WQ6X Navigates another 6-Contest Weekend

The 2nd radiosport of October bring us 4 state QSO Parties, the OCDX Cw contest and my
RTTY favorite - the MAKROTHEN unique 40-hour On-Off-On-Off-On contest.  To make it all
work required a significant amount of time juggling, fitting QSO party activity into the MAKROTHEN off periods.

The 4 state QSO parties were a mixed bag; PA and AZ came thru as they always do.  NV and SD gave us another poor turnout as they have the last two years.  What good is it to hold a QSO party when your own in-state operators don't participate?  I don't recall receiving an email announcing either NV or SD QSO party - Bummer Dewd.

With many QSO parties, "rover" stations bring us additional county action.  As I recall, only one mobile station was heard for both AZ/PA  GiGs.  On the other hand, both events gave us additional action on Sunday, offering another high band (20, 15 & 10) opportunity.

Due to poor propagation, the OC DX Cw contest was a quiet affair, even with the Stepp-IR running
Bi-directional or pointed right at the Southwest.   Friday evening found one KH7, with nothing else heard.  To some degree, the poor propagation was due to the increasing Space-WX anomalies.

Of course, the funnest part of the weekend was the Greek MAKROTHEN RTTY contest.  Always arriving later on Friday evening, only 3.5 hours of op-time made it into the log during the first 8-hour operating period.  Starting up Saturday morning, I dialed the power down to 5-watts to run the state QSO parties.  When switching back to RTTY, I had to remember to up the power to 69-watts for running the RTTY as an LP entry.

For the most part, every station heard made it to the RTTY log.  At 00:00z the MAKROTHEN GiG took on another 8-hour break, and the focus was switched back to the QSO parties.  Unfortunately, while PA and AZ more-or-less barreled on, only one SD station was heard/worked before the event ended @05:00z.  While technically NVQP continued through Sunday, not a single W7 (outside of AZ) was heard - Bummer Dewd.

When it was all over, only 3 out of the 6 radiosport contests were actually worth reporting on. 
The others gave me an activation point on 3830scores.com but were otherwise "ho hummers".

DiD YOU participate in any of the above contest events?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Runs a 5-Phase CQP Weekend

While each CQP contest is demonstrably different, the variety in the 2025 CQP event exceeds
any run I have run previously - in short, this was TRULY Mr. Toads Wild Ride.  In recent years,
CQP has offered the opportunity to run several different operations during the 30-Hour CQP
Event.  For this year, I broke it down into 5-Phases:

• Phase-1 - Operate a WQ6X Multi-OP from Alameda County, running QRP - the goal being to replace the record set by WQ6X and WB6RUC from Tom's sailboat during the 2024 CQP operation.
• Phase-2 - Activate the W6CF amateur radio station - onsite at the California Historical Radio Society (CHRS) on behalf of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA).
• Phase-3 - Operate CQP Saturday evening using [Special Event callsign] W6R from KN6NBT's   QTH in Ramona to surpass the SO-QRP record set for San Diego County
  by WQ6X last year.
• Phase-4 - Put in operating hours (from 1am to 4am) for NX6T's remote operation
  from STN-1 (@WA6TQT) activating Riverside (RIVE) county.
• Phase-5 - Finish the W6R operation, ensuring our record-breaking run
  TRULY sets a new record.

PHASE-1

Making Phase-1 work required more time spent researching and planning the operation than DiD
the actual operating needed to accomplish that goal.  Surpassing a 24-point 2024 record was a no-brainer.  To be sure, WQ6X made 21 QSOs and submitted a 1.1k-point log - mission accomplished.

