Blast from the Past: California QSO Party (CQP) - Part 2

With CQP 2024 safely behind us, scanning back to October 2019, it would seem that a "Blast from the Past" post for CQP was published reflecting on all the CQP events from 2000 - 2018.  This little ad-HOC Blog post is to revisit the CQP events from 2019 thru 2023.

To make it easier to find the Blog post to each event, let's begin with summary links to those Blogs.

• [X] - Original Blast from the Past Blog
• [X] - 2019: K6C #1 CCOS and NX6T #2 SDIE
• [X] - 2020: K6A #1 SDIE  and  K6C  #1 CCOS
• [X] - 2021: K6QLF #2 ALAM
• [X] - 2022: Confirming CQP: Some ThoTs on MaKing it All Happen
• [X] - 2022: Confirming CQP (Part-2): Contingency Plans for Contingency Plans
• [X] - 2022: WQ6X #1 CCOS QRP and K6Q #1 CCOS LP and NX6T #1 RIVE
• [X] - 2022: Some CQP After-Thoughts about CQP
• [X] - 2023: W6R #1 SDIE and WQ6X #1 CCOS and NX6T #1 RIVE
• [X] - 2024: WQ6X Successfully Navigates a 5-Way California QSO Party
• [X] - 2024: Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) runs a CQP Training Exercise

CQP 2019 - WQ6X as K6C "Kicks-it" for another California QSO Party [X]

For this 2019 CQP event, I decided to take the easy way out by registering the K6C callsign and repeating last year's dual-OP with NX6T from W7AYT's QTH in Contra Costa County.  

K6C (Kilowatt Six California) was used for state-recognition variety.

CQP 2020 - WQ6X Dual-OPs another CQP as K6C & K6A [X]

From the beginning, something about the 2020 California QSO Party (CQP) event seemed attractively different.  Heading to Concord Thursday evening, I did a thorough "inventory" of WQ6X's portable setup at W7AYT's QTH in Concord.

CQP 2021 - K6QLF Runs a Memorable 1st-time ever CQP Event [X]

For 2021, a new set of opportunities made possible a unique Multi-Operator operation introducing members of the Amateur Radio Club in Alameda (ARCA) to the world of Radiosport (in general)
and the California QSO Party (in particular).  LooKing for a SAFE location to run the 30-hour
event, it was suggested that we coordinate with the California Historical Radio Society (CHRS),
whose museum JUST happens to be 2-blocks from my office in Alameda.

CQP 2022 - WQ6X Triple-OP's yet another California QSO Party [X]

From the beginning, making this weekend happen was clearly an embodiment of what I call the WB6ACU school of contest organization (even tho I believe Joe rarely works radiosport events). 
The original idea was to organize the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) as K6QLF.  Unable
to secure a secure location for 40+ hours eventually the deciding factor, suggesting that ARCA can always come back in 2023.

CQP 2023 - WQ6X as W6R Runs a Routine QRP Triple-OP CQP [X]

It really does seem like from the beginning, CQP offers up an expansive playing field to play
on (radiosport-wise) - each year I discover here-to-for undiscovered (for me anyway) ways to play
the CQP game.  When it's ALL over, the Question becomes, DiD the CQP contest overall adequately activate all 58 California counties [nearly] all of the time?

WQ6X Successfully Navigates a 5-Way California QSO Party [X]

The 2024 California QSO Party (CQP) was LOADED with participatory possibilities.  My personal operating goal(s) included engaging with as many of those opportunities as could be effectively experienced over a 30-hour contest operating period.  Having access to a Catalina-42 sailboat
before, during and after the CQP added yet another dimension to CQP as an operating event. 
My time was divided between 5-Events:

Do YOU ever work the CQP California QSO Party?

How many Counties are in YOUR LoGs?

Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) runs a CQP Training Exercise

I recently wrote a BLOG entry describing the 5 Different Ways I put callsigns on the air during the 2024 California Qso Party (CQP) - [CLICK HERE] to read that.  One of those WaYs was working with members of ARCA to learn more about what CQP is and how to log contacts using the Ssb mode. 
(Later, I operated W6R remotely, running mostly CW - GO Figure!)

We ran a portable ICOM 7300 around 75-watts into the Oakland Yacht Club's horizontal J-pole strung atop the Yacht club building.  The purpose of this exercise was 3-fold:

1. Introduce members to what it is like to run a radiosport contest - CQP in particular.
2. Give a thorough test of the horizontal J-Pole during a period of AWEsome Space-WX Condx.
3. Demonstrate how N1MM logging software is used to log contacts during an event like CQP.

