WQ6X runs Another 4-out-of-5 October contest GiGs

Similar to the 2nd October weekend, making this last weekend work radiosport-wise took some careful orchestration, interspersing what turned out to be
4 contest activities throughout the weekend.

In furtherance of my 2019 journey to participate in 100+ Contest GiGs, I have been running a bunch
of dual-OP operations from W7AYT and my Alameda location remote into the San Diego Contest Club's NX6T station in Fallbrook (North of San Diego). 

This weekend found me in Alameda the entire time.  While the K3/0 is "parked" @W7AYT, for RTTY contests I have found running RCForb + VNC
Viewer to be more than adequate.  Unlike running
Cw remotely, with RTTY, if there is a brief internet outage, when I get things reestablished, the demodulated RTTY is usually still waiting on the
screen for me when the connection is resolved.

On the "lets'givit-a-shot" list for this weekend were the following 5 radiosport events.

• [x] - JARTS RTTY Contest
• [x] - New York QSO Party
• [x] - Illinois QSO Party
• [x] - Worked All Germany Contest
• [x] - Stew Perry 160-meter Contest

The JARTS (Japanese Amateur Radio Teleprinter Society) GiG is similar to the Japanese-sponsored All Asia contest in that operator AGE is the main exchange parameter to be exchanged.  (How about an All Asia RTTY contest?).  While I am used to 75% of the ages reported in the All Asia GiGs to be 62 - 85, in the JARTS GiG it seemed that easily  90% of the participants were 62 to 89 years old. 

Altho not my exact age, I sent "55" in order to stand out from the rest of the field.  When numbers are sent with a (useless) signal report in a RTTY exchange, this weekend I sent it as "5NN 55".  The most confusing exchanges I received were "599 59".  With poor RTTY demodulation the "59" could be seen as a chopped "599", yet it occurred to no one to send it as "5NN 59" - HuH.



N X 6 T  after  Dark

The goal for this weekend was to run the JARTS RTTY GiG for the 1st 12 hours, with some nap time during the slow periods.  Then, @ 14:00z (for NYQP) and 17:00z (for ILQP) I could go county hunting, switching back to RTTY when I can no longer find W2 or W9 stations. 

While the Stew Perry Gig began @15:00z, at 8am (Pdt), the LUF including 160 meters has moved up to 5-mhz and beyond.  The Worked All Germany (WAG) contest also started @15:00z but EU didn't make it to the headphones until much later in the day.  My first 160-meter QSO didn't happen until 03:03z, with the band already in full-swing.

The NYQP and ILQP QSO parties were a COMPLETE BUST, from the Fallbrook perspective.  ILQP was a complete no show, even tho there were NUMEROUS IL stations working the JARTS GiG. 
In the 3830 Score report for the NYQP contest, I made the following comment:

Because this is only a 12 hour contest, the GiG was over before 160 & 80 open in W6-Land here to NY; with pretty much the same problem on 40 meters. Either lengthen the contest or start it at 16:00z or 18:00z, like most other QSO parties.

Nearly every month of every year I complain that - California excepted - most states don't play in their own QSO parties.  It doesn't stop me from looking for counties, however it IS frustrating when the bands are dead because most amateurs in a given state don't even know what a QSO party is.

To check worldwide propagation we have the
NCDXF beacons on 14.100, 21.150 & 28.200. 
I have previously written about these beacons ([CLICK HERE] to read that).  Unlike the CQ W.W. RTTY contest, during the JARTS event there were
no contest stations (who should know better) calling CQ atop the NCDXF beacon on 14.100.

Additionally, for those who know where to look, we have the Russian military beacons on  ~7.039.39. 
I have also written about these beacons.  ([CLICK HERE] to about read that.)  This weekend only the
"F" beacon was heard.

Last weekend, horrible Space-WX condx. plagued the contest activities.  Altho the A & K indexes were low this weekend, because the SFI is a lowly 65, signals were often weak; altho, thanks to the low SFI, 160 - 80 - 40 meters produced some surprising DX runs. 

Running  160 using  R C F o r b

During my initial run on 1831.31 in the Stew Perry contest, out of nowhere came a call from CX6VM @03:30z; rather early for SA to the West Coast.  A surprise call from RT0F @06:55z added a nice sweet multiplier to the log.  Overall, out of laziness, most of my time on 160 time was spent Calling CQ SP and letting stations come to me. 

While there were a lot of "juicy" spots in the 160 bandmap, most of the DX stations could not be heard @ the NX6T location.  This is a continuing problem for us atop the hill in Fallbrook; DX stations often hear us and give a call only to be disappointed that we can't always "hear back".  We are heard, thanks to running high power.  No, we are not ignoring you, the Coaxial-Bazooka being at only 40' doesn't hear as good as it transmits.

Eventually, I ran out of new 160-stations to work, relegating one more stint in the JARTS GiG before taking a several hour nap.  At 12:23z I was back at it on 40 meters hoping for another JA run.  Unfortunately, there were virtually no new AS/OC stations. 

Because 2-point QSOs are better than 0-point QSOs, the Shorty-40 was turned back to N-E working Midwest stations before the band faded in that direction.  One last look at 160 meters produced 3 more QSOs with N5ULS closing out the Stew Perry 160 LoG.

After a few hours sleep, at 17:36 15 meters was given another chance.  Unfortunately, it was not the same as Saturday encouraging me back to 20-meters to run 14091.91 until non-listening stations took over my busy frequency @18:12z.  Moving to 14105.55 gave some "breathing room" until I ran out of new stations to work.  A trip to 21089.89 put 3 more QSOs in the log, including a surprise call from TI2OY - and then, NOTHING.

A last trip back to 20 meters found WQ6X calling CQ on 14088.88, 14091.91 & lastly 14113.13 where I enjoyed a pileup of JA stations.  Running out of non-dup 20-meter stations, at 23:00z I spent the last hour on 40 meters finding that E-Coast and Midwest stations were already working there way to the west coast.  The final JARTS QSO was from YV4ABR; a surprise considering that @23:49z we are lucky to work Texas, let alone Venezuela.

When it was all over, the final task was to produce the Cabrillo files, post the 3830 Scores and piece together the ending stats in preparation for this BLOG.  N1MM+ does a reasonable job of producing colorful stat screens.  With a little cut & paste by way of the old PC Paintbrush program, the stats can be put together in one view.

How did Your weekend Go?

Did You work the JARTS RTTY or Stew Perry 160 contest GiGs?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?