BLAST from the Past: LooKing Back at Radiosport 2025

 Scrolling thru the WQ6X contest submissions to the 3830 Scores website, it would seem that
142 events were engaged in during the year, 2nd only to 2o20, where 144 submissions were listed. 
The majority of events run remotely (from Anza or Ramona); there were actually less than a dozen
events run "live and in living color" from the SF Bay Area.

QRP has been a major operating category of remote operations, thanks to excellent hilltop
locations and outstanding antenna configurations at those locations.  Most of the live operations
I have operated all sported compromised antenna configurations, making QRP running completely
non-viable.

Breaking things down into significant categories makes it much easier for an at-a-glance LooK.
As it turned out, nearly 2/3's of the events were run QRP.  Virtually ALL of the new records set
during 2025 were accomplished running QRP power.  AMAZING!

In summary, 2o15 represents the most varied array of radiosport conglomerances of any previous
radiosport year.

DiD YOU work WQ6X in the year 2o25?

WQ6X Weasels another Weird NA SPRINT Ssb Contest.

Logistical screw-ups in my operating world found me starting this GiG late (1st QSO happened at 00:52z on 20-meters).  The original idea was to run the NA SPRINT contest GiG from my Alameda office, except that the RRC-1258 (internet interface) box was left in Concord.  The solution was to bring the K3/0-Mini control head to Concord and run from there, except the internet connection in Concord was horribly spotty, especially compared to the barely passable internet access in Alameda.

During Ssb contests, spotty internet can be worked around by properly recording the transceiver's four voice memories in advance using a "clean" internet connection.  While on Sunday I rewired the external audio filter conglomeration in Concord, using the pair of MFJ-752 "Signal Enhancer" units on the K3 audio line was enough to dramatically improve Ssb intelligibility.

The "difficult" aspect of the contest was not on my end, but on the other end of the QSO connection.  WQ6X's QRP (5-watt) signal was often QSB'd out of existence.  Stations all too often, gave up, all too soon.  If I suddenly disappeared on you (only to come back 5 minutes later as if nothing happened), disappearing internet was behind that.

While the operating goal was 100+ QSOs, considering the contributions from poor Space-WX
and nasty internet, managing 54 logged QSOs was indeed an operating miracle.

IRONICALLY, while conditions and internet were HORRIBLE, according to 3830 cores, WQ6X

managed a 1st-place win for the QRP category, valid until an OP submits a higher non-3830 score.

DiD YOU work the NA SPRINT Ssb contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR Log?

WQ6X Sprints thru some ThoTs on the North American SPRINT Contest

Feb 1st being situated on a Saturday brings us the 1st NA Sprint (Ssb] contest of the year. 
Being only 4-hours, Sprint operations are the epitome of Get-in - Exchange - Get-out operations. 
With the exception of the serial # in the exchange, everything else is "canned" and CAN be stored
in Voice Memory #2 in the remote K3 transceiver.

Unlike the East coast, on the West coast, operations are sequentially simple: open the contest
on 20-meters; approx. ~90-minutes later move down to 40-meters for ~90-minutes and slip in
80/75 meters in more-or-less the last hour. or so.

With its special QSY rule, the run frequency advantage is spread out amongst the different players
in the contest.  The downside of this (especially for OPs running QRP like me) is that we often get walked on by HP and even LP stations.  As the contest progresses, the WQ6X callsign becomes
a more valued commodity and stations are often more accommodating of weaker signals.

Similar to the NAQP GiGs, the Sprint exchanges include Name / State, making it more
personable. The serial # gives us an idea of how we stand in relation to other operators.

LooKing back on recent QRP SPRINT runs, it would seem that WQ6X is capable
of QRP survival amidst the NA SPRINT pandemonium.

While I look forward to NA Sprint GiGs, after 4-hours of pandemonium,
I am also relieved to be done with it all.

Do YOU work the NA SPRINT Contests?

Is WQ6X in YOUR Log?

WQ6X Triple-OPs the Winter Field Day Weekend

The 4th weekend in January is another one of those "mixed-bag" radiosport contest periods.  

Because the Winter Field Day (WFD) is a part of this weekend, I wrote a look back on the WFD
event itself.  [CLICK HERE] to read that retrospective.

