WQ6X Wanders Woefully thru another WEIRD August Weekend

Virtually everyone I talked with acknowledged this last August weekend to be about as WEIRD
as they get.  Everything seemed to be just a bit out of synch with the MEST universe and yet, somehow, when it was all over, everything more-or-less came together.

On the WA7BNM Contest Calendar it was noticed that there was no entry for the SCC RTTY
contest (to begin at 12:00z), however there was a NEW entry in the calendar for an event known
as RTTY-Ops beginning at 18:00z on FRIDAY.  Clicking on this event took me to the website for the SCC RTTY contest GiG.  Not realizing this was a leftover link in the internet cache, I setup N1MM+
to be ready for the SCCC event @12:00z.

Noticing that both events use the same exchange (5NN + Year-first-licensed), I did not realize that RTTY-Ops was a replacement for the SCC event until I fired up NX6T's STN-1 and only heard CQ calls for RTTY-Ops.  A series of e-mail exchanges w/WA7BNM confirmed that RTTY-Ops IS the replacement for the SCC GiG (hence the same exchange) and that I had barely 2+ hours left to
play, as the RTTY-Ops GiG ended at 18:00z Saturday morning.  HuH  WTF?
Here is what Bruce Horn (WA7BNM) had to say about this:

• There's been great confusion about this. The SCC retired their RTTY contest as of the 2019 edition, when they partnered with the WWROF
  to co-sponsor the new WW-DIGI contest. That was supposed to be the end of the SCC RTTY contest, but recently RTTYOps (Rag) resurrected the contest. Originally, he scheduled it for the first weekend in October, then he moved it to the first weekend in September and then finally two days ago he moved it to this weekend. He couldn't use the legacy 12Z Sat to 12Z Sun dates because that's when the WW-DIGI contest is,
  so he scheduled it for 18Z, Fri to 18Z Sat. However, there was only
  about a day's notice, so I'm not surprised that RTTY contesters are confused.

Because there was yet no contest entry in N1MM+ for RTTY-Ops, I used the SCC entry and in
the end submitted the log with the SCC contest header.  The CQ SCC message was converted
to "CQ RTTY-Ops Test".  Further adding to the confusion, @18:00z when RTTY-Ops ended,
I immediately heard a dozen CQ SCC Test calls, altho they eventually died away.  The only
RTTY Cq heard was from K0R in the Kansas QSO Party (KQP); my first QSO in that event. 
The rest of the digital/RTTY was filled with stations working the "new" Worldwide Digi-DX contest.

Left on the agenda for the weekend was the YO-Dx HF contest and the 2-Part Kansas QSO Party. 
In 2019, running as NX6T a whopping 15 QSOs were made resulting in 108th place worldwide.  When it comes to the YO-Dx contest, I'm always full of hope that this will be THE year it actually
goes right, for a change.  Unfortunately, with the sunspot cycle still lingering at the bottom, that
dream is rarely realized; oh to live on the East coast for EU contest access.  Because I frequently remote in to operate NX6T (near San Diego), I guess a remote station in New England should
also be considered.

From NX6T, DOZENS of YO/YU spots were visible on the N1MM+ bandmap; unfortunately,
their source was either EU itself or N/E USA.  While a dozen QSOs eventually made it to the
WQ6X log for this contest, they were ALL from the USA (YO/YU QSOs are worth more points).

Left over for weekend was the Kansas QSO party (KQP) as the only real source of radiosport action for the weekend.  I love playing around in the KQP because as QSO parties go, this one personifies the (EASY) BUTTON.  This year the decision was made to run this GiG mixed-Mode for a change.  While 60% of the QSOs were made on Cw, Kansas stations on Ssb actually seemed quite plentiful (as QSO parties go) and overall, LoTs of fun; made so by the uniqueness of the individual operators.

My usual beef state w/QSO parties is about not enough in-State players in their own QSO party events.  With Kansas, there were plenty of new stations and/or new counties being heard throughout the GiG.  The Kansas OPs are also clever enough to run a "Part-2" of their event for 6 more hours on Sunday - PERFECT - Almost as good as CQP (coming up in October).

