I decided to start February with 5 different "little" contests to get into the radiosport spirit for 2020. Business commitments kept me in Alameda, relegating me to using RCForb for running the K3 radio on STN-1. It was decided to run as a medium High Power station (around 700 watts) all weekend. Friday evening, other than a couple of Vermont stations, what I mostly heard in the CW band segments were stations running the FOC (members only) operating event, which we non-FOC members are not allowed to participate in.
Ignoring the FOC, I found 5 contests available for the rest of us radiosport folk; including:
- [x] - The Vermont QSO Party - VQP - beginning at 00:00z Saturday
- [x] - The XE RTTY Contest - beginning at 12:00z
- [x] - The Minnesota QSO Party - MQP - beginning at 14:00z
- [x] - The British Columbia QSO Party - BCQP - beginning at 16:00z
- [x] - The 4 hour NA Sprint CW GiG - beginning at 00:00z Sunday
Every contest weekend there is GooD news and BaD news. The GooD news for February is that it would seem we are FINALLY on the way OUT of the sunspot low for Cycle 24 and edging our way into Cycle 25. The SFI #'s are finally firmly into the 70's, finally leaving the 60's behind us - Hurrah! The BaD new is that as usual, this weekend's QSO parties significantly lacked participation from operators in their own state; I am so used to a HUGE turnout in California's CQP contest, that
most other QSO Parties are a considerable disappointment by comparison.
the 12:00z Mexican-RTTY GiG. Somehow the buzz-call never came thru and I woke at 13:55z,
just in time for the MNQP QSO party which was in full-swing within minutes; starting @9am
Minnesota time they have the advantage of their arterial caffeine drip a couple of hours
before I do.
Eventually there were no more Cw Minnesota stations, offering permission to switch over to the
XE-RTTY contest. While setting up the night before, I failed to notice that "someone" had removed
all the user-defined [Buttons] on the decoder screen - bummer dewd; not having time to make new ones, I "suffered" thru the contest w/o them. Additionally, for some weird reason, it seemed that
75% of the time I made a band switch, the decoder's [REV] button got set. At first I didn't notice
the GREEN button and couldn't figure out why there was no response to the "CQ XE Test" calls.
Of course once the REV was reset, calling stations lined right up.
Listening for the Russian Letter Beacons on 7.039, only the "M" beacon was heard; the "K" may well have been off the air for all I know. Thinking back, it has not been heard in Fallbrook, for some time.
The log opened with WQ6X running 7050.50, and immediately working YC2, JA3, UA0, BD3, DU1, and another UA0.
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| A P A I R of D i n g l e D o r k s |
It always seems like as soon as I actually get settled in on a frequency, a pair of Dingle-Dorks make the scene to make my life more difficult.
Case in point, as soon as a move
was made to 14087.87. a new form of "heckler" made the scene - some IDIOT transmitting a single tone nearly exactly atop the MARK frequency. Intermittently I also encountered a Tune-Up IDIOT slightly off the mark frequency, whose carrier made decoding more difficult.
The upside of this QRM is that when the tuner-upper went away, it was discovered that the single tone when EXACTLY on the Mark frequency actually made decoding EASIER because all I needed signal-wise was a strong space-signal, Because fading often occurs on the Mark-signal, the QRM'er actually solved that problem, allowing me to run several dozen stations flawlessly. Eventually the IDIOT got bored and left; the mark-fading immediately returned. Based on the quality of the signal,
I am convinced it came in via ground-wave from a station local to Fallbrook. Hmmmm..... I wonder who THAT could be?
By 19:00z my operation went QRT while I attended to other matters. It wasn't until 03:30z that I was able to return to the remote operator chair, just in time to run the last 25 minutes of the NA Sprint Cw contest. The Sprint GiG is one of the most insane 4 hours one can spend in Radiosport. While I was bummed that over 3/4's of the contest was already over, I was actually relieved when 04:00z came, allowing a switch back to the XE-RTTY contest.
At 04:00z the MNQP was also over. Why do so many QSO many QSO parties end at 04:00z?
At least GiGs like the BCQP give us another opportunity on Sunday, at least for a few hours. While the VTQP allegedly ran until 24:00z on Sunday, I heard no more VT stations. What is the point of hosting a QSO party for your state if no in-state stations are willing to actually get on the air? HuH?
Am I MISSING something or whut?
At 15:30z it was back to 20-meters and within minutes another European opening - HurraH!
On the dot at 17:00z a new single-tone jammer attempted to obliterate the 14094.94 run frequency. This time however, the MNF (Manual Notch Filter) notched his tone (which was in between the two RTTY tones); it was as if he wasn't even there. Eventually this single-Dork also got bored and moved on to other victims elsewhere.
Client commitments sent me QRT @21:00z and that was the end of the 5 contest weekend. BTW, I should mention that officially no Cw/Ssb stations were heard or worked in the BCQP GiG. However, tuning the 20-meter RTTY band Sunday afternoon found VE7BC calling CQ BCQP on RTTY, all but pleading for QSOs. Working him allowed me to submit a single-QSO entry to the BCQP contest.
What about you?
Did YOU work, the QSO parties, NA Sprint or XE-RTTY contests?
Is WQ6X in YOUR Log?
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