On the agenda for the weekend was a blend of

• [X] - CQ-160 Cw Contest
• [X] - BARTG RTTY Sprint Contest
• [X] - Winter Field Day (WFD)

The backdrop for these events was a mixture of Space-WX anomalies, not to mention internet dropouts at my Alameda office as well as the Concord location where the contest operations ended on Sat/Sun.

Despite the crippled "TRI-Square antenna array at the Anza location (WA6TQT), running approximately 90-watts made for a reasonably LOUD signal, except the actual direction(s) it was heard was never really known.  The surprise (from the west coast standpoint) was working into the Caribbean and even PY5 / PJ2.

When things finally thinned out (around 09:00z) a sleep break for 4 hours offered one more shot at the newcomers as the daylight slowly swept across the North American continent.  When that was over a brief sleep the found me at the Alameda hospital with members of the Amateur Radio Club
of Alameda (ARCA) as we were given an instructive tour of the K6QLF repeater system atop the
5th floor of the hospital building.

Leaving the club meeting behind a stop was made at the California Historical Radio Society (CHRS) where Deny (AE6Y) was giving a tour of the W6CF amateur radio station.  If you've never been to the CHRS museum, you are TRULY missing out.  How fortunate their museum building as a mere 2-block walk from my Alameda office.

Currently, the only way to run RTTY remotely is from my Alameda office. 
The decision was made to run the WFD GiG (Cw only), throughout Saturday afternoon,
eventually switching over to RTTY for a handful of hours, just enough to say "I Wuz THERE!". 
With that, the plan was to make the journey back to Concord finishing the WFD and 160 contests
from there.

As it turns out, this year's BARTG Sprint was a disastrous disappointment.  At 02:00z, tuning
around 20-meters found the usual RTTY frequency segments to be littered w/non-RTTY signals. 
(It was suggested those were all WFD FT-8 stations - not able to decode FT-8, who knows?) 
Finding no BARTG CQ calls, the move was made down to 40-meters found the same morass
of non-RTTY signals, altho over 40-minutes, 20 BARTG stations were worked amidst the morass
of digital cacophony.  Because I could only run RTTY from my office, once I left there, the BARTG RTTY Sprint was effectively over.

Back in Concord, firing up the CQ-160 contest (05:00z) for a 2nd evening, like BARTG, was largely
a disappointment.  It seemed as if the Eastern half of the continent went to bed early.  And, where were the Canadians?  HuH?  After an hour, there was nothing left - BEDTIME.  While JA stations could be heard (but not worked) on Saturday morning, the band never opened to Asia on Sunday. 
No amount of diddling w/the the Tri-Square directions made any difference.  For all intents and purposes, the Triple-OP weekend was over.

A consistent backdrop for the entire weekend were the Space-WX storms creating rapid fading
and various geomagnetic noise anomalies.  Solar Cycle-25 is FAR from over.

DiD YOU work the above 3 radiosport contests?

Is WQ6X in Your LoG?

WQ6X Wonders about Winter Field Day Weekend

En-route to Alameda to setup a remote run of the now annual Winter Field Day (WFD) and the BARTG RTTY Sprint contests, I got to musing over this particular weekend from years past - a
sort of Blast from the Past look.  Unlike the ARRL [summer] Field Day GiG in June, the January WFD event is more a worldwide event than just a domestic one.  Indeed, it is run by the Winter Field Day Association.  ([CLICK HERE] to see their website and [CLICK HERE] to read the rules.)

While the Winter Field Day event has been around for over 10 years, it would seem that
WQ6X has only engaged in this GiG twice:

• [X] - 2o25 - WQ6X Wings yet another Weird Winter Field Day
• [X] - 2o24- WQ6X Works another Weird (but WooLY) Winter Field Day

(2o24)- WQ6X Works another Weird (but WooLY) Winter Field Day

It's actually surprising to me that I didn't officially discover the WFD event until 2024,
when you consider that the GiG has been around since 2015.

(2o25) - WQ6X Wings yet another Weird Winter Field Day

The enjoyment of running the 2024 WFD GiG encouraged me to do it again.

 

And of course, (2o25) becomes (2o26).

StaY TuNeD to find out how 2o26 turned out.

