Thursday, November 17, 2022

WQ6X Successfully Operates a 1st-time triple-OP Sweepstakes

Emboldened by the successful [multi-mode] triple-OP of the 2022 California QSO Party,
the next-in-line goal was to recreate that success for the Cw November Sweepstakes event. 
Similar to CQP, a lot of preparation was necessary to set up and test two logfiles and two sets
of function key macros.
For the 2022 Cw Sweepstakes there were several goals:
  • Take 1st-Place for East Bay (EB) section and PAC Division running
    as W6Q at the 100-watt power level.
  • Take 1st-Place for East Bay (EB) section and PAC Division running
    as WQ6X at the 5-watt (QRP) power level.
  • Set a new Cw Sweepstakes QRP record for the East Bay (EB) section.
  • Put in enough remote hours towards assisting NX6T to a multi-OP Single-xmtr win

In order to make all this work, timing would be everything, hopefully keeping any system catastrophes down to an absolute minimum; at the very least, with no "Blue Screens" happening throughout the entire weekend.  ALSO, remember that Sweepstakes handling exercise - it's STILL about getting
the message thru.

The challenge to a triple-OP operation is actually a dual-OP challenge, as the 3:30am to 6am and
the 3pm to 5pm slots were assigned well in advance of the contest weekend.  Outside of sleep and those 5.5-hours, which band to run and which mode (LP or QRP) was largely empirical guesswork; altho a number of times when I worked a particular multiplier at a given power-level, I would then switch to the "other" log (WQ6X & W6Q), shift the frequency offset slightly and call-in again.

The BiG pleasant surprise was how wide-open 10-meters was.  For BoTh callsigns, 10-meters
was THE band, followed by 40-meters.  As of late, 20-meters is the surprisingly non-producing band. 
A major focus for the Sweepstakes weekend was to become clear about the actual merits of running
5-watts (QRP).  
While breaking pile-ups is not likely to happen, later in the contest, when everybody has worked
those stations, leaving them desperate for new/unique callsigns.  Once in a while they call me as VY1AAA  DiD mid Saturday afternoon.  Being a domestic contest, sweeping the 10-meter yagi was
only necessary from 0-degrees to 100-degrees.

Sunday afternoon the REAL challenge was once again whether to run as W6Q or WQ6X.  
Then again, after the contest, the discovery made that I had over-analyzed things, not putting
enough time on-the-air as WQ6X.  While a 1st-place was secured for East Bay (EB), WQ6X
missed setting a new record by ~2.5k points while taking a 2nd-place for the Pacific Division.























DiD YOU Participate in the 2022 November Sweepstakes Cw Contest?

Is W6Q, WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR LoG?

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