WQ6X: 2023 ALL Asian is ALL Over the Place

All Asian GiGs always leave me with mixed feelings, before, during and AFTER
each event; altho All Asian Ssb events leave me even MORE perplexed.

Throughout 2023 I have been dabbling in various approaches to running radiosport events QRP
(5-watts).  While WQ6X has run a few QRP GiGs from W7AYT's QTH in the East Bay (EB) section,
the more successful QRP runs - such as the 1st-place (outside of the 7th-call area) in the recent 7QP QSO Party - have been accomplished by running WQ6X remotely from KN6NBT's QTH in Ramona (San Bernardino area of So. California), a location colloquially known as "Cliffside". 

Now, in order to make a QRP event produce the best results, we rely heavily on favorable ("Quiet")
Space-WX conditions.  Friday morning didn't look so good.  Fortunately, 24-hours later things were MUCH improved.  Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, I was unable to make QSOs on bands below 20-meters - Bummer Dewd!  10-meters was a near no-show, leaving all the WQ6X action to happen on 20 & 15 meters.  On the other hand, while 10-meters was a ho-hummer at NX6T, the rest of the bands were right on!

2 years ago, NX6T pulled-up stakes in Fallbrook, moving "Tower #1" to the Ramona hilltop location. 
At 55' (it's lowest height), we have access to a 3-el Stepp-IR yagi, as well as a classic Mosley 2-el Mosley "Shorty-40".  For 80-meters, a droopy coaxial double-bazooka makes North and Central America possible, and even at times, the NW tip of Africa (EA8 & D42).

Theoretically, working into Asia should be relatively easy - a mere "skip across the Pacific Pond" from the mountain-top Ramona QTH.  Running JIDX Cw as a QRP entry put an amazing number of QSOs in the log.  Last year, 

A major secret to making high scores in All Asian events is to get used to running frequencies at a
fast clip.  Wandering S&P JA's dutifully line-UP to work stations who can run frequencies effectively.  Both mornings on the 40/80 there seemed to be a pipeline to Japan.  While 10-meters was virtually
a no-show on Saturday, running as NX6T Sunday afternoon, a propagation DUCT opened to JA for about 45 minutes.  When N6KI relieved me at 22:00z, I looked for that same propagation-duct from the Ramona QTH - NOTHING!  Nevertheless, when it was all over, WQ6X/QRP managed to snap-up 
a QRP 1st-Place; world-wide, no less.  NX6T managed a comfortable 1st place for the Multi-Single category.

DiD YOU work the All Asian contest?

How many Asian prefixes ended up in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Spends a Quiet Weekend in Kentucky

The 1st weekend in June is always a quiet radiosport weekend, at least on the Left Coast. 
Scanning the WA7BNM contest calendar for "regularly scheduled events" came up with the following:

• [X] - The Tisza CUP
• [X] - The Museum Ship Weekend (MSW)
• [X] - The ARRL Digital Contest
• [X] - The Kentucky QSO Party (KYQP)
            with its insufficient 12-hour operating period.

The TISZA CUP GiG is a fun little contest, altho admittedly, it's more interesting for operators
in Europe and the East Coast (which is just a "skip across the pond").  In the end, I could never
make this contest work from the Left coast.  Maybe next year will be different.

Saturday afternoon the Potamic Valley Radio Club (PVRC) ran their own little PVRC QSO Party;
NoT being a PVRC member, my time was mo-betta spent looking for new Kentucky counties. 
There seemed to be WAY more MSW stations than KYQP operators.

For KYQP, this was a last-minute 1st-time QRP run.  Typical of most QSO parties, I was quite disappointed by the low turnout of Kentucky stations.  While there were internet spots, most
were not hearable on the Left Coast.  The problem was NoT that they couldn't hear my QRP
signal, the problem was I could not hear THEM - Period.  Ending the QSO party at 01:00z
doesn't give us 80/40/160 access to Kentucky.  This event needs AT LEAST another 4-hours.

For me, the ARRL Digital contest throughout the weekend was quite a disappointment. 
Several sweeps through the digital portions of the bands encountered LoTs of FT4/FT8 signals
and even an Olivia area.  Unfortunately, no RTTY exchanges were heard the entire time. 
Am I MISSING something?  Or, was my timing just that horribly AWFul?

It should be noted that virtually every weekend finds POTA (Parks on the Air) stations running from
an amazing variety of portable locations.  On 20-meters, POTA stations were surrounded by MSW stations.  While I paid no attention to POTA callers, I could not resist the temptation to put a few Museum ships in the general WQ6X log.

What radiosport events DiD YOU participate in during this off-beat radiosport weekend?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Reminices about Cinco-de-Contest

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 1st weekend in May brings us what I call Cinco-de-Contest - 4 State QSO Parties, along
with  the Italian ARI contest.  This year, the weirdness of it all created a contest carrier-wave moving through the entire month of May, culminating in the Weird Prefix contest - the weirdest of the weird.

For 2023, I made the decision to sponsor a 1st-place plaque for the 7QP QSO Party (I ended up sponsoring 2).    In exchange, my goal was to win another 7QP mixed-mode plaque, but this time
for a QRP operation.  In preparation, I combed the 7QP website to get a feel for what I will be up against running QRP.