What was missing with this year's
KQP were stations working 80/160;
even 40-meters seemed lacking.

There was a BONUS station
for KQP using the call KS0KS. 
The 1st time working that station
adds a 100-point bonus to the score. 

Afterwards, working KS0KS gives just the usual (2 or 3) QSO points. 


Additionally, spelling "KANSAS", "QSOPARTY", "SUNFLOWER" & "YELLOWBRICKROAD"
by working 1x1 calls bring about other bonuses.  In fact, over 90% of the stations I worked in
the KQP were 1x1 callsigns.  That got me to thinking.  I became interested to discover what
letters of the alphabet they were actually going for and came up with the following:

•   A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J  K   L  M
• N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W    X  Y  Z

There were only 5 unused letters in the above; only the "G", "H", "M", "V" and "Z"
were not used; come to think of it, I don't recall any 1x1 stations using those letters. 
Of those, WQ6X managed to work the following:

•   A   B   C  D   E  F   G   H   I  J  K  L M
• N  O  P  Q  R S  T  U   V   W   X  Y Z

I managed to work the following:

• K0A, K0D, K0E, K0F, K0I, K0K, K0L, K0M, K0N, K0O, K0P, K0R, K0T, K0U, K0W
• NOA, N0C, N0D, N0E, N0F, N0K, N0N, N0O, N0P, N0Q, N0S, N0T, NOU, NOW
• W0A, W0B, W0D, W0F, W0K, W0M, W0N, W0P, W0Q, W0R, W0S, W0T,
  W0U, W0W, W0Y

It would seem that WQ6X worked enough stations  to qualify for all the above words as follows:

• K- K0K  A- K0A  N- K0N  S- N0S  A- N0A  S- W0S
• Q- N0Q  S- N0S  O- K0O 
  P- K0P  A- N0A  R- K0R  T- K0T  Y- W0Y
• S- N0S  U- K0U  N- K0N 
  F- K0F  L- K0L  O- K0O  W- K0W  E- K0E  R- K0R
• Y- W0Y  E- K0E  L- K0L  L- K0L  O- K0O  W- K0W 
  B- W0B  R- K0R  I- K0I  C- N0C  K- K0K 
  R- W0R  O- N0O  A- K0A  D- K0D

Overall, I continue to support KQP.  Altho not as robust as CQP, KQP DOES give us
"Left Coasters" a shot at participating in QSO parties closer to us - propagative geography
seems to reasonably exist between San Diego and KS and the SF East bay and KS. 
We W6's are grateful for your signals.

Having already used the WQ6X callsign from Fallbrook in the KQP GiG, I was not allowed
to also use it from the SF East Bay.  At the last minute I setup a run from W7AYT as - W7AYT,
making 12 QSOs in a last-minute operation; all on 20-meter Cw.  There is a quite considerable contrast between signal levels in Concord, versus what is heard @NX6T in Fallbrook.
Remember my edict: "When in Doubt CHEAT, but within the Rules..."

Because this was someone else's state QSO party I didn't have to worry about intentional QRM.  However that doesn't prevent other stations I'm trying to work from being QRM'd by people who "hate them pesky contesters".  A blatant example occurred on Sunday @23:48z when some clown decided that W0W needed their 7.223 frequency serenaded with the repeated playing of "Taps" (on trumpet).  HuH?  WTF is THAT all about?  Does W0W REALLY DESERVE your annoying little annoyances, or are you just Bored-out-of-Your-Mind?

If you're bored, go ask mommy and daddy what you can do today - (as long as it is done OFF
the air).  When I get bored in the radio shack (which is rare), I purposely look for new things
to get involved with.  An easy solution for me is to skim the contest calendar looking for "little"
contest events (or QSO parties) I may have overlooked; which is how I found the KQP QSO
party in the first place.

Did You work any radiosport GiGs in August's last weekend?

Is WQ6X or W7AYT in YOUR Log?