WQ6X Wrangles a Wild CQ World-wide Contest

Based on recent previous year's activity, I possessed little hope that this year would be any
different; except that the Solar Flux Index (SFI) was 108 (during part of the weekend), instead of 69
all weekend last year.  We also DiD NoT have to endure the 16-hour internet outage for our last CQ W.W. GiG at the Fallbrook location; internet at the Anza location to my knowledge seems to be flawless.

While we had 7 operators (like last year), we ran a rather tight Multi-single operation, using Anza's STN-2 to run frequencies and S&P during slower periods.  This allowed operators to spend time at STN-1 hunting for multipliers on other bands.

In the CQ W.W. GiG, we receive two kinds of multiplier credit: Individual Countries & Zones 1 to 40.  The turnout this year seemed to be DOUBLE that of 2020, bringing considerably EASIER access to Zones 34 thru 40 (Y E S !!!) ; relatively difficult from the Waste Coast.  Being "the guy who never sleeps" (so says N6KI), I ran the 2am to 5am shift both mornings and the "dinner shift" both evenings.  In between those shifts, I found time to futz around putting 47 QSOS into the WQ6X/6 Concord LoG.  I spent the last hour hunting multipliers on STN-1 while N6KI put the wraps on things at STN-2.  Unfortunately, missing Zone-34 cost us a zone-sweep.

A new Post-IT not facility was installed on the computer for both stations.  This software update incorporates a Callsign Identification Box (CIB) so we always know who the main operator at each station is.  Being a Cw-only contest weekend, leveraging the ever-evolving stereo Cw facility @WQ6X helped sort-out pileup runs, spreading the calling stations into a more-or-less 160-degree arc around the listening experience (based on Cw pitch frequency).  Using the R-I-T control allows exact positioning of each station to a more copyable "location" in the listening experience. 
(This also gives me more knobs to twiddle - you know how much I love to twiddle knobs.)

This Cw contest was the year of the perplexing pandemoniac pileup experience.  At 20:30z on Sunday, I felt sorry for V73NS (Marshall Islands) as he tried to manage the most UNRULY pileup behavior in ALL my years playing around in radiosport.  He sent "/M ?" (meaning mobile station only) and everyone else BUT the mobile threw in their callsign.  He had to repeat the above EIGHT times until everyone STFU and he could make ONE contact.

The same thing happened with "6X?" - he had to repeat "6X?" NINE times until it was finally quiet enough that my puny 100 watt signal could be copied.  It does NO GooD for my signal to be 5-9-9 when the IDIOTS who don't listen (or don't care) are 25-db over S-9.  Later I heard the same operator ignorance with PJ7/G4XXX on the island of Sint. Martin.  What these IDIOTS don't realize is that their STUPIDITY wastes EVERYBODY's time.  Think of the DX station as akin to a net control operator.  They are willing to follow the directives of a net control station, yet find it appropriate behavior to walk all over a DX station, ruining it for EVERYBODY.  (After the contest they complain that the DX station was a LiD - when in fact it is THEY who are the LiD operators.)

A distinct advantage to double the participation is that not only where more zones and dozens more countries active over last year's contest, zones normally offering little participation gave us several operators this year; 80, 10 & 160 meters were surprisingly well populated.

For WQ6X's Concord operation, working into Europe on 40-meters was quite a surprise; evidently the ladder line retrofit for the 8JK Cobra array made a difference.  Only once did shack-RFI take out the Toshiba Dynadock port replicator.

Each contest event run from the SF East Bay offers the opportunity to thoroughly test the hardware configuration and the contest logging software (N1MM+ in this case).  It always seems like there is some aspect of the operation which can be easily improved.  While only 47 QSOs made it to the WQ6X contest log, running as a dual-OP brought WQ6X's GiG total to 115 events thus far for the 2021 contest calendar.

Left for this year are the ARRL 160 & 10 meter contests, the final Stew Perry 160 GiG,
and of course, the Canadian RAC Winter contest to end the year.

DiD YOU participate in the 2021 CQ W.W. Cw contest?

Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Wanders thru a Weirdly Wonderful Ssb Sweepstakes

When it comes to Ssb Sweepstakes (2021-style).... Geez - where to begin?...  Somehow I managed to survive the Cw GiG (2 weekends ago), as well as the WAE/JIDX combo last weekend.  Due to a technicality, the NX6T Cw Sweepstakes entry was DQ'd and turned into a checklog; at least, WQ6X as a single-OP (unlimited) entry managed at LEAST a 1st-place for East Bay (EB) section.

Major goals for the 2021 sideband Sweepstakes included dual-OP'ing the contest, leveraging the opportunity to test-run the latest wiring enhancements to the dual-channel audio used to make WQ6X contest operations more effective.  Thanks to a slowly-rising SFI (Solar Flux Index), there was a hope to bring some 10-meter action back to Sweepstakes.  15-meters certainly bounced-back this year.

NX6T ran a multi-OP (LP) entry remotely from the WA6TQT Super-station atop the mountain in Anza (ORG Section).  Remoting into Anza has finally become a "no-Brainer", except for what I can only describe as "internet burbling"; every 1.5 to 2 minutes the internet connection in Concord pulses - connecting and disconnecting.  I can usually sense when it is about to happen and purposely do NoT speak into the microphone during those (approx.) 5 seconds.  For super transmit-audio I used the Electro Voice EV-664 microphone for BOTH WQ6X and NX6T operations.

Across the HF radio spectrum frequency
sensitive noise clusters were encountered altho
these may have been a byproduct of the intermittent Space-WX storms which occurred throughout the contest weekend.  With an increase in the Solar
Flux Index (SFI), we can expect more frequent
(but usually shorter) solar storms.

On the receive end of things the K3/0 audio was fed thru the myriad of DSP filters I've been experimenting with for several years now - offering me not only Stereo-Cw but a form of Stereo-Ssb as well.

For the most part, the various DSP/Audio filters were able to largely mitigate the various sources of noise; each unit having advantages for a given noise type.  Daisy-chaining the NIR-12 into the NIR-10 in many cases seems to provide better Ssb noise handling
than the DNF settings on the K3-end of the K3/0.

During radiosport contests, intentional QRM (especially on 40-meters) is sometimes an annoying problem.  On non-Ssb contest weekends, all we hear on 40-meters are people ragchewing and DX'ing.  During Ssb contest weekends, we put up with numerous Tune-up Turkeys (TuTs), RTTY
QRM and "Data Crankers".  Sweepstakes weekend brought us the usual TuTs and a data
"Spritzer" EXACTLY on the 7156.56 run frequency where it ran for HOURS until propagation
fading swept it away.

Because seeking multipliers is an integral part of Sweepstakes, I was really quite surprised to hear WH6 and KH7 stations who were actually stateside (Ca, Co & Az).  I've no doubt this confused many more operators than JUST me.  (In many RTTY contests if you are operating outside of your call area, you MUST report that fact; ex: KH7X/W7, KH7Y/W6, etc.)

When it was all over, NX6T took a 3rd place overall and a 1st place for ORG section and the Southwest Division; missing 3 sections (NL, NNY & SB) made the difference between 2nd and 3rd place.  WQ6X took 1st-place for East Bay (EB) section and (most likely) 2nd place for PAC Division.

Overall I love dual-OP'ing contests however with Sweepstakes I get to engage in two levels of traffic handing simulation; one more intense (NX6T) in contrast with a more laid-back operation (WQ6X).

DiD YOU work the November Sweepstakes Ssb contest?

Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR LoG?

As of April 2022:
NX6T made 3rd place overall, 1st for Southwest Division and 1st for SDG (San Diego) Section.
WQ6X ended up in 107th place overall, 2nd for PAC Division and 1st place for EB (East Bay) Section.

WQ6X Works Wickedly Weak WAE & JIDX Contests

Radiosport-wise, this is one weekend I never quite know what to do with.  As we near the end
of another long radiosport year, the QSO parties are largely over, leaving a handful of ARRL GiGs
and of course, the CQ W.W. Cw Thaing.  

