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?