WQ6X Dual-OPs another WPX Cw Contest

While WPX Cw contests are ALWAYS the last weekend of May, usually that coincides with
Labor Day weekend; which THIS year preceded the WPX GiG.  Because more people were indoors during the weekend, there was an apparent and obvious increase in the number of
entrants for the CQ Weird Prefix Contest - works for me.  I recently wrote a Blast from the
Past Blog about this event - [CLICK HERE] to review that.

Altho the Solar Flux (SFI) was still in nowhere land, it was surprising to actually find and/or create openings on 10-meters.  You've heard me say, "if everybody is listening and nobody's transmitting, the band will appear to be dead".  This weekend, because we were running as a Multi-2 operation, having an aggressive CQ Caller and an assertive Search & Pounce operator, multiple hourly-goals were accomplished throughout the 48 hours.

Most of this weekend's operation was run remotely, as it increasingly
is being done worldwide. 

However for Robert (K4RB), it was largely business as usual as he managed B-i-C (Butt-in-Chair) both Saturday and Sunday mornings.

In years past when I was the B-i-C nightshift operator, K4RB would relieve me around 7:30am, bringing an Egg McMuffin or a Breakfast Jack for a before-bedtime snack at 8am.


Some OPs are day people and some OPs (me) prefer the quiet and intimacy of the after-midnight shift.  While I miss the B-i-C moments @NX6T, I DON'T miss the 10 hour drive from the SF bay area to Fallbrook; altho a 12 hour train ride can be an enjoyable warm-up to operating when I don't feel like driving. 

Conversely, remaining in the bay area allows me the capability of dual-OP'ing contests such as
the WPX, enabling the opportunity to be a part of TWO weird prefixes in the Weird Prefix contest. 
For 2020 I found the opportunity to dual-OP both WPX GiGs (Cw and Ssb).  With the recently revamped station setup @W7AYT, dual operating (by way of the Elecraft K3/0) occurred near-flawlessly, altho short internet dropouts clipped Cw characters, requiring an unfortunate number
of repeats.  It's frustrating asking an S9+ station for several repeats because the internet chops
their otherwise loud signals.

The Score difference between NX6T and WQ6X was of course quite dramatic.  However in
BOTH cases I was amazed to make QSOs on 10 meters for both operations.  For NX6T I used
the 14mh Stepp-IR and 1400 watts to make 34 QSOs.  For WQ6X it was 100 watts into a 10mh
3-el Long John yagi to make 13 QSOs.

For WPX, contacts in other countries are often worth 6-points apiece (not to mention the new multiplier value for individual prefixes).  It was amazing to hear from other W6 operators that they heard/worked very few JA multipliers.  We put dozens of Asian stations in the log; most specifically
on 40-meters after midnight both evenings.  Am I missing something?

One of the ways to notice Asia band openings on 40 meters is by way of the Russian Letter
beacons on ~7.039.  I've recently written about these beacons:

• [x] - Wassup with Those Mysterious Russian Letter Beacons?
• [x] - Wassup with Those Mysterious Russian Letter Beacons? - Part 2

When it was all over, the 3830 stats showed a surprising result.  It would seem that:

• NX6T spent 42 hours amassing a 6.5-million point score placing 12th-place worldwide,
  7th-place for N. America, 6th-place for USA, 2nd-place for Zone 3 and 1st-place for W6.
  
• WQ6X spent only 8 hours on the air and from that amassed a nearly 5-k point 40-meter score placing 5th-place worldwide, 2nd-place for N. America, 2nd-place for USA, 1st-place
  for Zone 3 and 1st-place for W6.
  

DiD YOU work the Weird Prefix WPX Contest?

Is both NX6T and WQ6X in YOUR Log?