Friday, March 31, 2023

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?


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