WQ6X Plays ShowME, RTTY & Sprint

In radiosport, sometimes it seems like I am ALWAYS contesting and never writing, while at other times I am cranking out reams of BLOG material and pictures. For April, somehow BLOG publishing took a back seat to a number of on the air events; some from W7AYT,
some remote from NX6T and sometimes both together,

In relation to Radiosport, the 1st weekend of April was one of those ODD weekends. For openers, MO & MS QSO Parties put interesting counties on the air. New this year are the State Parks on-the-air events; this weekend from Florida and Texas, altho I only heard
ONE TXSPOA station. These GiGs were accompanied by the
Polish SP Dx Contest and the Spanish EA RTTY Contest.


WQ6X test-driving STEREO QF-1A filters

After receiving double certificates from the 2017 MOQP, I decided
to take things to the next level by running MOQP remotely as NX6T followed by WQ6X portably from W7AYT's QTH in Concord.
Not many OPs have the opportunity to accomplish a Dual-Run.

Running from W7AYT gave me the opportunity to test the dual QF-1a filters - one each for the MAIN-Rx and the SUB-Rx - using the audio-balance feature of the Yaesu FT-1000mp transceiver.

Too make things even MORE interesting, I took the opportunity to listen for NX6T's contest CQ's from Fallbrook on the FT-1000mp at W7AYT's QTH. While I could hear NX6T on 160 80 & 40, the reverse was true ONLY on 40 meters. The Lazy 8JK Sloper at W7AYT is broadside NorthEast; whereas Fallbrook is SouthEast (around
135-degrees).

KK6NON after a fulfilling NA SPRINT

In the middle of this complex weekend was the 4 hour SSB Sprint GiG, which I ran from W7AYT's QTH. While 49 QSOs is nothing to get excited about, considering the limited antenna setup it is amazing I surpassed 40 QSOs. Running Sprint GiGs is loaded with its own unique challenges. KK6NON made a strong run, live from NX6T, taking I believe 2nd place.

After the Sprint GiG faded into the static and STN#1 went dark, I remoted in and configured the station to run RTTY @ about 750 watts to make a presence in the EA RTTY contest; just in time for 40 meters
to go "Long". 


When I ran out of S&P stations, calling CQ brought a bunch of new stations, including several Spanish stations. If they had been calling CQ in their own contest, I would have had less of a need to call CQ and run a frequency. EA stations are worth 3 points as well as many new multipliers. They should realize, if they run a frequency, we will come.

The Lazy 8JK Sloper @ W7AYT is still not yet performing up to standards. The phasing cable was originally cut for 20 meters. Because of the low sunspot cycle SFI I recently trimmed it for 40 meters. Maybe one day WQ6X will be heard in Europe from the W7AYT QTH.


Because of poor timing, I could never find time to put even a handful of SPDX QSOs in the N1MM+ SPDX log; from WQ6X OR NX6T. Look for NX6T/WQ6X next year. Sometimes you JUST can't make it a GO for every contest.


To put a wrap on April's 1st contest weekend, for Sunday I hunted MOQP stations remotely via NX6T while simultaneously looking for MO stations as WQ6X from Concord. The difference in signal levels
at each location was DRAMATIC. Both Concord/Fallbrook could hear stations the other location couldn't.

At least there was MO activity.  MSQP stations never made it to my headphones or into the N1MM+ MSQP log.

Did YOU work the QSO parties, SP-DX or EA RTTY?

Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR log?