Other than running shifts for the NX6T high power operation, for this 5-GiG weekend, the watchword was: QRP.  The 7QP, DEQP & NEQP GiGs were run QRP for 2023.  The INQP does not possess
a QRP category, inducing me to crank the power to 95-watts when working W9's.  Because the Dx signal levels were so poor, I also chose to run the ARI GiG at the 95 watt level.

Running N1MM+ as the logging software, one contest entry (IN7QPNE) allows logging all four QSO parties, producing a combined CABRILLO-format file which is submitted 4-times, to each of the QSO party log submissions.  Each of the 4 contest log adjudicating programs ignore QSOs that are NoT related to their own QSO Party.  Additionally, there is a web-based APP which can input your Cabrillo file to produce a score report for the 4 QSO parties.  This allowed me to post the individual scores individually on the 3830 Scores website.

When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X DiD indeed take a 1st-place for the 7QP mixed-QRP category (8th place in the NEQP), while NX6T scored a resounding 1st-place for the New England QSO Party as a multi-OP operation (altho the official results have yet to be officially posted).

Thanks to shortened log submission periods and LCR software to sort it all out, virtually only 30 days later it has already been determined, that running QRP, WQ6X made a 1st-place finish (for California) in the Indiana (INQP) QSO Party, while NX6T took 1st-place with only 2 QSOs in the log.  This is yet another reason to submit a log, no matter how few QSOs are actually made.

DiD YOU engage in the Cinco-de-Contest QSO Parties?

How many counties DiD YOU Work?

NEWS FLASH!!

Last week, I received a 1st-place plaque for the 7QP QSO Party.
It would seem that my remote operation from Ramona was the TOP
QRP mixed mode operation outside of the 7th call area.  I even wrote
Part IV of a BLOG on the subject of just showing up to win in radiosport.

WQ6X Works yet another ARQP & King-of-Spain Cw contest

What can be said about the 3rd weekend of May other than the speech title itself? 
Being a European-based contest (yes, Spain is in EU), the contest starting time was the
usual 12:00z (5am in California).

A mere 2 hours later the Arkansas QSO Party (ARQP) began operations.  Unfortunately, thanks
to lousy Space-WX conditions, only 12 AR stations made to the log on 20-meters and 1 QSO on
15-meters - Bummer Dewd!  Where were all the W5-style stations?  They should have at LEAST
made it to the band map.

The King-of-Spain Cw event did not fare much better.  I was hoping that running from KN6NBT's Ramona location would have improved the contest scores - NoT so this year, because you see,
the decision was made to run another QRP event for this GiG.

At least what this weekend brought was a thorough test-run of the infamous WQ6X audio system
at the W7AYT QTH which makes possible Stereo-CW regardless of whether I am running the FT-2000 locally in Concord or routing the internet-based audio into the Stereo-Cw configuration.  This also gives me a thorough evaluation of the sound components in time for the 4th-weekend CQ WPX
(Weird Prefix) contest the following weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end, contacts were only made on 20-meters, making it a no-Brainer to
submit the log under the SOSB-20 (single-OP single-band 20-meters) moniker.
Ironically, it would seem that WQ6X will win a 1st-place for that category.

DiD YOU work the King-of-Spain Cw Contest?

Are you one of WQ6X's 16-QSOs?

Maximizing the Art of Experimentation: Part 5 - Other Things to Consider

In order to "Maximize the Art of Experimentation", we should consider the avenues open
to us: some physical, some aural, some psychological, some neurological and of course,
some technological.  I've written ad-nauseum about the indirect neurological effects of
Stereo-CW and the different DSP and analog-IC filters that can shape our listening experience.  

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In his recent presentation to the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA), Bob Heil shared live demonstrations of the subtle (yet powerful) effects that can be had by running the audio through
an equalizer unit, boosting the more desirable audio frequencies (such as 600hz to 1000hz for
Cw and 2000hz to 2400hz for Ssb), while attenuating undesirable frequencies (such as those
below 100hz and above 3000hz).  I recently wrote a Blog about how using equalization can
enhance the Stereo-CW concept.  ([CLICK HERE] to read that.)

For the July NAQP RTTY contest, the Radio Shaft Equalizer is back in the audio lines, which is
great for Ssb & Cw but worthless for RTTY unless I can install a switchable "intercept" in the audio line between the Rig Expert PLUS audio line and the computer.  (Stay Tuned as I figure out how to
do JUST THAT).  In the meantime, thanks to the IF-placement of the FT-2000's Contour control, it is possible to "shape" the RTTY signal BEFORE it is sent to the RiGExpert PLUS.

The equalizer unit shapes the final audio AFTER it exits the pair of Autek QF-1A filters that
are literally PARKED in between the transceiver and the mixing boxes.  For CW, the QF-1A filters
are set to PEAK; with Ssb they are set to LowPass and HighPass.  For RTTY, because the QF-1A's are currently at the END of the audio line, I adjust the Frequency settings for the proper balance of the two RTTY tones (one peaked in each ear).

An advantage of the QF-1A (and MFJ 752) audio filters is that they possess individual auxiliary
notch filters, useful for knocking out stray signal artifact junk out of the audio passband

As you can see, there are dozens of different IF and audio filter combinations that can put some shape (and therefore improved readability) into what is destined for our ears.

Have you attempted any form of audio experimentation?

What results have YOU discovered?