It didn't matter how many contacts we made using the K6QLF callsign, only that we actually DiD it,
posted our score on the 3830 Scores website and submitted a K6QLF.Log file to the CQP website.
All of those were accomplished well before the log submission deadline.

Now that the preliminary results are in, one thing stands out surprisingly Clear:

K6QLF TOOK 1ST PLACE OVERALL IN CALIFORNIA FOR THE 1-DAY EXPEDITION.

DiD YOU work the California QSO Party (CQP)?

Is K6QLF in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Successfully Navigates a 5-Way California QSO Party

The 2024 California QSO Party (CQP) was LOADED with participatory possibilities.  My personal operating goal(s) included engaging with as many of those opportunities as could be effectively experienced over a 30-hour contest operating period.  Having access to a Catalina-42 sailboat
before, during and after the CQP added yet another dimension to CQP as an operating event. 
My time was divided between 5-Events:

1. Running as W6R to set a San Diego (SDIE) county QRP record.
2. Activate K6QLF w/the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) on Ssb.
3. Activate WQ6X using an ICOM-7000 from a boat in the OYC Yacht Harbor.
4. Run the 1am to 4am shift remotely from Anza (RIVE county) for NX6T
5. Activate WA6OYC (Oakland Yacht Club) M/S QRP, to set an Alameda County record.

At 5pm Sunday, CQP had been over for 2 hours.  Using the SNAP-Shot screen capture software, each of the 5 log stat screens were saved to the local hard drive, becoming a part of the Blog repository used to create the pictures used in this (and future) blog write-ups on CQP.

It would seem that the best way to explain some of what happened is to simply present pictures 
which showcase what was posted in the 3830 Score submission(s).  The goal of setting a NEW
San Diego County QRP record was easily accomplished.

When the internet was down I put WQ6X on Ssb from WB6RUC's Catalina-42 sailboat.
NoT having a CW paddle handy for the ICOM 7000 this operation became a SSB only operation.

I ran the 1am to 4am Sunday morning shift for NX6T running remote from Anza in Riverside (RIVE) County.  It would seem that NX6T took a resounding 1dt-place for the Multiple-Single category.

The 5th and Final event on the operating calendar was to put the Oakland Yacht Club (WA6OYC)
on the radio running QRP giving us the M/S QRP record for Alameda County - just for showing up.  Overall, we took a 2nd-place for California

DiD YOU work the California QSO Party (CQP)?

Is K6QLF, W6R, WQ6X, NX6T or WA6OYC in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X wRangles a Remote QRP CQ W.W. RTTY Contest

Of all the CQ W.W. GiGs each year, the September RTTY event is actually the most satisfying,
for 4 Reasons:

1. No Morse code to Copy or Send.
2. No SSB necessary - saving my Voice.
3. Successful QSOs with USA stations not only count for 1-point
   (2-points w/Canada), States & Provinces count towards the overall multiplier total.
4. The RTTY interface offers over a dozen additional pre-programmed button sequences
   to customize the look/feel of the RTTY data display (on BOTH sides of the QSO).

The REAL challenge this year was to run the event at the QRP power level (5-watts). 
During this year's event, WQ6X managed to work approximately 75% of all stations heard.

Because the solar conditions were so favorable, more time was spent on 15-meters and
on Sunday, especially 10-meters, leaving 20-meters to become "the" under-utilized band
(80-meter RTTY is a world unto itself).

The downside to this weekend was the inability to properly CAT-control the RRC-1258 K3/0-Mini interface unit, requiring the manual entry of the radio operating frequency into the N1MM+ software.  Using VOX, the computer's audio could be routed through a RigExpert Plus RTTY interface unit.

What was "notable" about this particular RTTY contest was the numerous instances of intentional QRM and/or incompetent running of a RTTY installation.  Let me explain:

1. I choose run frequencies to be EXPLICITLY WEIRD (Ex: 21086.86).  Therefore, when
   you end up on my run frequencies EXACTLY Zero-Beat and start calling CQ, that is NO ACCIDENT; especially if I shift to another WEIRD frequency and you follow/zero-beat
   me there as well.
2. At 07:58z, 10:58z and 11:12z Calling CQ on 7067.67 find WQ6X not only flooded with FT8-swarms, but one or more are SPECIFICALLY zero-beat with my MARK Frequency - HuH? 
   NO Accident.
3. The IQ2 station who called CQ on my run frequency, then frantically gave me a call.
   When I sent him an Exchange, he promptly DISAPPEARED.
4. A VE3 calling CQ on my run frequency.  I shift up 2kc - his CQ follows me.
5. Also on 21082.82 a GURGLE-BUZZ sound came on frequency that luckily was
   removeable using the [NB] filter.

