WQ6X Works the WEIRDEST Weird Prefix Contest - EVER

wOw!  Who woulda thunk it that the 2023 Weird Prefix Contest would end up being as WEIRD
as it turned out to be.  As I began writing this intro, we were NoT quite 1/2 of the way through the event itself.  A side benefit of the WPX weekend was the addition of a Douk Audio 4-channel passive audio mixer, which wisely obtains its power from the computer's USB sub system. 

This box enables mixing sound from the K3/0 and the Yaesu FT-2000 or the classic ICOM 7000. 
On the other end of the audio line, a 4-pole switch box enables switching between any of 3 speaker combinations or a pair of OWNZONE wireless headphones.

Being an Ssb contest, this GiG many times brought Billy-Bob and his brother Barney out of the propagation woodwork.  Then again, the most annoying IDIOT was the Dingle-Dork, who went into
a lengthy diatribe about how his buddies frequently meet on 3777.77 (my EXACT run frequency), implying that somehow Billy-Bob and Barney somehow actually somehow "OWN" the frequency
and therefore, we use it with their [implied] permission?  HuH?  wOw!

Just prior to the contest weekend, a MAJOR solar storm BLIND-sided planet Earth, bringing us
a K-Index of 7.  Altho typical of higher SFI #'s, while the storms may be severe, the recovery time
to be much improved (to the degree the SFI is high).  From the above PiCs, it would seem that the storms settled out in less than 8-hours.

A plausible explanation has finally been tendered explaining the RTTY activity I often hear in the
40-meter phone spectrum (mainly during Ssb radiosport events).  Early Sunday morning (12:35z),
on 7134.75, I copied an MCW station ID'ing itself as "RDL", sending strings of 5-digit number groups.  Then, after a pause, a more-or-less 1.5-minutes of fast-RTTY is sent; followed by "RDL" back in MCW
mode once again.  This repeated itself at seemingly random intervals.

([CLICK HERE] to learn more about RDL.)
WTF is the Russian military doing conducting traffic-passing operations midday (in Russia) in the middle of a worldwide amateur phone band.  It should be noted that the spectrum 6.945 - 6.955
is completely unused - the world over.  Why NoT use THAT?  Am I missing something Here?

Propagation was WEIRD all weekend.  Then again, that is HARDLY weird, considering we were playing in the Weird Prefix Ssb contest.  In retrospect, there were only a handful of callsigns that would REALLY Qualify as WEIRD; even WQ6 is NoT really THAT Weird.  

Nevertheless it was like the song says "It's Nice, to Know, that You were THERE...." 
And yes, WQ6X WAS there - all 5-watts QRP, all the time.  

While I was hoping for a larger QSO total, more important was proving that QRP truly CAN be
"the SHOT heard 'round the Whirrrl'd".  Despite the FIXED position of ALL antennas, in the direction they were focused at, WQ6X cut a LOUD path thru the dense RF fog.

DiD YOU work the WPX Weird Prefix Ssb Contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Runs yet another QRP RTTY Contest GiG

To alleviate BoreDumb, in recent months I have been finding every excuse to run contest GiGs
as a QRP entry.  Running RTTY GiGs as QRP is actually easier than Cw or Ssb as I don't have
to consciously make sense out of what is being said - the MMTTY decoder does that for me. 
Essentially, when running a frequency, I can turn the RX audio OFF and simply run things by
visually observing the RTTY tuning indicators.

During the 3rd week of March, the British bring us the BARTG RTTY contest for 48 hours,
beginning at 02:00z (instead of the usual 00:00z) for most European-based contests.  This
works out better for me as I usually don't get out of my Alameda in time to make the usual
00:00z contest starting time, typical to contests such as the WPX-Ssb GiG the following
weekend.

With the recently added MFJ-993b IntelliTuner, the Yaesu FT-2000 can easily match the 10m 3-el Long John yagi, the 8JK-phased Cobra dipoles and even a Comet CH-250 vertical.  As in recent months, 10-meters was THE band in the BARTG contest.  While running 5-watts from the Concord QTH is indeed quite a challenge, the RBN stats verified the far-reaching nature of the WQ6X/QRP signal, even tho there were no manned stations in any of those areas.

