Throughout the weekend, I ran several different OP-shifts remotely from STN-2, interspersed with searching & pouncing as WQ6X from Concord; altho on Sunday, WQ6X ran the last 45-minutes calling CQ on 10-meters sweeping the Hy-Gain 3-el Long John 10-m yagi back and forth between Japan and the South Pacific.
While every contest has its difficult moments, world-wide Ssb contests are uniquely challenging
due to what I call the "language barrier". While the English language (assisted by the use of Q-Codes) is considered the de-facto standard on the air (similar to Air Traffic Control), many
OPs know only enough English to only say "FIVE NINE XX". Telling a station they are a DUPE
is usually a waste of time, they probably won't submit a log anyway.
due to what I call the "language barrier". While the English language (assisted by the use of Q-Codes) is considered the de-facto standard on the air (similar to Air Traffic Control), many
OPs know only enough English to only say "FIVE NINE XX". Telling a station they are a DUPE
is usually a waste of time, they probably won't submit a log anyway.
Just in time for Halloween, this weekend brought us a mixture of Strange-QRM (intentional jammers) and Strange-QRN (weird Space-WX). While BOTH the FT-2000 and K3/0 are replete with numerous QRM and QRN filters, what REALLY made the difference was the pair of Autek QF-1A analog audio filters for processing the myriad of different voices - differently for each ear. The Aux. notch filer knob in each unit accomplished what the IF filters built-in to each transceiver could not.
amazingly wide open. Missing here on the west coast were European signals. While the combination of analog/digital filtering helped immensely with the eradication of weird noise
patterns and adjacent-channel QRM, it was virtually helpless in eliminating intentional QRM;
such as non-amateur Chinese/Russian military traffic on 3.749 (@11:48z) and the intentional
bubbly sounds and "PoP" on 28.555 (@22:50z).
This contest brought us a bevy of Tune-Up Turkeys on virtually every band, throughout every day
and evening. The I-F auto-notch in the K-3 and the audio-based auto-notch in the FT-2000 all but eliminated the careless carriers. I also announced (to the "Peanut Gallery") that they were wasting their time for that reason. That was enough to "swat the flies away"; unfortunately, like REAL flies, they came back many times before giving up, putting on their jammies and slinking off to bed.
and evening. The I-F auto-notch in the K-3 and the audio-based auto-notch in the FT-2000 all but eliminated the careless carriers. I also announced (to the "Peanut Gallery") that they were wasting their time for that reason. That was enough to "swat the flies away"; unfortunately, like REAL flies, they came back many times before giving up, putting on their jammies and slinking off to bed.
of the rafters to exact their revenge against (what they call) "those pesky contesters".
Their favorite time of night is between 09:30z and 11:30z (2:30am to 4:30am)
In addition to the pesky Tune-Up Turkeys, at 11:38z, out of nowhere appeared what I have often termed a "data cranker", while running a frequency on 7.130.
At 20:55z FT8-QRM showed-up and dominated the station running 21.225.
Running the math on this, gives us a 3rd-harmonic from the ubiquitous 7.075 FT8-cluster frequency; the BiG question being whose FT-8 signal this actually was from. It is hardly unheard-of that 3rd-harmonic signals can sometimes be heard quite a distance away from the transmitting location.
At 10:35z N2KI replied to my CQ calls with "QRZ?". HuH? WTF?!!
Later, tuning around 10-meters, a Cw station was encountered on 28425.89 sending seemingly-coherent Cw, but no callsign-ID. While the 8th-harmonic of 3.553 could account for this, except unless it was "next door", it would be extremely weak; additionally, at 22:00z it is unlikely anyone would be running Cw on 80-meters.At 10:35z N2KI repeatedly replied to my CQ calls with "QRZ?". HuH? WTF?!!
Behind the scenes on 75-meters was an Asian WooDPecker station that centered itself
EXACTLY on top of my 3747.47 run frequency. While moving to far-removed 3766.66 helped out somewhat, the spectrum analyzer waterfall displayed the wide-bandwidth effects of this station. Switching the 4-Square array to N-E, S-E & S-W, everything was quiet; switching the antenna
to N-W brought us the woodpecker assault - FULL-strength.
EXACTLY on top of my 3747.47 run frequency. While moving to far-removed 3766.66 helped out somewhat, the spectrum analyzer waterfall displayed the wide-bandwidth effects of this station. Switching the 4-Square array to N-E, S-E & S-W, everything was quiet; switching the antenna
to N-W brought us the woodpecker assault - FULL-strength.
The last thing I have to say about CQ W.W. contests is that this is the only specifically world-wide
DX contest where Billy-Bob, his brother Barney and all their buddies can call-in for a QSO, altho much of the time they didn't know what a CQ Zone-# is.
DX contest where Billy-Bob, his brother Barney and all their buddies can call-in for a QSO, altho much of the time they didn't know what a CQ Zone-# is.
W6 (California) and the Southwest ARRL section. Because most of the WQ6X QSOs were made
on 10-meters, I submitted the log as SOA10m (Single-OP Assisted, 10-meters). Doing so put WQ6X in 2nd-place for Zone-3 and 1st-place for W6 (California) and N/W.
DiD YOU work the CQ World Wide DX contest?
Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR Log?
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