WQ6X Works a Weirdly Noisy QRP NAQP Ssb Contest

For several days leading up to the NAQP Ssb contest, Space-WX condx. have been all over the chart.  The question was, how would NAQP fit into all of this.  The decision was to run the Ramona radio remotely from my Alameda office using the K3/0 mini remote-control head.  Arriving after the 18:00z starting time, the decision was made to forego the 1st hour of the contest - 1/2 of the required 2-hour off period for Single-OP stations.

That 1st off hour offered the opportunity to triple-check the RRC box cabling and the N1MM+
keyboard macros, as well as re-recording the K3 voice memories w/heavier audio "punch",
helping the QRP signal to sound MUCH LOUDER - the caveat was fast-fade QSB.

At 19:00z, ten meters was more-or-less wide-open.  The operating plan was to work 10-meters
until no more "new" stations were left, moving down to 15-meters and eventually 20-meters. 
Later, coming back to 10-meters found it gone and as it turned out 15-meters was also dead. 
That relegated operating strategy to running 20-meters, while looking for an "early" opening
on 40-meters.  The backdrop for all this was varying levels of geomagnetic noise and fast-fading
on all bands.

Some overall highlights regarding the 2o26 NAQP Ssb contest come to mind.

• Obnoxious Space-WX plagued the 12-hour contest.  The upside (if you can call it that) is that Space-WX conditions became horribly WORSE in the 2-ays after the contest event, with a K-Index as high as8 and an A-Index as high as 73.  wOw!
  
  
• The 04:00z to 05:00z time period produced a flood of purposely obnoxious QRM, such as Mr. BELCH on 71.82.82 and FAX/SSTV QRM which followed me from 7175.75 to 7177.77 and back to 7175.75 again.
  
  
• At 05:23z signal level suddenly "jumped up" by over 20db and stayed way til the end
  of the contest.  At first I thought it was some sort of anomaly with the transceiver or the
  Shorty-40 yagi, except that he was also noticeable on 75-meters.  Since then, the radio and yagi have not manifested any hardware anomalies.
  
  
• While we are used to unique names as part of the exchange in NAQP GiGs, the Ssb
  mode makes it possible to utilize totally computer-generated voices in away somewhat analogous to logging software auto-sending Cw.  On 40-meters Saturday evening N3QE was running a frequency using the name "Tina".  The voice was clearly AI-generated.
  In either case, a human operator is needed (indeed required) to interpret the response
  on both ends of the QSO.
  
  
• The usual NAQP disappointments included the lack of hearable (much less workable) stations on 75-meters.  By the time the band opens on the West coast, many stations eastward have already made their 75-meter QSOs and are winding down during the
  final 2-hours of the contest.
  Then again, equally lacking was participation by West coast and Northwest stations overall, as well as a dearth of VE stations.  We could argue that on the high bands
  my signals skipped over those areas, but not on 40 and 80 meters with solar noise
  as the background.  On those bands, it makes no sense that I can work the East
  coast, but not the Northwest.

When it was all over, depending on what screen(s) you look at, WQ6X either took 3rd, 4th
or 5th place for the Single-OP Assisted QRP category.

DiD YOU work the 2o26 NAQP Ssb contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Muses over NAQP Ssb Contest Events

For non-RTTY operators, the NAQP Cw and Ssb GGs mark the first radiosport events of the
new year.  Overall, NAQP GiGs are utter simplicity - we just send a NAME and a STATE/Province.  DX stations simply give us their name.

Since 2010 I have been running NAQP GiGs with the San Diego Contest Club.  I used
to make the 450-mile drive to Fallbrook to join up with team-NX6T for a mere 12-hour contest. 
When we moved our operations to Ramona (@KN6NBT) and Anza (@WA6TQT), opportunities enabled me to run a Single-OP operation during hours I am not in the NX6T operator position.

Because NAQP Ssb is largely a domestic contest, weird accepts/dialects are not much of an issue. 
With a fixed contest exchange (Name / QTH), the four radio voice memories can be pre-recorded before the contest starts.  If you are just running Search and Pounce (S&P), theoretically, you can
run the entire NAQP GiG w/o uttering a single word during the entire 12-hours.  (Running a frequency requires verbally saying the calling station's callsign BE-4 play one or more of the voice memories.)

