WQ6X Works another Weird Split Contest Weekend

As contest weekends go, the last weekend in April is usually rather slow.  Being an Area Director in Toastmasters, I was obligated to sit thru a 4.5 hour business meeting.  Fortunately, because I run split screen @ W7AYT, it was easy to relegate the Zoom window to the laptop screen while running radiosport on the 33" main monitor.

My original goal was to Dual-OP the SPDX RTTY contest and Florida QSO Party testing the audio mixer's blending of audio from the Elecraft K3/0 (for remote access to NX6T in Fallbrook), the ICOM-7000 (used mainly for SWL'ing and remote signal checking) and of course the FT-1000mp, the WQ6X mainstay radio @ W7AYT.

During the weekend, Dennis (W7AYT) and I rerouted the coax cables and ladder line thru the walls using a pair of MFJ-4614 wall plates.  During the week Dennis drilled the required holes and mounted the 4614 wall plates.  EARLY (for me anyway) @ 7:30, all the antenna / rotor cables were completely disconnected and rerun.  Excess cable is coiled up in the closet behind the radio setup.  Later in the week Dennis will apply silicone sealant around the plate edges (outside), to keep out the little critter bugs.

Beginning the SPDX RTTY GiG a few minutes after the 12:00z starting time, things seemed to be flowing effortlessly until Billie-Bob and his friends decided they were bored and needed to find some "pesky-contester" to harass and make him WORK for each QSO made; constant tune-ups and random Cw made repeats necessary for nearly every exchange.

Then, at 13:15z R0CK made his third QSO by working NX6T (on 7046.7) and then IMMEDIATELY moved up 200hz (but STILL in the passband) and began calling CQ.  Not surprising, he didn't work anyone. Unfortunately his signal tore up Cw copy; after 5 unproductive minutes I was forced down

to 7045.5.  Immediately a call came in from NG7M - Wonderful, Right?  NoT!  He works me and IMMEDIATELY moves down 200 hz to call CQ, again inside the passband, and again working nobody.  Moving back UP I took refuge on 7046.2 between NG7M and R0CK.  Eventually they

gave up, however my QSO-rate suffered from 2-3 per minute to barely One during that period.

Other commitments kept me off the air during much of Saturday afternoon.  Coming back at 23:15z,

6 QSOs were made when it was noticed that the shack was heating up.  Because the A/C unit

wasn't helping much I was instructed to QRT until 06:00z; by then the mountain top had cooled down considerably.  During the intervening hours, time was spent putting 16 WQ6X RTTY QSOs in the log from East Bay section.  I missed out on the Florida QSO party for Saturday, making up for it Sunday afternoon.

 

With a brief nap in the middle, NX6T was back on the around 06:00z until the closing QSO at 11:59:45.  Asia was the BiG bonus in this contest, offering 10 points per contact instead of just 2.  Considering the plethora of Asian QSOs made, the "K", "F" & "M" beacons on 7.039 seemed rather weak; the Magadan beacon was weak, but at least functional.

 

After sleeping from 12:00 - 18:00, eventually time was made for the Florida QSO party.  While I was expecting WAY more participants (I always do) my BIGGEST complaint was with stations w/o a 4 in the callsign calling CQ FQP but not making it clear they were actually in Florida.  If I were to operate from Florida, I would sign WQ6X/4 or WQ6X/BRO (indicating the county I am in).

 

Between 20:00z and the 22:00z ending time, I managed QSOs from NX6T interspersed with a brief run from WQ6X in Concord.  FQP conditions in the East Bay were DRAMATICALLY different from those in Fallbrook.  It was nice having 2 shots at working Florida.

 

That's it for this weekend.

 

Did YOU work the SPDX RTTY contest and FQP QSO party?

 

Is NX6T / WQ6X in YOUR Log?

 

CQMM Confounds and Confirms WQ6X @ NX6T

Here we go again.... another weird contest weekend in April.  While this weekend showcased
a number of different contests, outside commitments kept me in Alameda, away from my portable
setup @W7AYT's QTH in Concord.  Not having a K3/0 setup in Alameda relegated the use of RCForb to run the radio by way of the Log-Me-In Hamachi network.

Perusing the WQ6X Contest BLOG, it would seem that this particular weekend

has been run three times in the past as follows:

• [x] 2019 CQMM Weekend - #25 (U.S.), #30 (NA), #58 (World)
• [x] 2018 CQMM Weekend - #15 (U.S.), #18 (NA), #49 (World)
• [x] 2017 CQMM Weekend -  #9 (U.S.), #11 (NA), #28 (World)

Not having the FT-1000mp available to me, the decision was made to run just the CQ-MM contest,

as I have done in the past.  However this year N6KI proposed we run as a Multi-Single operation
for a change.  We cobbled together N6NC, KI6RRN, N6KI and myself, WQ6X; just enough to make
(if I do say so myself) an unbeatable combination.  Click [HERE] to read the rules for CQMM.

