WQ6X Dabbles in a "Little Bit of Everything" Radiosport Weekend

You've may well have heard me say "When in Doubt - CHEAT! (but within the rules)";
I even wrote a BLOG about that.  Having remote access to NX6T offers me the opportunity to
run one-or-more contest events remotely (as NX6T) and locally from Concord (as WQ6X or K6C).
There is no rule against my being a part of more than one radio operation during a given weekend;
as long as the activities remain separate and NoT Intertwined in any way, of course.

As it turns out, this weekend required a Bit of Everything.  The original operating goal was to stay
in Alameda and catch up on some work while slipping in hours of operating time, from time-to-time. 
A text message from N6KI late Wednesday evening washed-out the bridge from Alameda to Fallbrook (so to speak) - STN-1's hard-drive has failed.  

Unfortunately, we've never had RCForb running on STN-2; Why?  I haven't the foggiest. 
The only way to play radiosport this weekend was to hop near-empty BART trains to Concord;
the upside being that I can finish some of the radio and antenna configuration experiments started
the weekend before.

Radiosport-wise this weekend offered up a little bit of everything for my operating pleasure:
4 state QSO parties, 2 DX contests (one Cw and one Ssb) opening with the unusually fun
Makrothen RTTY GiG.  While I have the upcoming contests mapped-out months in advance,
I rely HEAVILY on the WA7BNM Contest Calendar for linking directly to the contest sponsor's information (website or .Pdf write up).

Altho all different radiosport events were happening throughout the weekend, in starting time order,
the ones WQ6X paid attention to included:

• [x] - Makrothen RTTY Contest as WQ6X from Concord
  
• [x] - Nevada QSO Party as NX6T & WQ6X
• [x] - Oceania DX Cw Contest as NX6T & WQ6X
• [x] - Scandinavian Activity Ssb Contest as NX6T
  
• [x] - Arizona QSO Party as NX6T & WQ6X
  
• [x] - Pennsylvania QSO Party as NX6T & WQ6X
• [x] - South Dakota QSO Party as NX6T

Long before 2020 ever began, I took on a self-assigned challenge to work as many different radiosport contests /modes / locations as I can "shoehorn" into my operating activities from Alameda (all remote to NX6T) and Concord (remote as well as local) - a little bit of everything.  Last year's contest event total was 109 GiGs posted to the 3830Scores Website + 5 events that were NoT on the calendar.  With this weekend behind me, the numbers are 116 + 3.  With 10 more busy contest weekends
to go, it would seem I have set a new personal record.

The original goal was to run all QSO parties from both locations and somehow work the pair of DX contests in
the middle of both the parties.

Over the years, I've probably worked most counties thanks
to the state QSO parties.  I am thankful for the rover stations in QSO parties who activate multiple counties and sometimes straddle county lines for 2,3 and even 4 counties at once.

One of the goals for this last weekend was to further study propagation differences between the East Bay and Fallbrook.  Included in this investigation are the Russian military beacons which give indications of propagation to Asia from the West Coast.  I've been working on another installment of the Blog topic on the Russian beacons to document some new findings.  ([CLICK HERE] to read Part 2 of this series.)

Much of what I've been doing involves nothing other than Listening: Listening, Listening and MORE Listening.

 

You've prolly heard the saying "It's Always Something".  A portion of what we do in radiosport
is, in addition to actual operating, all about troubleshooting operational problems and equipment
failures; i.e. fixing equipment and analyzing antennas.

Unfortunately, with many WQ6X operations these activities don't occur until well AFTER the fact;
after the fun (or lack thereof) is already behind us.  I have an after-contest saying: "We will Do Better Next Time" (whenever "next time" is).

Last weekend a feedline break was found near the top of the 8JK trapezoid.  While the repair helped, some of the tuner settings were still quite sharp; transmitting on 160 would "BomB" the internet router, 3.5' across the room.  Because the CH-250 now tunes on 160 (a pair of long counterpoise wires were recently added), all along, my hope for the 8JK Trapezoid never quite materialized;
and, 160 IS a major goal.

While straightening the 8JK ladder line (traversing thru the closet into the radio room) yet another feedline break was encountered.  Was this NEWLY created, OR, has it been there all along? 
I guess we'll never know, however since the cable-splice, signal levels nearly tripled and WQ6X
signal reports are far more encouraging.  Best of all, a low SWR was obtained on 160 without
a single tweak to the internet router.  Prior to the fix, It would seem that RF was leaking out the
open feedline, filling up that tiny closet and overwhelming the router.

While the major fix attention was on antenna feedlines, thanks to re-cabling the equipment
the weekend before the FT-1000mp and it's bunch of related filters performed near-flawlessly.

When it was all over, 11 radiosport events were filed on 3830Scores.Com, which of course
set a new personal operating goal for WQ6X operations in a single calendar year.

What about You?

DiD YOU work any radiosport events last weekend?

Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

Nov. 24 UPDATE:  It seems that TWO certificates were won from the NVQP GiG.