PHASE-2
Phase #2 was the most involved of all the CQP operations for this year.  Typical of this kind of operation, agreements needed to be come to as to when/how to make this all happen.  The original goal was to run all 30-hours as W6CF, switching in various operators.  Unfortunately, CHRS was not equipped to do that and outside of Denny (AE6C), no other operators with interest could be secured for Saturday.  When it was all over, 7 hours were put in on Cw and Ssb, submitting a 219-QSO log
for the event - enough to take 2nd-place in the Low Power Multi-Single category.  Possibly next
year we can take this event to the next level.  (Look for a more detailed write-up on the W6CF
operation itself. - coming soon to a WQ6X Contest Blog near you.)

PHASE-3

This 3rd step was a mixed challenge.  At the last minute another operator was optioned for the KN6NBT site, which would leave operating time to start after 03:00z (8pm), about the time I actually DiD start.  Consequently, that operator opted out leaving the Ramona site wide-open for use as W6R.
The goal of this phase was to make enough QSOs to put W6R well on the way towards surpassing last year's SO-QRP record.  I took a sleep break at 06:45z to be ready for Phase-4

PHASE-4

I often joke that the real reason NX6T invites me to join their crew is because I am willing to do the 1am to 4am shift (and sometimes fill-in during the "dinner shift").  CQP during the middle of the night is different because most left coasters are sound asleep and the East coast operators are just waking up to start their operating day.  Being a Multi-single operation, operating in this time slot requires rotating between 160, 80 & 40 meters (we had a potential 20-meter problem, so I let the morning operators sort that one out).  On each band the switch would be made between Cw, Ssb and then back again.  Because virtually all of the Multipliers had already been worked, there was no need
for Search & Pounce (S&P) - simply find a run frequency and call CQ (run it and they will come).

PHASE-5

After finishing my shift for NX6T, I caught some ZZZ's and then restarted as W6R at 15:00z, making Cw contacts until the CQP contest ended.  I had been asked to be on call to finish the last 2 hours for NX6T if another operator could not be found - thank you K6PO.  To make things easier, W6R ran just CW-only (more points per QSO) - no Ssb.  The day was spent traversing between 20, 15, 10 meters
and then back to 15 and 20 meters, mostly calling CQ and occasionally working out-of-state stations calling CQ CQP.

When it was all over, W6R had logged 524 QSOs and submitted an 81k-point log which at this
time seems to have taken an overall 1st-place for QRP - it certainly succeeded in setting a new
QRP record for San Diego (SDIE) county (officially, the record was set @17:20z).  W6R has set records for both QRP and QRP-assisted for SDIE - looks like it is time to set a Multi-OP QRP
record for San Diego next year.

When it was all over, similar to last year, I managed to be involved in 4 events, however this
year broken into 5 specific phases.  I guess we could label submitting scores and logs plus
posting Blog entries as Phase #6.

DiD YOU work the California QSO Party (CQP)?

Is W6CF, W6R, WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Runs a Rockin' RTTY Radiosport Retreat

The final radiosport weekend in September not only brings us the first CQ W.W. GiG of the year
(CQ W.W.  RTTY), it also encompasses the final 10-daze leading up to October's annual EPIC - the California QSO Party (CQP).  Throughout the week, I have been orchestrating a Zoom event (hosted by EventBrite) encompassing the presentation I made about the California QSO Party (CQP) to the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) for our monthly membership meeting.  

Also throughout the week/weekend, I have been screen-shotting Space-WX data in an attempt to make sense of the largely-not-necessarily-make-sensible Space-WX wave our radiosport activities "ride on".

For the CQ W.W. RTTY event, scheduling nuances kept me out of the operating chair until 06:26z (configuring the RigExpert PLUS unit with the RRC-1258 remote interface box took longer than I had anticipated).  40-meters seemed wide-open (it was), portending AWEsome Space-WX conditions throughout the entire radiosport weekend; the [massive] Space-WX hit didn't occur until several hours after the RTTY GiG was over (and WQ6X's ending score was posted on the 3830Scores website). 
As I write this Blog, K-Index = 5 and A-Index = 10.

Running QRP in a RTTY contest is an interesting challenge - other operators either cannot hear the QRP signal or just plain don't care and move right in "next door" anyway - sometimes on both sides of our weak signal.