Being one of the night-shift operators, I was elected to start the contest shortly after 09:00z (2am PDT) at STN-1.  Normally at this hour I am used to hearing only Japan (JA) and a plethora of USA stations.  However in the 1st hour of operation a WIDE variety of prefixes made it to the log, including: PY4, ZL3, ZM1, HP1, CO6/CO8, XM3, JH4, PP5, UA0, TI5, JG1, PY3, OA1 & LW2.  When it was all over, 90 prefixes and 59 countries made it to the NX6T LoG.

This weekend brought two frustrations I encounter in nearly every contest.  To begin with, while running a frequency, several times
I would have 4 or more stations call me all at once.  Working one of those stations (taking about 10 seconds of clock time), after sending "TU NX6T" all I heard was SILENCE.  HuH?  Where'd y'all GO?  You can't wait 10 seconds to give me a 2nd call, to score an easy QSO?

The other frustration is when a station works me and then calls in again 10 minutes later
(on the same band).  PR7AB was the biggest violator of all this.  Can we deduce that he called in again because we weren't logged correctly to begin with.  Then later, will he submit a log to the contest committee? 
Will NX6T even BE in that LoG? 
Another mystery of the universe.

One of the reasons we run these multi operator setups is to give newer operators an opportunity to participate in a variety of different contests.  Each weekend focuses on a different geographic-demographic. 

Last weekend was Japan, this weekend was China
and South America.  Other contests focus on Oceania or Indonesia or Spain.  Of course there are also dozens of "domestic" contests, such SS, FD, NAQP and the state QSO parties.  In the middle are the various DX contests, WPX and RTTY GiGs.  Over a year of operating, the novice contest OPs will become seasoned contest OPs, merely by exposure.

Eventually many OPs settle in on a handful of favorite contests, altho we are often able to induce them to 2nd-OP for us in just about any event.


A BiG issue for this weekend were the excessively weak signals, coupled with 3-second fading. 
A station would start out at 5-3-9 and then immediately fade into the noise, obscuring their continent identifier.  Asking for a repeat (SEC?) I would get: "NX6T UR 5NN fade....".  Remember: you only need to send 5NN ONCE.  Using N1MM, the F7 key was programmed to send "NAC - NAC" - quick and to the point.

For this year's CQMM we put in a good effort from the Left coast.  Not surprisingly, we were beat

out by multi-OP efforts on the other side of the continent.  This was NX6T's first foray into multi-OP territory for the CQMM GiG.  Now that we know our way around a little, look for NX6T to become a REAL contender for 2021.

Did YOU work the CQMM Contest?

Is NX6T in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X fakes another (JIDX x 2) + 5 Contest weekend

Somehow, another year has come and gone, taking us to this weekend's 2020 JIDX contest and
other GiGs.  Only so many contest GiGs can be accomplished in one weekend leaving the choice

of what to run and what to give last consideration to.  Last year's JIDX weekend brought a number

of operating opportunities - ([CLICK HERE] to read that).

 

Evidently, the IP-settings cobbled together during the visit 2 weeks ago was actually the proper

setup (altho it didn't seem like it at the time); when the Elecraft K3/0 was started up on Friday,

access to both STN-1 & STN-2 @ NX6T were fully functional from the beginning.

 

Radiosport contest events happening this weekend included:

• [x] - JIDX Cw Contest
• [x] - OK / OM Dx Ssb Contest
• [x] - New Mexico QSO Party (NMQP)
• [x] - Georgia QSO Party (GAQP)
• [x] - North Dakota QSO Party (NDQP)
• [x] - Yuri Gagarin Dx Contest (GC)

For this weekend, because we had a ToTaL of 5 operators, the demands on my OP time were reduced, compared to other contest weekends.  This allowed more time to be spent rerouting

audio cables and testing the nuances of the Elecraft K3/0 installation to Fallbrook.

 

 

All three QSO parties were quite a disappointment; as usual, the in-state participation was VERY poor.  I've heard all kinds of excuses why operators don't participate in their own QSO parties;

most of them rather lame.  However with people electing to say indoors, I was expecting TRIPLE

the participation as a result - NOPE!

 

Due to poor signal levels from Europe in Concord, the OK/OM contest was bypassed. 
While Eu signals were plentiful @ NX6T, both stations were dedicated to the JIDX contest;
attempting to slip-in an Ssb contest (amidst a Cw weekend) would probably have created more problems than it was worth.