My biggest frustration was with the stations who call-in OFF frequency (often obliterating stations who DiD
call On-frequency). 

Being off-frequency, I would ask them for a callsign repeat in order to properly tune them in; sometimes a 2nd-repeat was necessary. 

 
By the time I finally had the correct receive frequency for their signal, they would give up and go somewhere else.  HuH?  Wazzat all about?

When it was all over, comparing the 3830 Score standing with stats from the online scoreboard,
I am quite a bit confused as to what place WQ6X will end up, after all the logs have been tabulated.
While the turnout seemed less than I remember from last year, this year's 64k-point QRP submission surpassed last year's 60k-point LP score - proof once again that QRP power can often hold its own against Low Power stations.

DiD YOU engage in the 2023 BARTG RTTY contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

Stereo-Ssb Revisited (Yet Again)

You may remember (from previous blogs on this topic) that at the heart of the Stereo-Ssb
process is a pair of tunable filters - ONE for EACH Ear.  For WQ6X, the preferred filter pair
is a pair of Autek QF-1A filters - ONE for EACH Ear. 
This is what has been written about Stereo-SSB thus far:

• [X] - How Stereo-Cw becomes Stereo-Ssb
• [X] - Stereo Ssb: It's STILL Easier than you Think
• [X] - Stereo-SSB: Turns out There's More To It

Running 15-meters during the recent Weird Prefix (WPX) contest, the filter-pair provided the

ability to Peak-tune each ear independently.  This facilitates more-easily discerning different
English "accents" more readily.

While Stereo-Cw is about spacing signals of different pitch-frequencies around the Listening Experience, Stereo-Ssb is about improving speech intelligibility of a specific voice being copied. 
Similar to Stereo-Cw, the secret to Stereo-SSB is frequency separation.  With the FREQUENCY settings on both filters set more-or-less around MID-range, the speech will appear to originate
more-or-less from the middle of the listening experience.

By "moving" the voice to be copied to the "center" of the Listening Experience, properly done,
splatter is often experienced in the "outer reaches" of the Listening Experience.  Additionally,
adjusting the individual QF-1A selectivity knobs allows compensation for the frequency-response differences in each ear.

Have YOUI ever tried Stereo-Ssb?"

What Discoveries have YOU made?

WQ6X Fakes-It 6-Times for a 7-Contest Weekend

wOw!  For a little-contest littered weekend, the 2nd weekend in March certainly seemed to
offer a JUMBO-Plethora of contest activities, weaving in and around each other as the weekend progressed.  By 10-pm it was mostly over, except for the reprises of IDQP & OKQP as well as the start of WIQP on Sunday morning.  By early afternoon, WIQP was the only event happening, altho
the participation seemed NIL until the final hour when 20-meters opened a brief propagation window to Wisconsin ending the contest at 02:00z.

In the midst of all this was the highly anticipated (and equally disappointing) SA-10 - South
American 10-meter contest.  While 10-meters was certainly open, the BiG disappointment was
the lack of participation by South American stations in their own contest - Wassup with THAT?
Even WORSE was the apparent "no-show" @W7AYT of the Tesla HF Memorial contest.  
This happened last year as well.  I remember when the Tesla contest always brought activity
into the WQ6X log.  Again, wassup with that?

In fact, this weekend also showcased the YB DX RTYTY contest; a GiG that has always left me somewhat frustrated.  Amazingly enough this year WQ6X managed to put 51 QSOs into the contest log.  There is no QRP entry in the YB DX contest, offering up the opportunity to run 100-watts full-duty RTTY, which the FT-2000 (and its FT-1000mp predecessor) does quite nicely.

Because I was running completely from the Concord location, I couldn't expect much from the
Stew Perry Top Band Challenge (SP-160) contest.  The THREE QSOs made were a testament
to the efficacy of the MFJ-993B's ability to match the 8JK-Cobras (at best an 80-meter antenna). 
Northern California and Southern Oregon are proof the antenna more-or-less radiates on Top Band.

