ARRL 10-Meter Contest: It Don't Get any Weirder

The ARRL 10-Meter contest is an interesting paradox.  It feels like we have been languishing in the trough of the solar cycle for the last 7 years; whereas in fact it has been about 4.  Because this year's 10-meter GiG seemed so weird, a trip down memory lane helped put it all in perspective.
I began documenting my 10-meter operations in this contest Blog beginning in 2013:

• [x] - 2013: WQ6X & N6GEO join up for 2013 ARRL 10-Meter contest
• [x] - 2014: N6GEO & WQ6X Score another 1st place in the ARRL 10-Meter contest
• [x] - 2015: WQ6X test drives the 1000MP for 2015 10-meter contest
• [x] - 2016: WQ6X joins NX6T remotely for ARRL 10-meter contest
• [x] - 2017: WQ6X Survives 2017 ARRL 10-Meter Contest
• [x] - 2018: ARRL 10-Meter GiG Fascinates & Frustrates

At the last minute (what else is new) N6KI put together a multi-OP operation from NX6T. 

With no actual B-i-C action, N6KI fired things up at 01:10z remotely.  While we are used to

having 10-meters "fold up" by 01:00.  Amazingly, NX6T kept Ten Meters alive until 04:25z. 

Reading 3830 comments from a dozen W6 stations, they all experienced a strong opening

on Friday evening.  Most of those stations reported extremely POOR conditions on Saturday afternoon/evening, which is surprising as my experience was quite the reverse.

Client commitments kept me off the air until late Saturday afternoon.  At 02:30 I fired up RCForb and VNC Viewer to remotely run NX6T from Alameda.  I opened by putting a couple of QSOs in the log .  Then calling CQ on 28029.29 I was jammed by a Cw "heckler' sending errant Cw tones after my CQ calls, often obliterating weaker stations underneath his obviously local signal. 

While I'm used to this behavior on 40 meters after midnight, encountering this kind of IDIOT on 10-meters is a new experience.  Altho the local QF-1A filter helped notch the intentional-QRM, being audio-based it could not overcome the AGC-induced signal reduction.  N6KI informed me that the QRM-Idiot plagued his operations on Friday evening. 

My solution to this Idiot was to play frequency "Leap-Frog", jumping from the low end of the Cw band, up to the middle and then back again.  Luckily, with 20 minutes the station got bored and gave it up.  Running frequencies on 28016.16 and 28028.28 put 17 QSOs in the log. Like the previous evening,
I gave it up at 04:30z.  By that time, the only spots for NX6T came from N2IC (in NM) and N0OI (Perris Valley, Ca).  I got the message and shut things down, hoping for one more run on Sunday morning.

On Sunday, I was back in the remote chair @18:00z, calling CQ again on 28028.28.  Sensing a

South American opening, point the Stepp-IR to 120-degrees put CX2, LU2, LU7 & XE2 in the log.  Not having a microphone, i could not call CQ on Ssb altho thanks to the K3's Voice Keyer a number of S&P QSOs made it to the log.

While most W6 stations reported a dead 10-meters on Sunday, over the course of 5 hours I managed to add 48 QSOs to the log, 34 from South America - so much for a dead band.  The last QSO made it to the log at 23:22z; the remaining 38 minutes yielded no one new.

At contest end, it would seem that NX6T took 7th place worldwide, 5th place for USA & North America and 1st place for W6 and the Southwest Division; not too bad considering the overall marginal band conditions and only 3 operators.

 

DiD YOU work the ARRL 10-meter contest?

 

Is NX6T in YOUR LoG?