When it was all over, I submitted the score to the 3830 Scores Website as WQ6X and checked
into WQ6X's standing on the Contest Online Scoreboard.

What about YOU?  DiD YOU Play Around in the CQ WW RTTY GiG?

What Kind of WEIRDNESS DiD YOU Encounter?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

 

WQ6X works 5 QSO Parties and SAC Cw contest QRP

The phrase I would use to describe the contest weekend #3 in September is: Crinkly-Weird.

While registering my several operating entries to this year's CQP (California QSO Party), I utilized
the WA7BNM Contest Calendar to look-up the lister FOUR state QSO parties: NHQP, NJQP, TXQP
& WAQP (Salmon Run) - turns out IAQP was ALSO happening during the weekend, altho for some reason, not listed on the calendar.  Wrapped around it was the Scandanavian SAC Cw contest,
in a different world, all to itself.

Fortunately, all of the QSO Parties required an identical Exchange from out-of-state callers.
For WQ6X that was: 5NN CA (on Cw) and "5-NINE California - Charlie Alpha" (on Ssb). 
Thanks to a Dozen pre-definable function keys for each mode:

Using the F-11 key made it easier to send the SAC Exchange.  If repeats are necessary,
F-6 and F-7 are used.  For the QSO Parties, the F-10 key asks for the County.

To save me from a lot of text entry, it was decided to put it all together in one collage.

The same thing applies with the 3830 Scores contest posts - one Collage says it ALL.

DiD YOU work the SAC contest or any of the 5 State QSO Parties?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Wanders WEIRDLY thru a Wonky WAE WeeKend

wOw!  It don't get ANY Weirder than the WAE Ssb weekend.  It was the Weirdest of times.
In recent days, I have been troubleshooting ethernet settings between aWindoze-7 laptop
and RRC-1258 box.  On Friday, with some IT-mentoring, what seemed hopeless was in fact
nothing more than an errant sub-net address behind the RRC-1258 internet interface box.

Client commitments kept me in Alameda early Friday evening, missing out on the first of the
openings to EU on 40-meters, the Saturday evening EU opening was also missed due to running
the NA RTTY SPRINT.  Triple Space-WX disruptions over the weekend made for signals full of "buckshot" and weird signal fading.

While 20-meters was "kinda-open" on around midnight, only a handful of QSOs actually made it
to the log.  Starting up at 14:00z, 20-meters was still marginal, altho 15-meters was "wide open",
at least until another Space-WX storm hit to essentially render propagation worthless.  Unfortunately, after 3-hours Saturday morning, only 10 QSOs made it to the log - the rest of the day was a BUST.

Shortly before the 00:00z SPRINT RTTY contest, a necessary gender-changing connector could not be found in the RTTY equipment bag - OOPS.  The decision was made to run the FT-2000 (with its TI-5000 interface) locally, except the Xmit audio path was not producing any audio tones.  

Quick thinking produced from the Bag-de-JUNK a pair of 1/8" stereo patch cables enabling
cross connecting the laptop with the microphone plug.  Being a direct connection, the speech compression needed to be dialed down and the MIC-gain set at around only "5" to prevent
overloading the transceiver when feeding it AFSK RTTY tones.

While after the contest, the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) documented the fact that WQ6X
was being heard throughout USA and Canada, participation in this RTTY GiG was WaY less than expected, weird Space-WX notwithstanding.  Only 37 stations made score submissions to the 3830 Website: 15-HP, 21-LP & 1-QRP.  WQ6X took 16th place overall and 3rd place for CA.

The typical SPRINT contest run like this: 2-hours on 20-meters (altho I lost 35 minutes cobbling together the proper RTTY cabling), transitioning to 40-meters for approx. 1.25 hours, transitioning to 80-meters for around 45-minutes, with some back and forth during that last hour between 80 and 40.

Having missed the 2nd (and final) 40-meter WAE opening, with little being heard on 20-meters, it was off to bed to get an earlier start on 15-meters Sunday morning (15:30z).  After 11-QSOs, a switch was made to 10-meters, hearing CR6K (on 28465).  He asked for "QTC?" giving me the 1st opportunity pass a book of 10 QTC messages.  After that 10-meters was a no-Show for the rest of the contest.  As the day continued, I was able to pass all but the last-4 QTC messages.  At LEAST I could say
that I gave the WAE GiG as good as effort as the Space-WX would allow.

One of my biggest complaints with working EU stations in DX contests is that they send CW too
fast (35+ wpm generates more repeats than it saves time) and they speak their callsigns too rapidly. 