Over the last dozen years team-NX6T has earned nearly a dozen "ToP MoP" plaques.  Last year
the JIDX contest committee added the Multi-2 category, which has served as a "BriBe" to move the
"BiG" stations out of the Multi-Single category.  

THOUGHT: If the winner of the M/S category is "ToP MoP", would the winner 

of the Multi-2 category be a "ToP 2-MoP"?

Nestled around the Japanese JIDX GiG is the WAE RTTY contest.  The WAE has an interesting approach: we can work ANYONE worldwide, however, QTC traffic can only be transacted between stations on OTHER continents - no intra-continent traffic handling is allowed.  (Luckily, most contest logging software enforces this requirement,)

To create the most effective WAE RTTY operating, N1MM+ (w/12 definable function keys) easily automates the details, enabling the operator to focus on the contest overall.  The WAE RTTY GiG
is a FUN contest, accompanied by compounding frustration when the DX propagation is PooR - like this last weekend.  While there were no Space-WX storms, for the most part (throughout the weekend) signal levels seemed marginal, overall.

In RTTY contests, slow-fading creates the weird situation where a station's callsign will decode perfectly, while the rest disappears into JIBBERISH.  Everything sent by each custom-programmed FKEY is intended to MINIMIZE this problem.  

RTTY contests ALSO bring up two radiosport ethics situations which I detailed in PART 1
of the Blog series on The Role of Respect in Radiosport.

Friday evening's RTTY operating gave the recently rewired (AGAIN!) audio cabling its 1st-live
test-run.  Other than 8JK ladder-line RF in the shack creating some weird squawks in receive audio, RTTY copy itself ran splendidly.

Reading soapbox comments from other USA contesters confirms my experience  of intentional QRM on 40-meters after 08:30z.  For THIS contest event it came in the form of what I can only describe as "Swish Bubbling": bubbling noises swishing around the run frequency.  At 12:52z it materialized in the form of CRASHING Noises, not atmospherically-generated.   There was also some sort of pulse radar on 20-meters, which sounded like playing cards against bicycle spokes.  Eventually the radar showed up near 40-meters, just as obnoxious.

However the REAL QRM problem came from the myriad of Indonesian stations who can BARELY speak English, yet find it appropriate to move less than 1Kc below the run frequency and call "CQ JIDX".  Knowing that they won't understand any verbal edict to QSY, my quick solution was to ZERO-beat them and call my own CQ.  Running nearly 1500 watts (with antennas pointed RIGHT AT them), I can easily make their CQ-time unproductive - even WORTHLESS.  When they quickly move, I return to the original run frequency like nothing happened - taking advantage of having been previously SPOTTED by the spotting-nets.

On Ssb, it can be argued that they happened to be near the run frequency "by accident". 
With RTTY,  when I encounter "Perfect copy" QRM on a purposely-chosen oddball/obscure
run frequency, I know it didn't happen by accident; yet it occurs dozens of times in every RTTY contest.

My frustration with the WAE RTTY GiG is how easy it was to make QSOs, yet how nearly impossible it was to find stations outside North America willing/able who could/would copy my signals reliably enough to exchange QTC traffic.  Bottom-line: no QTC traffic was passed, reducing the ending score by nearly 50%.   This is of course why (w/o ruining the run-rate) we should DUMP QTC traffic as quickly as we accumulate it; and yes, easier said than done.  Oh wail, luckily it was only a simple "play-around-in" RTTY exercise.

I put the JIDX contest (as well as my body) to bed at 13:00z (5am) Sunday morning. 
With more-or-less 5 hours sleep it was time to pass my QTC traffic and finish off the WAE GiG..  Unfortunately, while WQ6X ran until the 23:59:59 end time, there were never any non-NA signals reliable enough to pass QTC traffic, so once again, WQ6X gets stuck with over 100+ undelivered
QTC messages.  While there were reasonably LOUD South American stations, the QSB (fading)
was so fierce that attempting to pass QTC's would have been a frustrating time-wasting experience.

The bottom-line here is that 2 more contests were added to the 2021 radiosport list taking us to 112  events for the year.  On the operational-end of things the recently revamped audio cabling was given
a thorough shakedown, identifying ground loops that need to be resolved after the contest weekend.  A brief test of a Mustang mobile-based stereo equalizer being considered for the WQ6X operation turned out to seriously FAIL expectations and has been banished back to the test bench in Alameda for further evaluation.

