WQ6X runs another ad-HOC 5 Contest Weekend

This being another "off" weekend radiosport-wise in Fallbrook, the decision was made to test-run
the ever-evolving setup @W7AYT.  Ironically, the external audio processing equipment currently
in use at the Concord location was being given it's Alpha-Test from the Alameda location during
this same 7-contest weekend in 2020. 
([CLICK HERE] to reminisce about that contest weekend and Alpha tests.) 
While the equipment setup was largely Alpha and not fully tested, virtually
the same events were run in 2020; with some of the same complaints as this year.

Two weekends back, the Alameda remote connection was given a thorough evaluation. 
This last weekend, the REAL challenge was the see-saw Space-WX storms, coming
and going throughout the weekend.

For this look-alike contest weekend, 7 contests were identified as  up for consideration,
which included:

• [X] - YB DX RTTY Contest
  
• [X] - Oklahoma QSO Party
  
• [X] - Stew Perry Top Band Challenge
  
• [X] - Tesla Memorial CW Contest
  
• [X] - Idaho QSO Party
  
• [X] - North American SPRINT RTTY
  
• [X] - Wisconsin QSO Party
  

You'll notice I lined out the the YB DX RTTY GiG.  As usual, looking for YB DX RTTY contest action yielded ZERO stations.  

Every year, I see the YB RTTY GiG listed
on the WA7BNM contest calendar; and,
every year, nothing is heard, despite
pointing the yagi's to approx. AZ: 265.  

The same thing usually happens with the
Tesla Memorial Contest, altho as you can see, I DiD find a 40-meter band opening in the 2020 Tesla GiG.  Unfortunately, the 2021 TMC GiG ended up being lined out, despite my dozens of CQ calls Saturday evening.

Earlier on Saturday, client commitments occupied the 10-meter viable portion of the
day, making it impossible to spend time with the SA-10 contest.  Then again, with the HORRIBLE Space-WX this weekend,
10-meters seemed to be dormant anyway;
for us Left-coasters, it was a failed hope.

Because the 24-hour Stew Perry GiG begins @15:00z, the first 160 meter opportunity on the West coast doesn't occur for another 10 hours.  I spent client-time in my Alameda office, not making it into the operating chair until nearly 23:00z.  It seemed that with 3 state QSO parties all in operation there would be dozens of stations to work.  Of course, the truth was nowhere near that.

You've heard my oft-repeated complaint about most state QSO parties (California excepted) that
there are never enough in-state participants in their own GiGs - Wassup with THAT?  All too often,
the calling stations outnumber the run stations by nearly 10:1.  Contrast that with the CQP weekend in October where Californians activate HUNDREDS of stations, with ALL counties represented at some point during the weekend.

During the ID/OK/WI QSO parties, a not-insignificant problem were the number of out-of-state stations (such as K5CM) who actually activated a county but sounded like they were "one of us".  Letting us know that you are actually an in-state station can double your QSO-rate.  It's actually easy to do. 
For example, if WQ6X is operating from ADA county in Idaho, a typical CQ call would sound something like: CQ IDQP WQ6X WQ6X/ADA.  This is SO obvious, that it is amazing how
many seasoned operators still don't DO this.

For the SP-160 contest, the decision was to run a Multi-Single operation with WM6Y starting and ending the contest and WQ6X filling in the middle.  Using the NX6T call gave us callsign recognition.  While I ran the Sprint RTTY contest and what was left of Saturday's QSO parties on STN-1, PJ (WM6Y) put 69 QSOs in the 160 log.  At 9:45pm (local time) I switched STN-1 over from N1MM
to running DXLOG for the 160 contest, adding yet another 69 QSOs to the log.  Starting @2am
(just in time for Daylight Savings), WM6Y added another 20 QSOs to the log before literally
running out of new stations to work.

While Space-WX condx. were HORRIBLE (A-Index = 24, K-Index = 4-5), running a frequency (1833.33), I was rewarded with calls from stations including: KH7X, NP2J. NP2X & KL7SB.  Then,
at 08:53z JA0MVW made it to the log, followed later by JA5DQH.  At 10:21z PJ added JA8ISU and later JH2FXK & JH2FXK.  The rest were all stateside and Canada.  While we hardly set any records, it certainly was a lesson in remote operating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instead of single-point contacts with multipliers, the SP-160 contest assigns point-values
for each contact depending upon the KM-distance between the 2 Grid-Squares. 

DiD YOU work the SP-160 or RTTY Sprint contests?

Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

 

ADDENDUM:

 

 

 

 

According to the 3830 Scores Website,
NX6T took 2nd-place overall and 1st-place for the entire Left Coast.