A major feature of the NAQP GiG is to accomplish a multi-band Worked All States (WAS) in a mere 10-hours of Saturday operating.  Working all Canadian provinces is one NAQP contest event is less likely due to the lack of participation on the part of Canadian operators.

Because it is a radiosport contest, you will find the PACE of an NAQP event to be QUICK and SUCCINCT.  If this is new to you, start off by S&P'ing before tackling a run frequency - the first
time you encounter 10 stations calling you simultaneously can be quite daunting.  As you S&P,
listen to how those OPs manage to keep a run frequency under control.

A unique fear of NAQP GiGs is that multi-OP stations are allowed to run all 12 hours, while single-OP stations are limited to 10-hours max.  When I dual-OP or triple-OP NAQP events, the mandatory off time requirement is automatically resolved by operating other stations.  Otherwise, determining which 2-hours to not operate becomes an overall strate4gic decision that can affect you placement in the overall standings.

Do YOU work the NAQP Ssb contest GiGs?

Is NX6T, WQ6X or one of my 1x1 callsigns in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Blast from the PAST: NAQP Ssb - Part 2

In preparation for the upcoming NAQP Ssb contest, I revisited the original Blast from the Past blog written in 2o20.  ([CLICK HERE] to read that Blog).  Since then, there have been 6 (Jan) + 6 (Aug) NAQP Ssb events, many of them dual-OP operations.  Here is what was done starting in 2o20:

• [X] JAN 2o20 - WQ6X Reviews NAQP-Ssb w/NX6T (after-the-fact)
  
  
  For this contest I ran things using the RCForb radio control software.
  Also this weekend we introduced a pair of newbie operators: KK6ZEM & KN6DLG
  
  
• [X] AUG 2o20 - WQ6X works a Woefully Weird NAQP Ssb contest and RTTY Rookie Roundup
  
  
  This was an NAQP event that was riddled and littered with murphy encounters.
  There were LoTs of other things going on that weekend to offset the chaos.
  
  
• [X] JAN 2o21 - WQ6X joins up with NO6T for another NAQP-Ssb Contest 1st-Place
  
  
  For this contest we used the NO6T callsign and confused everybody in the process.
  
  
• [X] AUG 2o21 - WQ6X Works another WEIRD NAQP Dual-OP
  
  
  This was a 1st-time dual-OP joining up with NX6T and in the off time running
  as WQ6X from the SF East Bay.
  
  
• [X] JAN 2o22 - WQ6X runs another NAQP Ssb contest: ad-HOC All the Way
  
  
  This was the 1st time running the NAQP using the newly acquired FT-2000 transceiver
  after first delivering a talk for the ARCA radio club on why they should run NAQP.
  
  
• [X] AUG 2o22 - WQ6X Dual-OPs another NAQP Ssb contest
  
  
  This was another WQ6X Dual-OP NAQP Ssb contest running the FT-2000 again from the SF East Bay.  What made this GiG unique was running a Heil headset using an EV-664 microphone as a microphone stand.
  
  
• [X] JAN 2o23 - WQ6X dual-OPs a 1st NAQP Ssb GiG
  
  
  While this was not my 1st time dual-OP'ing the NAQP Ssb GiG, it WAS the 1st time running QRP with the FT-2000 from the SF East Bay.  When it was all over, WQ6X
  and NX6T made 1st-place finishes.
  
  
• [X] AUG 2o23 - WQ6X Runs a Sizzling NAQP Ssb Dual-OP Operation
  
  
  This was a 1st time running NAQP Ssb using the Stereo-Ssb method.
  WQ6X ran QRP from Ramona while NX6T ran Multi-2 from Anza.
  
  
• [X] JAN 2o24 - WQ6X Dual-OP's another NAQP Ssb contest - running QRP
  
  
  This was another typic NAQP dual-OP running QRP from Ramona.
  Running QRP during dual-OP operations is getting to be quite a habit.
  
  
• [X] AUG 2o24 - WQ6X Wanders around a WEIRD Saturday-contest WeekEnd
  
  
  This was a combined weekend running the International Lighthouse GiG,
  the SARTG RTTY contest and almost as an afterthought - the NAQP Ssb contest. 
  Somehow WQ6X managed a 1st-place for the NAQP GiG.
  