Have you ever wondered why your rate is slow?  Maybe it's because you blurt-out your callsign
too rapidly.  If we can't figure out your callsign, then YOU are wasting yours and EVERYONE
else's time.  Take the time to REHEARSE saying your callsign SLOWLY, then after awhile,
you can say it just a bit faster.

After the contest weekend, there are STILL Space-WX storms "raging" around the globe.

DiD YOU work the WAE and NA SPRINT RTTY contests?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X CONTEST BLoG - PosT #700

700 POSTS?...   Say WHUT?

In the process of reflecting about where this Contest BloG facility has been during the last 11
years, it occurs to me that it would be useful to show a BLAST From the Past about the 100-post milestones.  This Blog accomplishes that goal.  Some posts were not at the time realized to be
milestone postings.  The links below will take you directly to those milestones, recognized or not.

1. (100th) - January 11th, 2017
   
   
   
   BLOG #100 was such a monumental accomplishment at the time
   that it was given a major Blog header.
   
   
2. (200th) - December 12, 2018
   
   
   
   While Post #200 was not officially acknowledged, it occurred during
   a time period when WQ6X was running NX6T remotely from my Alameda office. 
   While I still have the office, I have not run any remote operations from there in some time.
   
   
3. (299th) - December 31, 2019
   
   
   
   Not wanting to miss out on Post #300, a warm-up post (#299) was posted FIRST.
   
   
4. (300th) - January 03, 2020
   
   
   
   When you consider that Blog Post #100 made reference to the WP2/WQ6X operation,
   it seems completely appropriate to harken back to that same time period for Post #300.
   
   
5. (400th) - March 24, 2021
   
   
   
   For Blog post #400, I was too busy running remote contest operations to even notice.
   
   
6. (500th) - May 13, 2022
   
   
   
   This Blog post happened in the middle of our 10th year of the Contest Blog.
   
   
7. (600th) - July 16, 2023
   
   
   
   This milestone happened so quickly that I almost missed it - now it's JUST a Number.

With my usual uneven Blog posting timeframe, my estimation for Blog post #800 is that it will make a nice Christmas present ending 2025 - assuming of course that we all make it through the NONSENSE of 2024.

C U Next Year.

WQ6X SPRINTs thru another WEIRD All Asia Contest

Over the years, the All Asia Ssb contest has increasingly become a disappointment. 
Last year. I guess was LESS of a disappointment, IF you ignore all the intentional QRM
that weekend.  ([CLICK HERE] to revisit that weekend).  Behind this year's disappointment
wasn't something propagational, nor operational; this year, it was IP-induced disappointment.

While there are two internet access points @ the W7AYT QTH, the computers behind the scenes
are a pair of antiquated Windoze-7 laptop installations, altho one is "newer" than the other.

The 2024 All Asia contest blindsided us by eliminating the power level categories for non-Asian stations.  NoT only would running QRP be a WASTE of time, running Low Power (LP) puts me
in the same category as any single-op station running All Bands @1500-watts.

Having likely already missed a 20-meter opening, the operating plan was to get sone sleep,
opening the All Asia contest on 40-meters around 09:00z (in fact 10:00z)..  Working a couple
of stations via S&P convinced me that running a frequency might be quite productive.  Settling
in on 7.160 to run a frequency, 4 QSOs made it to the log before the internet connecting began dropping out.  Attempting to resolve it brought yet another Windoze-7 BLUE SCREEN.  After the lengthy restart and reconnection, 2 more run QSOs made it to the log in time for yet another dropout.

In summary, 2-hours of flitting between the Stations #1 and #2 computers resolved nothing.

At 6am I called it quits and went back to bed. With no state QSO parties happening during the weekend, intermittent time was spent futilely diagnosing the IP failure.  With the internet not happening, a last-minute decision was to switch from running QRP SPRINT remote from Ramona,
to running Low Power (LP) from the East Bay (EB) section - either way, it's still "Ron in California".

While the SPRINT contest is run unassisted (internet spots are a waste of time), it was informative to look at the Reverse Beacon (RBN) Stats after the contest and compare those stats to what actually made it to the log.

20-meter operation offered the opportunity to run either the tuned 8JK Cobra sloper, or the 10-meter Long John yagi, which, as it turns out, acts like Buddi-Pole on 15 & 20 meters.  Without thinking, later in the evening, when the switch was made to 40-meters, the first two QSOs were made using the 10-meter Long John.  The BiG surprise in this year's SPRINT was working KI6RRN/KL7 (Axel) twice and later discovering that we were teammates on the SCCC #2 team.

