For this radiosport weekend, the watch-phrase was "stable internet connection".
An internet failure at WA6TQT's QTH in Anza on Thursday nearly sidelined NX6T's Multi-2
operation. Miraculously, by Friday evening, the Anza QTH was QRU & QRV - additionally,
WQ6X was cleared to run QRP from KN6NBT's QTH in Ramona, altho at the last minute,
an operator illness necessitated my running another 2-hours during the [so-called] "Dinner Shift"; something I do frequently when running with NX6T; alto running remotely, Dennis (N6KI) can't
bring me back Italian meatballs like he used to do when we ran live from "Nashville".
During the morning and afternoon WQ6X runs, 15 & 10 meters were WIDE-Open,
with more and louder signals heard on 10-meters in Ramona (using a 3-el Stepp-IR @55')
versus 4-el. stacked Yagi's @ 72'+ in Anza - GO Figure.
With some judicious frequency juggling more-or-less clear "windows" were found for running frequencies on: 28014.14, 28019.19, 28025.25, 21031.31, 14036.36, 7028.28 & 3516.16.
Running as a Multi-2, K4RB AND K7ENA kept 15-meters wildly alive, switching to an already
wide-open 40-meters by 23:00z. During my 2nd-shift, 80-meters was open to the E. coast by
01:25z (early for the left coast) and surprisingly, 160-meters was quite alive by 02:30z - all this
while STN-1 (on 40-meters) racked'em in during that same period.
Brief internet disruptions were a challenge, along with my access to VNC viewer, which seemed to be resolved by restarting the Windoze-7 laptop; altho the outage may simply have been an apparency. When it was all over, I missed the operating goal of 300+ QRP QSOs, which was offset by my nearly 400 QSO contribution to NX6T's 7th-place (overall) score, 2nd in California to the might N6RO, in Northern California (about 6.5 miles from the Concord location I operate from).
One of the things I appreciate about the NAQP GiGs is their short (12-hour) full-bore intensity. Starting at 18:00z, the bands erupt into controlled pandemonium, then, 12-hours later, the bands return to the utter-quiet state they were in before the NAQP began.
LooKing back, I am utterly amazed at how well we are able to run complex radio systems remotely; the transceivers, the logging software and the software-directed antenna switching. Having a VPN like VNC Viewer is almost as effective as actually sitting at the keyboard in Anza and Ramona.
When it all synchronizes properly, it is a wonder to behold. When it doesn't, then it's @#$!x&*@!
One of the cool things about the NAQP approach to radiosport is the exchange of NAME and STATE. Having YL ops participating always spices things up a bit. Running as WQ6X, YL's added to the log included: W4CMG(Cathy), KC9YL(Anne), KY4GS (Amanda), AF9J(Ellen) & WA1S(Ann).
While the SFI was high (186+) and the A-K Indexes were low, a number of signals seemed to have
a "polar raspiness", except they simply E & N-E stations. I was beginning to think there was an audio filter adjustment problem on the WQ6X end until I realized it was happening only on 10-meters. KG5VK confirmed hearing this raspiness in his Soapbox comments - just another anomaly of
high sunspot cycle peaks.
DiD YOU work the January NAQP Cw Contest?
Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR LoG?
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