We were quite disappointed by the lack of JA participation in general and lack of JA stations calling CQ.  It turns out, several of the prominent JA stations (ex: JH4UYB) were busy playing the the WAE RTTY GiG and not their own country's DX contest.  HuH???  This was expressed by none other than JA8RWU himself:

Enjoyed a part-time effort. Condx was not good. Called all. They say not many JA, yep vy sri... Mni tnx for the QSOs. Cu next year! 73's Akira, JA8RWU

When it was all over, looking at the 3830 Scores posts revealed that NX6T 
allegedly secured 1st-place for the Multi-single category (our nemesis 
K3EST took the bait
and ran as a Multi-2 operation).  

While WQ6X placed at the bottom of the WAE heap, a log was of course submitted for the WAE contest, keeping the callsign on the [so-called] "mailing list" for 2022's WAE GiGs.

DiD YOU work the JIDX and/or WAE  contests?

Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR LoGs?

WQ6X Sweeps up another November Sweepstakes

It's no secret that the November Sweepstakes is my FAVorite domestic radiosport contest event. 
As was documented in last year's "BLAST from the Past" Blog, I've run SS events from Livermore
(as a teenager), Cincinnati OH, Eastern OH, an expedition from Carpinteria state beach, Brentwood (w/N6GEO), Fallbrook (NX6T in SDG) and of course numerous events (each uniquely different)
from W7AYT's QTH in the East Bay (EB) section.

During Sweepstakes events in recent years, I have been able to run dual-OP as WQ6X, while putting in a not-insignificant number of hours as a remote-OP for NX6T from the Fallbrook location.  Different for 2021 was running SS as NX6T for the 1st time from WA6TQT's super station on the mountain top in Anza, with stacked yagi arrays for the 40 thru 10 meter bands along with a 4-Square for 80-meters.

At the WQ6X end of operations, the revamped 8JK phased Cobra dipole array produced much improved operation overall, with increased signal levels, despite the horribly UP/DN space weather throughout the weekend.  (Sunday afternoon @23:40z OZ7X cam thru on 40-meters - wOw - something that never happens even during late-evening from the Concord QTH. 
However, I'm getting ahead of myself.

With thorough station setup completed Friday evening after posting the BLOG on last weekend's
CQ WW contest, I settled in to run the Saturday's Sweepstakes GiG at the 21:00z starting time while N6KI began putting QSOs into the NX6T log.  Within minutes Dennis telephoned to let me know that internet audio streaming to his RRC-1258 (the K3/0's hardware interface) was cutting out HORRIBLY.  Instead of running the 5 to 7:30 shift, I took over N6KI's shift while he waited for internet recovery. 
By the time the Dennis took over the 5pm (01:00z) to 7:30 shift, I had 255 QSOs in the log.

Despite the UP/Downess of the Space-WX, 15 meters was wide-open domestically. 
10-meters never happened in Anza OR Concord, despite numerous CQ calls on my part.

Until the last station cable revamp, the 8JK Cobra Array was RFI'ing the shack, even to the point
of overloading the OP-computer's USB lines.  Preliminary tuning tests BE-4 the Sweepstakes found everything in order, and in fact, the CH-250 vertical was used only occasionally during the contest; mainly as a receive comparison antenna.  When the Space-WX wasn't geomagneticstorming, band condx. were incredibly improved over even a year ago.  It seems like years since 40-meters was reliably open to the E. Coast by 23:30z.

The BiG problem for the weekend was intermittent Left-Ear audio.  The us of Stereo-CW was
easily produced with the K3/0's audio while it seemed to be "frequency sensitive" w/the Yaesu
FT-1000mp's split audio.  When Stereo-Cw works, it is utterly AWEsome.  Surrounded by signals during a pileup, different pitched signals appear in a 0 - 180 degree azimuth arc; words can hardly adequately convey the experience.  (Read Previous Blogs on this and develop your own Stereo-Cw arrangement.)

