL sections, which was accomplished later in the day on Saturday.

After a short break, it was time to dial the radio in Ramona down to 5-watts for an SOUQRP run, putting WQ6X on the air once again from San Diego (SDG) section.  By the time I got started, 10-meters was largely over for the day.  15 and then 20-meters became the afternoon sanctuary looking for an early solid opening on 40-meters - which occurred from 02:00z to 04:00z. 

 
For the rest of the evening, it was a switch off between 40 and 80-meters.

My biggest beef was stations who moved in on my QRP signal 100-Hz away and called CQ. 
Just because I sport a weaker signal does not mean the frequency is open. If they had sent "QRL?" FIRST, they woulda hear me instantly reply "QRL QSY", but that rarely happened.

team-NX6T had enough capable operators that WQ6X wasn't needed until my usual 3am
(11:00z) shift (6am on the East coast) for 2-hours.  While my QSO count was hardly impressive,
a call from VE9KK (NB section) on 7031.69 @12:42z made my shift worth the early morning operation.  Looking at the after contest submitted scores, it would seem that for now, NX6T
squeaked out a 1st-place.

When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X managed another 1st-place for SDG & S-West Division and a 4th-place overall - NoT BaD for dividing my time between three different operations.

DiD YOU work the CW November Sweepstakes?

Is WQ6X, K6QLF or NX6T in YOUR Log?

BLAST's from the PAST: November Sweepstakes Cw (Part 2)

Why November Sweepstakes is [still] my FAVorite Radiosport Contest

On the eve of the 2025 ARRL November Sweepstakes contest, I got to looking back in the Cw Sweepstakes past, since I wrote Part 1 of this Blog.  ([CLICK HERE] to reread that Blog entry.)
Since then, I have written numerous Blogs about Sweepstakes Cw, altho amazingly a couple of
those years are unaccounted for Blog-wise.
Nevertheless, here is what we DO have:

• [X] 2017 - WQ6X wings and wins another Sweepstakes Contest
• [X] 2019 - For CW Sweepstakes WQ6X LooKs back to Move Forward
• [X] 2019 - WQ6X Wings another Cw Sweepstakes GiG
• [X] 2020 - WQ6X sets the stage to sweep another Sweepstakes
• [X] 2021 - WQ6X Sweeps up another November Sweepstakes
• [X] 2022 - Some Sweeping Thoughts about sweeping-up in Sweepstakes
• [X] 2022 - WQ6X Successfully Operates a 1st-time triple-OP Sweepstakes
• [X] 2023 - What Do We SaY about Cw Sweepstakes?
• [X] 2024 - WQ6X Successfully Navigates another NEAT QRP November Sweepstakes

The November Sweepstakes Phone (Ssb) contest comes in 10 days. 
LooK for another Blast from the Past Blog documenting that variation.

Do YOU work the November Sweepstakes contests?
Is WQ6X (or one of my 1x1 callsigns) in YOUR LoG?