WQ6X Wings and Wanders Thru a Vague VOLTA RTTY Contest

While you've no doubt heard the phrase "a Wing and a Prayer", you may NoT be aware of "a Chip
and a Chair" (attributed to Jack "Treetop" Strauss' comeback WIN in the 1982 World Series of Poker).  It is a metaphor for going-for-it - NoT Giving Up.

This last weekend sported 3 notable radiosport events:

1. [X] - The CQ-M Cw/Ssb Contest
2. [X] - The VOLTA RTTY Contest
3. [X] - The Prairie QSO Party (Cw & Ssb ONLY)

Altho I liked the idea of the Prairie QSO Party, they didn't give enough advance notice for me to work their event into an already ad-HOC operating schedule.  When I heard PQP signals, I was in "RTTY Mode"; when done w/RTTY mode there were no QSO Party stations left - adding an [optional] 3-hour extension to the event would make more sense to me.

The Russian-based CQ-M GiG leaves me with mixed feelings.  From the Concord location in the
SF East Bay, CQP is a DuD at best - the last log submission of any value was in May of 2015. 
The "correct play" would've been to obtain permission to run remotely from Anza STN-2. 
With the stacked arrays as well as the 3-and-4 Squares (for the bottom bands), even
running 99-watts, a reasonable entry could've been made.

Because stations in Anza are not setup to run RTTY (FSK or AFSK), the recently added
Yaesu FT-2000 runs 100-watt full-duty RTTY, with no after-effects. 

The VOLTA RTTY contest is an Italian-sponsored event, not surprising considering Alessandro
Volta was Italian.  The VOLTA GiG has a unique exchange: - the obligatory "5NN", a Serial#
(Rx: 001) and the CQ-Zone #.  A typical WQ6X exchange might look like:

WD6EWD 5NN (079 03) (079 03).  

When numbers are being sent in an exchange, I send "5NN"(not 599) for the signal report,
contrasting it from the numeric sequences (which are ALREADY in parenthesis).

While there were no solar storms to speak of
(and an SFI of 150+), contest activity was noticeably absent.  I even went to bed "early" Saturday nite in hopes of an opening to Asia as Japan moved into Sunday's sunset.  I didn't recall hearing the Russian "F" and "M" beacons, altho the "K" beacon finally wafted into the headphones with its repeating
"K K K K" (followed by a 1.5-sec pause).

I should've know it would be a weird RTTY contest, when QSO #1 (on 15-meters) was with KH6CJJ.  What made it weird was realizing that the contact
was made off the back of the beam - a 3-element
10-meter Long John yagi.  

Amazingly, the MFJ-949E manual tuner and the FT-2000's internal tuner can give a near 1:1 match - probably more akin to a rotary dipole (a Buddi-Pole?) than a yagi.

 

In addition to poor contest turnout, the big challenge came throughout Saturday afternoon. 
Any attempt at transmitting any mode on 20-meters (Cw, Ssb or RTTY) would cause the
Windoze-7 laptop to just shut itself off as if it had lost power; the problem being stray RF
from the nearby ladder line.  

With no contest activity happening on Sunday, the MFJ-949E was moved closer to the window,
routing the ladder line away from the computer.  While all the tuner settings have dramatically changed, the RFI is hopefully gone forever.

When the weekend was all over, I got to submit a log for the VOLTA RTTY contest and resolve
a months-long RFI problem in the portable radio shack.  The coming weekend will allow testing
the configuration by way of the King-of-Spain Cw contest; 20-meters being the heart of the contest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DiD YOU work the Alessandro Volta RTTY Contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?