Being that this was mainly a JIDX weekend, time was found to update the WQ6X Prefecture Tracker software giving a detailed look at the prefecture distribution of stations worked during the

30 hour contest period.  The number of stations worked in each prefecture is surprising in many ways and in others, not at all; especially when broken down by each band.

 

An unfortunate situation occurred when running 80-meters.  Most of my CQ calls seemed to go unanswered.  As it turns out, an SDR Rx in KH6 was hearing dozens of JA stations calling me.  Unfortunately, our cheesy 80-m inverted vee could hear very few of them.  At NX6T it often

seems that stations can hear us much better/easier than we can hear them.  It would seem 

the S-8 noise-level obscured many of the 100-w (and less) stations - Bummer Dewd.

 

The Yuri Gagarin contest was a nice respite from the diddle-diddling of RTTY, altho internet

dropouts clipped dits/dahs requiring a not insignificant number of repeats.  Adding variety
to the contest weekend encouraged me to run the GC contest, first as NX6T in Fallbrook
and then as WQ6X from Concord when the NX6T QSO total waned. 
At least I can say I wuz there.

 

On Monday, well after the JIDX GiG was over, I took a look at the 3830 Stats for this contest.  Officially, it would seem that we took a 2nd place worldwide until I displayed the SOAPBOX comments from K3EST as follows:

"First of all we announce that we were NOT MS. We were M2. We know this category does not exist in the JIDXC. We decided to have as much fun as possible. This log will be submitted as a CHECK LOG so that it can be used for QSO verification. MS was too restrictive for 6 guys to have fun. By going M2 not only would the ops have a good time but more JAs would be worked which is also more fun for them. Almost always, only 2 bands were active towards JA."

 

Based upon the above explanation, it would seem that NX6T has become (what the Japanese call) "ToP Mop" for 2020; one of our lower winning scores, but a win nonetheless.

 

Did YOU work the JIDX Cw contest?

 

How many JA Prefectures are in YOUR LoG?

 

WQ6X Investigates Another 7-Contest Weekend

With all the world-wide confusion about, the month of April quietly slipped into place; wondering what this 1st contest weekend of the has in store for us dedicated radiosport operators around the globe.  Thanks to the WA7BNM Contest Calendar, we can easily figure that out.

After last year's mult-contest weekend, I wrote up a detailed BLOG entry detailing the different components.  ([CLICK HERE] to Read That.)  Making it easier to find out about these events,
here is this weekend's list:

• [x] - Nebraska QSO Party (NEQP)
• [x] - Missouri QSO Party (MOQP)
• [x] - Louisiana QSO Party (LAQP)
• [x] - Mississippi QSO Party (MSQP)
• [x] - SP DX Contest
• [x] - EA RTTY Contest
• [x] - NA Sprint SSB Contest

All the QSO parties begin at 13:00z - 14:00z, which means I have to get up before 6am to
get started.  The European Gigs (SPDX & EARTTY) begin at 16:00 - 9am Pacific time. 

The interesting challenge for this weekend was the fact both antenna towers were experiencing
rotor problems, leaving them unrotatable.  The C-31 yagi (on Tower-1) was fixed at 30-Degrees. 
On Tower-2 the 2-el Shorty-40 was fixed at 30-Degrees while the Stepp-IR (also on that tower) was fixed at 30+90 degrees (120).  This allowed working South America on the high bands as well as Asia by switching the antenna into BI-Directional or 180-mode.

The fixed antenna situation created some unique difficulties.  On 40-meters for example, with the

antenna pointed at 30-degrees, working Asia was all but impossible; only the KW stations made it thru (while NX6T ran 888 watts).  The "F" & "K" beacons could be heard, but at a fraction of the

signal levels normally encountered when the yagi is pointing at around 315-degrees.

 

Fortunately, the antenna positing was correct for the QSO parties, as well as the SP-Dx and EA RTTY contests.  Working into Japan (or even Hawaii) was simply a bonus (each non-US/Canada QSO was worth more points).

Fast-Forward a bit..... It's now Monday morning.  The 7-contest weekend is
long over.  LooKing back, as usual,
the weekend flow hardly went the
way I thought it would. 

Then again, if things always flowed flawlessly, there would be no challenge, and no learning; just a Boring push-button machine operation.  Notice that 3 of the 7 events (listed above) were lined-out; I never found time to pursue them.

Overall, the EA RTTY GiG was a success.  While less than 50% of last year's QSO total made it to the 2020 log, with the poor SFI-index and antenna restrictions, any success is amazing.


While this weekend hardly accomplished a large QSO count,  managing to fit some-aspect of
4 radiosport events into one weekend is always an accomplishment.  What about YOU?

DiD YOU work any of the above contests?

Is NX6T in YOUR LoG?