Because I purposely choose specific "oddball" run frequencies (Ex: 14096.69, 21133.33, 7062.62) , when stations start calling CQ EXACTLY (perfect-decoding) on the WQ6X run frequency, I know it is no accident - whatever happened to the adage of listening on the frequency FIRST, BE-4 calling CQ?
and, while I'm in RTTY rage mode, wassup with stations parking themselves atop the 14.100 NCDXF beacon frequency, making it all but worthless to people who actually rely on that beacon for propagation predictions.

For West Coasters at this point in sunspot cycle 25, we have three opportunities for late afternoon
on 20, 15 and even 10 meters.  40 meters gave us sizeable openings on both evenings. 
Unfortunately, notably missing this year was South America (SA) and VK/ZL (OC) stations. 
It's one thing to not hear stations that were spotted - it's yet another thing when no spots are
seen from a geographical area at all.

At least WQ6X was being seen in the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) stats.

When it was all over, WQ6X took a distant 2nd place to Ki4RRU.

DiD YOU work the 2025 CQ W.W. RTTY contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Wangles a Weird 7-GiG Radiosport WeeKend

The 3rd weekend in September brings us a series of 5 State QSO parties coupled with the Scandinavian CW and SPRINT RTTY contests inserted somewhere in the middle of operations.

• [X] - Scandinavian (SAC) Cw Contest
• [X] - Iowa QSO Party - IAQP
• [X] - Texas QSO Party - TXQP
• [X] - New Jersey QSO Party - NJQP
• [X] - New Hampshire QSO Party - NHQP
• [X] - Washington QSO Party - WAQP/Salmon Run (S-R)
• [X] - SPRINT RTTY Contest

QSO Party-wise, Texas (TXQP) and Washington (S-R) filled the Cw bands with signals; Ssb QSO Party activity, while not plentiful, was there to be found - made easier by the array of audio filters in use at the local (non-remote) site.

Altho the IA, NJ and NH QSO parties were allegedly underway by 16:00z, signals from those areas were not heard until 21:00z to 23:30z - Bummer Dewd!. While NHQP had a Sunday period, nothing was heard from New England - Double Bummer Dewd.  Because the RTTY SPRINT began at 00:00z, by the time it ended (04:00z), IA/NH/NJ were probably all sound asleep.

To their credit, Washington and Texas kept running until 20:00z (TX) and 23:59z (WA) on Sunday.  Texas brought us several rover stations who provided at least a dozen+ more county multipliers for the WQ6X QRP Log

Speaking of QRP, I am constantly amazed at how often the QRP signal can "bust a pileup" - much
of the time it's Luck and Timing.  Having multiple calling function keys enables several ways to slip in
the WQ6X callsign in/around the pileup mess.

While recent improvements in the Concord internet connection have considerably improved remote radio operations, later Saturday afternoon seemed like a reversion to a week ago.  Of course, on Sunday (when it is usually at its worst) was actually quite functional - GO Figure.  If I suddenly disappeared in the middle of a CW/RTTY exchange, an internet dropout was likely the cause - I wasn't ignoring you.

Lack of TRI-state QSO party action was compensated by a 15-meter (and later 20-meter) opening
to Scandinavia.  While 24 QSOs is much, at least it can be said that WQ6X was playing the SAC contest.

When it was all over, WQ6X made noticeable entries in 4 out of the 7 contest GiGs.

DiD YOU work any of the above seven contest GiGs?

Is WQ6X in any of YOUR LoGs?

WQ6X Works a Wandering WAE Radiosport Weekend

Because it is a somewhat complex 48-hour radiosport Experience, I rarely worked the Worked
All Europe (WAE) Ssb contest, altho I thoroughly enjoy the August-CW and November-RTTY WAE contest variants.  Finding the WA6TQT super station STN-2 available for the weekend, I logged in remotely Friday afternoon to setup N1MM+ to most effectively run the contest largely by way of the
voice keyer messages in the remote K3 radio's DVK facility.