In addition to Stereo-Cw, having a pre-defined set of F-KEYs (each sending only ONE piece of information) made for snappy exchanges, just like we used to do during my traffic handling days.  (Remember: Sweepstakes was originally a traffic handling training exercise.)

While NX6T eventually accomplish a clean sweep (all 84 multipliers), for WQ6X the task is not so easily accomplished.  However I was astonished by the number of "rare" sections who called-in on my RUN frequencies: VY1, VO1, VY2, ND & NE.  reading other soapbox comments, the near-unanimous experience was the rarity of EWA and UT; usually it's NE.

The backdrop for the 2021 ARRL Cw November Sweepstakes was most certainly the ever-rising solar cycle 25.  The other side of a rising SFI is of course more solar storms, no matter how brief.

Being so used to running SS on the lower bands during a lengthy sunspot minimum, I'd almost nearly forgotten what it is like to run things on 15-meters, instead of FORCING all the upper-band action onto the 20-meter band alone.

Several attempts were made to create SS-action on 10-meters; alas it was not to be this year.  Usually a handful of local (EB) stations can be hooked up with on 10-meters, demonstrating all-band activity in published summary STATs.  Outside of a possible RBN spot, there was no evidence of any 10-meter activity.

Despite all of the above, Cw Sweepstakes 2021 met all of my expectations for how a simulated traffic handling event should run.

DiD YOU play in the 2021 November Sweepstakes Cw contest?

Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

As of April 2022:
NX6T made 8th place overall, 3rd for Southwest Division and 1st for SDG (San Diego) Section.
WQ6X ended up in 80th place overall, 2nd for PAC Division and 1st place for EB (East Bay) Section.

WQ6X Wings and Wangles the CQ W.W. Ssb Contest

 One word sums up last weekend's CQ W.W. Ssb Contest:  wOw!

 

Of the BiG-3 contest types, you've heard
me say that Ssb contests are my LEAST favorite, especially DX contests.  

In recent years for WQ6X, the CQ W.W. Ssb GiG has been a Ho-Hummer, leading me to predict a final QSO total of 200 - 300 for this year's event.  

Had I been operating from our old Fallbrook location, that woulda probably have been
a reasonably accurate number.

For 2021, I received the Go-ahead to run STN-2 @WA6TQT's super-site on the mountain top in Anza (Orange county), while KI6RRN (Axel) ran STN-1.  

Because this was an Ssb contest, any XMIT harmonics fell outside the amateur bands and was not a problem BETWEEN Stn-1 & Stn-2.

 

For the 1st time (in what seems like FOREVER), we had a reasonable solar flux index of 113 AND
low A & K indexes.  In recent years 80 and 160 have yielded a not-insignificant percent of our score.  This year, we swapped 80 & 160 meters for 15 & 10.

Recently when I run Ssb w/a K3/0 (or Mini) I use the Super-AWEsome $11 eBay special microphone, which I inadvertently left in Alameda,  Through a judicious use of patch cables and junction-blocks, the classic Electro Voice EV-664 microphone ran a flawless Ssb contest.  The only difficulty occurred when John (WA6TQT) menu-directed the microphone away from the RRC unit during my sleep break shortly after midnight.  NoT realizing it could easily switched back, thanks to previously loaded DVK memories S&P operation was at least doable; just as well as I was sleep-exhausted any way.

One of my operating goals (altho it seemed fleeting at the time) was to make a few QSOs on
15 and 10 meters.  Throughout the day the bands seemed to hold promise.  At  21:00z  switching
to the stacked yagi array aimed at South America, dozens of stations were worked.  Eventually
a handful of Japanese stations called (off the back of the KT-36) prompting a switch to the other
yagi stack pointed towards Asia @23:50z.  When 10-meters finally ran out, there were 300+
QSOs logged for that band, with 200+ from Asia alone.

On Sunday, more-or-less the same thing happened, this time on 15-meters.  Beginning at 19:50z,
a "pipeline" opened up from Anza to South America. As the 2-hour SA-pileup wound down, Asian stations (Japan, Korea & UA0) began to drift in.  From that moment until contest end, I kept the
Asian pipeline alive, with an occasional caller from Australia and Central/South America.

