WQ6X Wanders Incredulously thru 2020 IARU

This was a weird weekend; not a BaD weekend, just different, a bit out of the ordinary; 'cept that
when it comes to "ordinary" in Radiosport, I don't Really know what that means.  In recent months people world-wide have found their lives discombobulated from being indoors for long stretches of time.  In the World of WQ6X, know 2 things:

• I'm ALREADY staying indoors - problem already solved.
• I'm wearing a Mask so I don't infect myself - what more Do I NeeD? 

You heard me claim that radiosport events actually qualify as emergency-preparedness exercises. 
In the midst of a disaster (hurricane, bombing, tornado) you may be forced ("coerced") to operate from an underground radio installation, being the ONLY means of communication with the rest
of the world for the next 48 hours.  Are you READY?  Can you deliver crisp, precise but BRIEF communications for the next 2 days? (Daze?)

For me, the "shutdown" has required little change to my schedule; at least on weekends. 
On weekends, I am either operating from Alameda or in Concord; in either case I am ALREADY indoors for most of the weekend anyway (A/C permitting of course).  This weekend was just one
more weekend of what I have already been doing with my weekends: staying indoors and playing radiosport.  The "shutdown" just gives me more justification (if I actually needed any) to play with my radio; not JUST during contest events, but afterwards when I find "excuses" to retrofit some cabling, or shift antenna wires for "more optimized" performance - Gotta keep the wheel turning.

This last weekend I kept the wheel turning by FORCING Myself to stay indoors playing in the
IARU contest - sheer torture!  I know sometimes when you hear me yelling at some IDIOT! on my
run frequency it may sound like torture, but is in fact, just one more annoyance to contend with in the world of the open-field we call the amateur frequency spectrum; altho sometimes, some bands just seem WORSE than others, probably I'm just overreacting and should just take a Chill-Pill

For this year's IARU GiG NX6T had quite an array of operators; each contributing their genius
(and wizardry) to the overall NX6T effort including (but not limited to):  K3PS, N6ERD, N6KI,
N6NC, W6JBR, W6ZAR, WB6NBU, & WQ6X.

N6ERD (Dan) and WQ6X opened the contest running the 12:00z 2 hour shift (5am to 7am);
Ron running Cw and on the 1/2 hours Dan running Ssb.  After WB6NBU ran a DYN-o-MITE
2 hour session, I came back at 16:00z for 2 more hours.  At 18:00z I handed STN-2 over and
it was time to put WQ6X on the air in the 2020 IARU Contest.

Having resolved the keying-cable debacle from the Marconi GiG weekend, IARU via the Yaesu
FT-1000mp ran quite smoothly.  I didn't think to create a set of IARU-specific .Wav files for this contest and elected instead to run CW-only, not mixed-mode. 

While the QSO count was a mere 121contacts, there were some interesting calls in those 121; including a surprise 10-meter opening from 19:07z to 20:08z, netting stations in: VE7, WA, OR,
CA, CO & KS.  The RBN stats said WQ6X was CERTAINLY being heard throughout the Northwest. 
If a station is transmitting but no human-ears are hearing the signal, can we consider the band to be open?  Today's Answer is an emphatic: YES!!

K2GMY (just north of me in Benicia) must've been utilizing some sort of Spectrum Display,
because within 30 seconds of my 1st CQ on a new band, Richard's call would flood my speaker;
not necessarily the 1st QSO on the new band, but certainly worth the 1 point 5x - Thank You!

From all around the USA it is agreed that there were EXCELLENT openings to Europe on 20 & 40 meters, that were accompanied by LoTs of atmospheric noise.  Unfortunately, while I could hear many EU stations, only SN0HQ made it to the WQ6X log.  Otherwise, the longest distant stations were KL7, KH6, KH2, ZM1, JA & RT0 - the W7AYT location sure is a DX-vortex; or, am I doing
something wrong?

I heard stations say that Asian signals were lacking.  While that is true, there were a surprising number of Chinese and Thai stations worked @ NX6T, altho they were not heard in SF East Bay - Bummer Dewd!  Hoping to glean insight from Asian propagation information on 40 meters, turning to the Russian military beacons, it was evident the "K" beacon has been absent for over 10 days now.  Should we be jumping to conclusions as to its demise?  OR?.....

Playing around with the STAT screens gives us all kinds of information, IF we can understand what the different charts are referring to (individually and in conjunction).  Being a statistics JUNKIE, I am always looking for that last bit of insight that will shed more light on the causes behind this year's success and (possibly) what can be expected for next year (given similar circumstances).

During this contest event, I was surprised by the lack of intentional QRM; at least on 40-meters anyway.  Instead we were plagued with stations who didn't know what an ITU zone was.  I would ask them for their state (ex: OK) and let them know which ZONE they were in (I.e. Zone-7), altho I dunno if some of those stations even understood what I was trying to explain.  Remember my motto: When in Doubt, RTFR (Read the Rules).  I'm beginning to wonder if the internet has dumbed some people into thinking that rule-reading is a special (aka "Advanced") skill.

When it was all over, NX6T took 16th place worldwide, 12th place for USA/N.A. and 1st-place for San Diego and the Southwest Division.  WQ6X ended up near the bottom of the SOAB(A) list; at least the callsign is in 100+ logs.

What about You?
DiD YOU participate in the 2020 IARU Hf Championship?

Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR Log?