With local internet dropouts a continuing problem, once started, a DVK message can be playing
out even tho a brief internet dropout occurs on the local end of the connection.  Friday evening,
(what turned out to be) a weird software conflict prevented the PTT-line from keying properly,
so, I setup a near-identical configuration on Station #1 (STN-1), only to discover no propagation
to Europe after all.

Rereading the 2025 contest rules, I discovered a disclaimer from the 2024 WAE contest.
Evidently the N1MM and WriteLog  contest logging software were somehow producing BOGUS
Cabrillo format .Log files.  I remember encountering this N1MM and somehow got around it.

With nothing left to do but sleep, I did just that.  Awakening around 14:00z, the STN-2 problem
had been resolved, encouraging me to resume the original operating plan.  With the solar flux index
(SFI) back down to the 120's the only good thing to say about it is that there were no annoying geomagnetic storms during the contest period (the storms did not arrive until after the WAE
contest was over.

15-meters made for a great contest beginning on Saturday.  Unfortunately, propagation to EU
all but folded up in the afternoon, moving WQ6X down to 20-meters, making an easy transition
into the NAQP SPRINT Cw contest - which always commences on 20-meters.  At least 2 BOOKs
of QTC were offloaded then.

Unfortunately, the NAQP SPRINT was RIDDLED with internet outages.  Out of the 4-hours contest time, approximately 40-minutes were WASTED just reconnecting with a stable (for 5 minutes) connection to the internet.  The last 40-minutes gave me a stable connection, altho the loss
(mainly on 40-meters) had already occurred.  At least I can say I wuz there.

Sunday morning again opened on 15 meters and stayed open well into the afternoon enabling
55 QSOs and sending 11 QTC BooKs. When 15 died a move down to 20-meters produced 5-QSOs - the ones for which QTC messages were never sent.

GOOD-NEWS: Around 22:00z to resolve a local plasma TV problem, all the cables to/from the router were pulled and reseated.  VOILA!  Most of the local internet dropout evaporated - just like that.

BAD-NEWS:  Propagation to Europe had simultaneously also evaporated - Bummer Dew!

INTERMEDIATE-NEWS: WQ6X only got stuck with 5 undelivered QTC messages - a far cry from some years back when I failed to deliver QTC messages as I went along and ended up STUCK with 72 undelivered messages when a solar flare suddenly disrupted the USA --> EU propagation link.

DiD YOU work the NAQP SPRINT Cw or WAE Ssb contests?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Wangles a Russo-Asian Radiosport Weekend

The 1st contest weekend of September is one of those "mixed-bag" affairs.  Being an Ssb contest,
All Asian is typically a major disappointment.   However, this year I discovered the Russian DX RTTY contest embedded in the packets of downtime in the All Asian GiG.

Client commitments kept me at my Alameda office (with no remote radio access) during Friday evening's potential 15 & 10 meter openings.  For WQ6X, A-A startup time did not begin until 06:00z, looking for a 20-meter opening while watching the greyline window, looking for Asia (JA in particular) to transverse into evening, when 40-meters opens in Japan towards their East - West Coast USA.

Being an Ssb contest, I was not surprised to hear the4 usual contest weekend non-amateur signals invading the lower 40-meters phoneband segments.  (For some reason, these intrusions rarely occur midweek).  The A-A contest weekend brought us the following 40-meter occurrences:

• 08:48z - 7132.66 - A station (LOUD S-9) was sending 5-character code groups.
  (WQ6X was running a frequency on 7135.35)
• There was what I call a "Data Cranker" - some sort of digital signal that sounds kinda
  like a toilet.
• There was of course the usual not-allowed Ssb operations in the middle of the CW/RTTY segment of the 40-meter band.
• The Russian "K"-Beacon is of course heard every evening, after about 07:00z on ~7.039.