Aside from the upper band condx. and running lengthy pileups, there were no other major events.  While a solar flare occurred near the end of the contest, for all intents and purposes, it had no major impact on operations from Anza.  Then again, a number of disparate significances come to mind.

In past Blogs I have ranted ad-nauseum about the myriads of different-mode QRM experienced
in the evening on 40-meters.  Cw contests are often plagued by Ssb QRM, while Ssb GiGs are frequently plagued by errant RTTY.  (In recent years RTTY contest operations have often been
plagued by swarms of FT-8 idiots.)  For the CQ contest at 06:33z I stumbled onto EI7M on 7.178.  Unfortunately, his frequency run was accompanied by systematic QRM that sounded like a motorcycle (with a glass pack muffler) sputtering On/Off at EXACTLY the worst moments;
I.e. this was no Random/Atmospheric Occurrence.

For WQ6X, 11:00z on 7149.89 brought us some Indonesian-sounding station testing his microphone ad-nauseum with "HUMMMMM - HUMMMMM - HUMMMMM"... for over 20-minutes.

It can be argued that he couldn't hear me, except that similar to intentional RTTY  QRM, he was EXACTLY zero-beat on 7149.89.  That just does not happen randomly contest after contest.

Other Indonesian stations were hearing WQ6X and calling in for a QSO - this guy HEARD me and didn't care.  Typical to 40-meter QRM situations, I simply hold the frequency as if I can't hear the QRM'er; eventually they get "Bored" and go to bed.

 

QRM can make a voice seem unintelligible.  Just as unintelligible are "foreign" stations (often w/an unintelligible accent) who pronounce their callsign ONCE in rapid-delivery mode.  This was certainly the case with EA8RM.  He was probably wondering why he had no callers.  The Answer?:  We didn't know who he was - we couldn't make out his callsign.  We needed for him to STFD - Slow Down. 
At least on Cw I can request a station to QRS.  Asking a station to QRS on Ssb would probably confuse the clueless individual even further.

You've heard me say "Your Callsign is Your Calling Card - Say it Perfectly,
GeT it RIGHT!"

Some years back, I included this as
one of my BiGGest beefs in radiosport contesting.  

[CLICK HERE] to read the 4-part series.

NoN-English speaking OPs should REHEARSE saying their callsign BE-4 the contest.  Even then, they should record and playback DVK (Voice Keyer) messages calling CQ, giving a succinct contest exchange along with saying the callsign at least twice (but S-L-o-W-l-Y).

Something I've noticed in recent major Ssb contests are the SUPER Stations (usually in the 3rd call area) who PURPOSELY operate right at the bottom of the band on the USB bands.  Their antenna arrays are So HUGE and their power-levels So HIGH they end up SPLATTERING 3+ KC OUTSIDE
of the voice band allocation; technically in violation of FCC rules.  Technically, FCC rule violations
are grounds for a log submission to become DQ'd (Disqualified), relegating it to CHECKLOG Status.  BTW, they always had 3+ KC above them quiet and available.  Do you REALLY need to operate on 14.150.89 on Upper Sideband?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are clearly well into Solar Cycle #25.  Increasing solar flux numbers bring with it more frequent (yet usually shorter) solar disturbances.  The contest weekend ended with a major solar flare, which fortunately did not enter into things for the WQ6X operation until JUST AFTER the contest ended.

When it was ALL OVER, evaluating the contest summary stats I decided to submit the log
entry as Single-OP Single-Band Assisted - SO(A)SB10 HP operation - the other QSOs become
Checklog QSOs which are still valid nevertheless for all stations who worked WQ6X on other bands.

Looking at the 3830 Score results after the contest event, for the SO(A)SB-10 category, it would
seem that WQ6X took a 19-place worldwide, 7th-place for NA/USA, 2nd-Place for the Southwestern Division, 1st-place for W6 (California) and 1st-place for the ORG ARRL section.  When you consider that I was predicting a max of 300 QSOs (for all bands), it's amazing what was accomplished overall.

DiD YOU work the CQ W.W. DX Ssb contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?