WQ6X Wrangles Another Weird Prefix RTTY Contest Weirdly

For over 10 years the Weird Prefix (WPX) Contest has been one of my top-10 radiosport events.  Once I got "hooked" on running RTTY GiGs, the WPX RTTY contest has figured into that Top-10.  Earlier this month I wrote a "Blast from the Past" BloG LooKing back at WPX RTTY GiGs that I have managed to stumble thru and evidently survive.  Because each unique prefix qualifies as a multiplier, ending scores in WPX contests can easily be in the tens of millions of points, and still NoT represent an overall winning entry. 

Last year, Dan (N6ERD) and I took a Multi-2 1st place for W6.  This year when I put out a call for operators, no one had the weekend available.  On that basis, my operating goal became to run NX6T remotely (around 775 watts throughout) from W7AYT's Concord QTH by way of an Elecraft K3/0. 
At key points (more-or-less) randomly chosen throughout the weekend WQ6X will put a RTTY
signal on the air from Concord.

The intro for this BloG was written back on Friday.  The specific details making up this Blog Entry is actually being written on Tuesday, 48+ hours after the WPX RTTY event became, as they say,
"One for the LogBooks".  In retrospect, writing the Blast from the Past Blog about this event
helped create an easily immersible mood for the entire weekend.

My overall goals for WPX weekend were to conduct another dual-OP operation, giving MOST of
the OP-time to running NX6T remotely via the Elecraft K3/0's remote access of STN-1 in Fallbrook. 
From time to time (or in case of internet failure in Fallbrook) I would find some time to run WQ6X
from Concord; all of this happened and more.

Arriving in Concord after the 00:00z start, I may well have missed out on a 15-meter opening to Asia - Bummer Dewd!  Beginning on 20-meters at 01:30z I was greeted with nothing but Hawaii and Asian stations during a 20 minute S&P session.  Determining the NX6T signal had penetration quality, 14114.14 became the run frequency.  Running the Stepp-IR yagi in BI-Direction mode allowed working JA and S.A. simultaneously; all worth 3 points.

Throughout the weekend time was divided between S&P (30%) and running frequencies (70%).
04:00z found NX6T running a casual 775 watts on 40-m (7092.92 & 7083.83).  05:40z brought a move to 80-meters, running 3596.96.  By 07:15 it was back to 7083.83 and then a shift to 7086.86 when the Asian Ssb QRM made the scene.

Looking to maximize the 6-point Asian QSO advantage, listening
to the Russian Letter Beacons
on ~7.039 was very telling.

At 11:40z, pointing the 2-element Shorty-40 yagi to 300-degrees brought the M-beacon and the K-beacon into the headphones, however the F-beacon was below the noise-level.

Pointing the antenna exactly 270-degrees brought the F-beacon just barely over the noise level, while the "M" & "K" beacons remained more-or-less at the same signal strength.

Because China is due-west of Vladivostok, the F-beacon offers up a reliable indication of propagation openings to the Chinese mainland.


Intentional QRM-wise, this weekend was rather quiet; although there was the local tuner-upper near the MARK frequency, the manual notch filter on both ends of the internet connection reduced that JOKER's signal down to about S-3. Anytime I hear a carrier on the Mark frequency, I immediately press F1 to call CQ.  As I've said before, the Mark-frequency jammer often HELPS decode a signal that has a weak Mark-signal in relation to its Space-signal.

If you look at the overall BAR Stats, 20 meters was the top QSO-making band for this contest.  LooKing at the per-hour statistics tells a different story however. 

For much of the contest, 40-meters was where the action was, with 20-meters in between.  Then on Sunday, 20-meters really came alive; again, running BI-Directional put dozens of 3-point
QSOs in the log.

On Saturday evening, someone in Fallbrook, shutoff a wrong 110-v. breaker killing the internet for VNC viewer but leaving the K3/0 connection intact.  Nothing worse than putting out a CQ call hear 6 stations come back and then discover the logging program is not responding.  While waiting for someone to resolve the situation, I put WQ6X on the air from Concord.

When it was all over, 1115 QSOs made it to the NX6T RTTY LoG - I believe my highest WPX total EVER; amazing when you consider I ran barely 27 hours out
of the 48.  It would seem that NX6T took 2nd-place for W6 and 1st-place for San Diego (SDG) section.

DiD YOU work the CQ WPX RTTY contest?

Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR LoG?