Over the course of the 48-hour contest period, WQ6X made it all happen in only 3 operating periods:

• Friday Evening
  06:00z - 08:37z - 100 QSOs on 20-Meters
  08:50z - 12:35z - 59 QSOs on 40-Meters
• Saturday Evening
  06:41z - 07:27z - 8 QSOs on 20-Meters
  08:50z - 12:35z - 10 QSOs on 40-Meters
• Sunday Afternoon
  08:50z - 12:35z - 21 QSOs on 15-Meters

According to the 3830 Scores website, WQ6X took 1st-place for USA using Low Power (LP).

In between the non-Asian openings, I switched to running the Russian DX RTTY GiG.

Making this contest work using an older version of N1MM required patching two different
log segments together to deduce the proposed ending score.

The Tennessee QSO Party (TNQP) is one of those GiGs that doesn't know what weekend it belongs on.  While I like the idea of running on Sunday, this year, client commitments kept me off the air for most of the contest.  Then again, when I WAS on the air there were hardly any TNQP stations being heard, nor any being spotted - Wassup with that.

Bottom line, WQ6X added 3 contests to the 3830 Scores list to say I wuz there.

DiD YOU work the above radiosport contests?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

XYZZY

WQ6X PiTches a Case for the California QSO Party (CQP)

In preparation for the 2025 California QSO Party (CQP) event coming up in October, I followed
the steps outlined in the recent Blog post on Preparing for Preparation ([CLICK HERE] to read that). 
As President of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) my goal is to pitch a case for club members to be involved with this monumental annual radiosport event.

While ARCA has always made a notable Field Day presence, operating the California QSO Party
is a relatively new experience for the radio club.

• [X] - (2021) - K6QLF Runs a Memorable 1st-time ever CQP Event
• [X] - (2024) - Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) runs a CQP Training Exercise

To assist people in understanding what makes CQP so significant, I offer you these thought morsels:

• WHAT is CQP?
  CQP is the pre-eminent State QSO Party - one of the last state QSO parties
  for the calendar year.  Think of CQP as the ultimate Emergency Preparedness Exercise.
  
  
• WHEN is CQP?
  CQP Runs the 1st FULL weekend in October (Oct. 4th 9am PDT to Oct. 5th 3pm PDT).
  Ideally, equipment is setup and tested the day before - Oct. 3d.
  
  
• WHY is CQP?
  CQP provides activation for ALL California Counties - specifically the "RARE" ones,
  enabling operators to qualify for the coveted WACC (Worked All California Counties)
  Award.
  
  
• WHERE is CQP?
  CQP is anywhere you want it to be.  When choosing a location give thought to the
  importance of operating ALL 30-hours.
  
  
• The GOAL of CQP
  Over the course of ONE weekend you can learn superior operating skills
  that will be with you for the rest of your time on HF radio.
  
  

As it turns out, the 2024 operations for K6QLF and WA6OYC - simple CQP setups from the Oakland Yacht Club (in Alameda) - netted us a 5th-place win in the Expedition class and a QRP county record for Alameda County - proof once again that sometimes just showing up is enough to be some sort of

a contender.

For 2025, Alameda County (ALAM) has risen on the county needed list from #58 (Bottom) to #44.

WHAT are YOUR ThoTs on Operating the quickly upcoming 2025 CQP QSO Party?

WQ6X Posts Blog #777 after 13 years

It seems astonishing to me that despite often hit-missing Blog postings, the WQ6X
contest Blog has now reached the lucky 777-th post.  While some blogs do indeed share
common characteristics, most of the Blog posts are completely unique.  Here is an overview

of how things turned out.