  
• [X] JAN 2o25 - WQ6X Wangles another NAQP-Ssb QRP Dual-OP
  
  
  This was another QRP NAQP Ssb dual-OP weekend with both NX6T and WQ6X
  taking 3rd-place for their events.
  
  
• [X] AUG 2o25 - WQ6X Works a Weirdly disjointed Radiosport weekend
  
  
  This was a multi-faceted radiosport weekend with NAQP Ssb right in the middle of it all.
  Working RTTY, SSB and CW all in one weekend certainly qualifies as a disjointed weekend.

With all of this behind me, it is now time to get ready for yet another (but different) NAQP Ssb contest.

Do YOU run the NAQP Ssb contests?

Are WQ6X and NX6T in YOUR Logs?

WQ6X Wangles a successfully Wonky NAQP CW Contest.

With last weekend's RTTY RU contest safely behind us, it was time to focus our attention on the 1st major CW contest GiG of the new year - NAQP CW.  Similar to other recent CW contests, there two major operating goals to pay attention to.

• Put in more-or-less 8 - 9 hours running WQ6X QRP from the KN6NBT station in Ramona.
• Put in 3-hours on station #2 (STN-2) for NX6T from the WA6TQT super-station in Anza (@4,0000' ASL in the San Bernardino Mountains).

While both goals were accomplished, nasty Space-WX conditions made for a way more difficult operating experience than I was expecting.

A nice beginning for 2o26 is that for the 2nd weekend in a row I was ready to roll well in advance
of the 18:00z starting time.  Usually, after starting a GiG, I discover a number of needed corrections
to the function key macros behind the N1MM+ logging software.  Fortunately, the last NAQP Cw run (in August) left us with everything correctly intact.  For NX6T using DXLog, a number of function key macros were updated on Friday making for a more organized multi-2 operation.

The big caveat this weekend was the spotty internet connections on my end of the operation making
it more tricky to run frequencies.  For NX6T, because we had a bunch of seasoned frequency-running operators, much of my time was spent S&P'ing (especially early on 40-meters) finding new multipliers and putting QSOs in the log sometimes faster than the run frequency operators on STN-1.

The decision to run WQ6X QRP from Ramona was a good one.  The 3-el Stepp-IR and 2-el Shorty-40, along with an inverted Vee for 80-meters (all @55') provided enough directional flexibility to work virtually any station that could be heard, often off the side of the antennas.

In addition to poor Space-WX, some other contest highlights include:

• A noticeably lack of Caribbean stations.  While PY5 and PJ2 are nice contacts,
  they are not multipliers.
• Hearable stations on 80-meters are always lacking on the West coast. 
  I made a first run on 80-meters around 02:30z, finding minimal activity
  on both coasts (and all points in between).
  
• Stereo Cw was an important adjunct in this Cw construct, altho one of the QF-1A filters
  was not properly doing the job and was pre-empted by an MFJ-752b Signal Enhancer.
• There seemed to be a lack of RBN spots for BOTH WQ6X and NX6T. 
  Because self-spotting is currently allowed, that capability was taken advantage of.
  
• Running 100-watts is a challenge for NX6T operators used to running an amplifier,
  altho w/stacked yagi arrays and a 4-square vertical array for 80-meters, the antennas made up for running Low Power (LP).
• Monitoring the contest online scoreboard added some positive tension to WQ6X's
  QRP run.  K5KG was on top of the QRP assisted list the entire run leaving 2nd place
  to alternate between a handful of stations (K4OV, W8MK, KA3MTT, K5NZ & WQ6X).  Eventually the other stations stopped running leaving WQ6X firmly in 2nd place.

When it was all over, WQ6X had surpassed the 300 QRP QSO goal (w/321) taking 2nd-place
for the QRP assisted category, while NX6T logged over 2100 QSOs taking 5th-place overall and
1st-place for the left half of USA.  Between K-indexes of 4 thru 6 and burbbly internet access, the 2o26 NAQP Cw contest was indeed a unique and successful challenge.

DiD YOU work the NAQP Cw contest?

Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR Log?