for the HQP (Hawaiian QSO Party), until looking at 3830 score reports for the last couple of years identified the fact that multi-single entries were submitted w/barely a half-dozen QSOs in the log.
The WA7BNM Contest Calendar revealed this to be a complex weekend, radiosport-wise.
The prominent events that I paid attention to included:
I like the starting/ending time for the HQP GiG - 04:00z (9pm PDT), 6pm Hawaii time.
After a hearty meal, they get to play radio, and so do we. All the other weekend GiGs
started @12:00z or 14:00z.
Due to the lack of Hawaiians calling stations, we took on the task of calling "CQ HQP".
Even tho the Yagi's were positioned 241-degrees, our signal (even tho only 100 watts)
had a presence on the East coast and Southeast, giving Billy-Bob and his brother Barney
an opportunity to call in. For Cw operation, the F-12 key was defined to send "KH6 ONLY".
On Ssb it was a slightly different scenario. Even when I said, "Hawaii ONLY", Billy-Bob wouldn't
stop calling, so I gave him a "5-9 CAL" and he would go away. Unfortunately, Barney was different - he wanted to ragchew. When I said, "Hawaii Only" he called me an "uppity Asshole". I mockingly reminded him that the HQP rules don't allow me to work non-Hawaiians. (If he had read the contest rules, he would already know that). I suggested that if he had an issue with that, he could write the contest coordinator (Al, AD6E) and raise a complaint - HaH!
In fact, as you can see, shortly after the HQP event ended, the SFI briefly spiked to 250
as a MAJOR solar
event headed our way.
During most of the day
on Saturday, very few Hawaiian stations
were heard.
This offered up the opportunity to poke
around in the KSQP
and OHQP QSO parties.
This year, Kansas outdid themselves with numerous mobile stations (rovers) activating 3 - 4 counties on strategically chosen county lines. Working these multi-QSO point stations resulted in the highest KSQP score WQ6X has ever submitted.
Also running during the weekend were the YO Dx contest and the W/VE islands affair (both multi-mode GiGs). While a few stations were worked in the YO contest, propagation to Europe was quite marginal (compared to recent weeks). Less than a handful of W/VE island stations were heard, much less workable; such is the plight of the contest event that never quite lives up to my expectations.
On Sunday with all the GiGs (except HQP) over, I spent the rest of the time dismantling the portable setup @W7AYT, reconfiguring it in one of the bedrooms at the QTH. Rerouting the morass of audio cables made it possible to eliminate ground loops and remove an external audio amplifier that was causing more distortion and feedback than actual useful amplification.
An after-contest chat w/KH7Y confirmed my observation that band conditions were horrible and Hawaiian participation in their own QSO party was noticeably lacking. Fortunately, on Saturday,
the KSQP and OHQP GiGs were loaded with activity. I don't know if there was simply greater participation in OHQP and KSQP (compared to last year) or whether having access to the
antenna farm at WA6TQT is the reason I head/worked more stations.
Overall, the final August weekend added 5 radiosport events to the WQ6X 3830 score list, and made way to reconfigure the station configuration, making way for the upcoming All Asian Dx Ssb contest, beginning in September.
the Woody Allen quote: "sometimes,
just showing up is half of the game".
DiD YOU work the various state
QSO parties?
How many counties made it into
YOUR Log?
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