• [X] BLOG #001 - The World of WQ6X Contest Activities
• [X] BLOG #100 - WQ6X Contest Blog 100th entry! - the REAL value of Radiosport
• [X] BLOG #200 - WQ6X Single-OPs CQ W.W. Cw Remotely
• [X] BLOG #300 - WQ6X Blast from the Past: ARRL RTTY RU

• [X] BLOG #400 - WQ6X Wangles another Weird Triple-contest Weekend
• [X] BLOG #500 - WQ6X Posts Contest Blog #500
• [X] BLOG #600 - WQ6X SURPASSES 600 Blog Posts
• [X] BLOG #700 - WQ6X CONTEST BLoG - PosT #700

Blog #700 was posted about this time last year.

The Question is, when can we expect Blog Post #800?

Stay Tuned for the upcoming answer to that Question.

WQ6X Wanders thru a Weird QSO Party weekend.

Whenever there is a 5th contest weekend in August, it brings out the WEIRDness in things. 
Throughout the weekend, I relied HEAVILY on the F-12 (WEIRD) key in the N1MM software. 
The previous weekend WQ6X dabbled in the Ohio QSO Party (OHQP) and the Hawaiian HQP
(which was a DuD like COQP).

• [X] - COQP QSO Party
• [X] - KSQP QSO Party
   

Taking the time to setup N1MM software macros and load up the K3/0-Mini voice memories
made for a more-or-less "seamless" operation.  Voice QSOs are always tenuous in state QSO
parties - having 3 different styles DVK recording to say the callsign certainly made a difference.

Overall, the KSQP is one of the BEST organized state QSO parties as represented by the THOROUGH website behind the entire operation.  This website has been meticulously maintained
for years, and seems to get better every year I make preparations for the KSQP QSO Party.

A unique characteristic of the KSQP QSO Party is the use of 1x1 Callsigns to spell out
various  words for Bonus points and awards for: KANSAS, QSOPARTY, SUNFLOWER
and YELLOWBRICKROAD.  [CLICK HERE] to see what 1x1 stations were on.
Of 72 1x1 callsign possibilities, WQ6X managed the following:

• K0A, K0B, K0C, K0F, K0I, K0K, K0P, K0Q, K0R, K0S, K0T, K0U, K0W, K0Y, K0Z
• N0A, N0B, N0C, NOD, N0J, N0K, N0N, N0P, N0Q, N0R, N0S, N0T, N0U, N0W
• W0E, W0F, W0I, W0K, W0L, W0O, W0P, W0R, W0S, W0W, W0Y

The Kansas QSO Party brought us over a dozen rover stations, each with a pre-announced
path to activate dozens of counties. I found the above stations to be representative of how it's
all done.  [CLICK HERE] to see the list of Rovers and Expedition stations.

My only BEEF with the KSQP GiG is that it ends for the day on Saturday @02:00z (7pm PDT),
just as 40-meters is opening up to the state of Kansas.  Altho KSQP allows 80-meter operations,
we never get a chance at 80 on the Left Coast - Bummer DEWD.  

At the break, WQ6X had put 100  QSOs in the log.  Then again, on Sunday, KSQP brings
us  6 more hours of county hunting beginning @14:00z.  This year, those 6 hours produced
another 50+ QSOs, something that WQ6X has yet to accomplish in past events.

 

One of the nice things about running only state QSO parties throughout
a weekend is that the antennas can
be  set to one azimuth position and pretty much left there for the entire
time of the QSO party.

Because the Shorty-40 and Stepp-IR yagi antennas are 90-degrees opposed, when it finally came time to move down to 40-meters, the Shorty-40 needed to be turned 90-degrees bringing it to the same azimuth occupied by the
Stepp-IR earlier.

Of course all these wonderful pieces of technology all have one  potential caveat - a solid internet connection; lose that and it's all over.  Fortunately, there were only a handful of full-blown internet dropouts over the weekend - amazingly most being on Sunday morning.

When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X took 2nd place to K7SS in Washington for
the QRP mixed-mode category - not bad when you continue what I had to work with overall.

DiD YOU work the KSQP and/or COQP QSO Parties?

How many counties made it into YOUR Logs?