Throughout the entire weekend, I didn't feel like I really connected with each radiosport event. 
From the beginning the NA RTTY Sprint seemed like a laborious exercise.  Ironically, the only
contest GiG I felt comfortable with was the YB DX RTTY contest.  I guess ya' never know how
it's gonna work out.

DiD you work any of the 8 radiosport contests on the March 11th weekend?

Is WQ6X in YOUR Log?

What Do We Say about NAQP RTTY?

While radiosport activities are a major focus nearly every weekend, sometimes it gets relegated to 2nd priority.  After taking 2nd place in the Toastmasters Alameda area speech contest Friday evening, my attention was free to finalize a 2-part presentation on radiosport contesting for Saturday's monthly meeting of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA).  Afterwards, client commitments kept me in Alameda longer than originally anticipated.

22:47z found me in the operators chair of the WQ6X portable setup @W7AYT's QTH in Concord.  While 10 & 15 meter band conditions have been AWEsome all week, on Saturday, by 23:00z
10-meters was already over @W7AYT; no stations were heard and no RBN beacons decoded
my "CQ NAQP" calls.  15-meters was good for about 20 minutes of reliable communication.  Technically, there were no Space-WX storms that weekend, altho signals seemed to flutter
in and out over a 7-second period, turning decodable signals into gibberish MUSH.

The main objective for the 6-hours contest run was to confirm the efficacy of running QRP RTTY. 
When running frequencies, I would send "CQ NAQP WQ6X WQ6X/QRP".  Because my signal was weaker than most, calling stations would call in considerably OFF frequency, requiring me to use the clarifier to properly tune them in to effect proper RTTY decoding.  After responding to my "UR CL Again?" twice, they just disappear?  HuH?  

Just a minute ago, you walked all over other calling stations to QSO with WQ6X, and now you
are GONE?  Wassup with that?  Meanwhile many of the other calling stations also disappeared;
in retrospect, I shoulda worked them FIRST.  Instead, nearly 40-seconds of valuable time is wasted,
and NO QSOs are logged, requiring yet another "CQ NAQP..." call all over again.  The new watch phrase for 2023 radiosport contests is "PAY ATTENTION !".

Despite running less than 6 hours, when it was all over, according to the 3830 Scores, it would 
seem that WQ6X running QRP achieved a 1st place in the Single-OP Assisted QRP category.

DiD YOU work the NAQP RTTY Contest?

Is WQ6X/QRP in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Works a Wonderfully WEIRD Dx Contest

While the Weird Prefix contest weekend is nearly 3 weeks away, the Dx contest weekend qualified
as the Weird Dx Contest weekend.  Originally, NX6T was slated to run low power from our Ramona remote location.  On Thursday evening we received authorization to run multi-OP high power (HP) from the WA6TQT superstation QTH in Anza.  This turned out to be a blessing as well as a curse,
the problem being intermittent access to the Anza location.  It turned out, Friday evening many remote ops (such as WQ6X) could turn on the radio remotely, however turning the knobs had no effect. 
The net-effect of this was that my 2am to 6am shift (on 40/80/160 meters) never happened.

Instead of remote operating after midnight, I managed to put several dozen contacts in the WQ6X
log and catch up on needed sleep.  A trip to my Alameda office on Saturday allowed me to run an hour for NX6T by way of the K3/0 Mini on my desk there, proof that remote access had been completely restored to the Anza QTH.

While we've been enjoying moderate a moderate Solar Flux Index (SFI) all week, Wed/Thurs
brought us what turned out to be a short-term solar storm which fortunately (more-or-less) ended
in time for the 00:00z (4pm PST) contest commencement.  Nevertheless, most of the HF spectrum
was littered with random atmospheric (shot-style) noise.  Fortunately, the FT-2000's DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) circuitry was able to clip the spike tops off the noise, reducing (what I call) noise-fatigue, while running the audio thru (what I call) Stereo Ssb enhancement made it more readable.

When it was all over, it would seem that NX6T took 16th-place overall, 10th-place for USA and 1st-place for Southwest Division and Riverside County.  WQ6X (running low power) took 70th-place overall, 59th-place for USA, 2nd-place for PAC division and 1st-place for EB (East Bay) section.

DiD YOU work the ARRL Dx Ssb contest.

Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR LoG?