The SPRINT contest brought us a plethora of Tune-Up Turkies (TuTs), altho it would seem that BOTH 20 & 40 meters sport embedded carriers at the same Cw-band offset, unique to each QTH.  Other operators operating in the vicinity of each specific location have reported the same [unmodulated] carriers, at the same frequency offsets.  For this SPRINT-edition, the outside goal was to put 100 QSOs into the Cw log - which turned out to be 87 - with KI6RRN/KL7 the final log entry. 
 

Further attempts to resolve the "IP" failure were fruitless.  After the contest, an 8-QSO SB-40 Log
was submitted to the JARL.  The main accomplishment for the weekend was adding 2 more contest events to the 3830-score list for WQ6X, giving us a ToTaL of 90 radiosport events thus far for 2024.

DiD YOU run the NA SPRINT or the All Asia contests?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Works Weekend 5 for a WEIRD Working Radiosport Experience

As the HF bands SOAR at the ToP of the current sunspot cycle (Cycle-25), radiosport events
seem to be WEIRDER than EVER.  Based on this last weekend, I wrote yet another installment
of the Blog concept "Why you should NoT call me", using Saturday's COQP and Sunday's TNQP QSO Parties as yet another backdrop for the topic.  ([CLICK HERE] to read that.)

This morning, it occurred to me that this last radiosport weekend (#5 in August) was truly a bullet-point list of WEIRD things which came together over the course of more-or-less 32 hours:

• For the 1st-time in like forever, I [seemed to be] prepared in advance for these QSO parties to be a Slam-Dunk.  When it was all over, it was clear that they were BOTH Slam-Donks.
• On Saturday, starting on 10-meters and working our way down turned out to be an auspicious action.  It would seem that moving from 10 down to 15-meters and then
  down to 20-meters was correctly timed to avoid the already steadily decreasing MUF. 
  The upper bands were closed for the rest of the day.
• Saturday afternoon, around 20:35z, for some inexplicable reason the COM port facility (COM4) was no longer keying the radio.  The problem was clearly on the K3 end of things in Ramona.  Calling on another NX6T operator, he made a weep thru the N1MM software and Device Manager's COM port settings, finding nothing out of order.  The decision was switching to Ssb with the idea of troubleshooting it after the COQP was over (at 03:00z).
• Tuning around 20-meter Ssb looking for COQP stations, at 00:11z on 14244.72,
  I encountered CW code groups being sent.  Some of it sounded like standard Morse
  code and some of it did not.  As quickly as it appeared, it then disappeared.
• By 01:00z with the Space-WX intrusions there were hardly any hearable CO stations
  that could hear my QRP signal.  Tuning 75-meter Ssb, no Colorado stations were heard.
  
• Later in the evening after tooling around on 3.849 Ssb, without thinking,
  on a whim I switched N1MM to 80m CW and pressed [F4] sending "WQ6X"
  flawlessly - HuH?  We'll be ready for Sunday's TNQP mixed-mode extravaganza,
  right? NoPe.
  
  
  
  
• Sunday's TNQP started just a bit after at 17:00z.  Lingering Space-WX problems
  kept signal levels way down.  2 contacts each on 15 & 10 meters made it to the log. 
  Then, just like yesterday (and almost exactly the same time), the COM4 keying circuit again stopped working.  Not hearing any stations on Ssb, the decision was made to take a break.
• Coming back at 23:53z a handful of Ssb contacts were made on 20 and 40 meters. 
  At 02:15z, on a whim, I switched to 40-meter Cw finding it was once again keying PERFECTLY - HuH?  15 minutes produced 3 more Cw QSOS.
• By 02:30z, with 30 minutes to go, I bounced between 20 and 40 meters, Ssb and Cw, finding nothing new.  Bottom line is that despite the poor Space-WX, the TNQP showed
  poor participation.  Had there been MORE TN stations, they would have shown up in the consistently near-empty bandmap.
  
  

The only thing of valuable that can be said about this weekend is that WQ6X managed
to run yet another pair of state QSO parties running only QRP power.

After 03:00z (8pm Sunday evening), I returned things back to their regularly scheduled programming for Sunday evening.  After all the WEIRDNESS, it would seem that WQ6X took 3rd-place for QRP in the Colorado QSO Party and 2nd-place in the Tennessee QSO party.

In reading comments from the QSO party message reflector, it would seem that POOR radio conditions were experienced nation-wide and in particular North/West of Colorado and Tennessee.

DiD YOU work COQP or TNQP?

How many Colorado and Tennessee stations made it to YOUR Log?