WQ6X Works an 8-Contest Octogan Weekend

What a totally and completely BIZARRE radiosport weekend - running a number of
disparate radiosport events happening throughout a nearly 48-hour operating period. 
Everything from 160 - 10 meters - Cw, Ssb & RTTY - 4-hour to 12 & 24-hour GiGs. 
In past years, only 4 or 5 events were manageable.

In preparation for writing this, I looked back to last year's write-up and ended up doing
a Blast-from-the-Past style retrospective. 

• ([CLICK HERE]) for the 2023 Blog entry
• ([CLICK HERE]) for the 2022 Blog entry
• ([CLICK HERE]) for the 2021 Blog entry
• ([CLICK HERE]) for the 2020 Blog entry
• ([CLICK HERE]) for the 2019 Blog entry
• ([CLICK HERE]) for the 2018 Blog entry
• ([CLICK HERE]) for the 2017 Blog entry
• ([CLICK HERE]) for the 2016 Blog entry - as NX6T - 1st place M/S

Friday evening skimming the contest rules of all the GiGs convinced me that we could run
QRP in all the events thanks to the near-perfect antenna arrays available at the WA6TQT superstation in Anza.  The first GiG on the calendar was the YB DX RTTY contest beginning @00:00z.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the K3/0-Mini & RigExpert PLUS ready to run until after
05:30z, which by that time, 40-meters was the only band producing reliable RTTY signals.

On Saturday morning, the 12:00z (4am) SA-10 contest start was too early for the west coast; especially with the Solar Flux Index (SFI) so relatively low.  By the 15:00z start of the Stew Perry contest, was already closed for the daytime.; the hope was to catch a 160-opening in the evening after the RTTY Sprint GiG was over.  Also @15:00z was the commencement of the OK (Oklahoma) QSO party which ran until 02:00z.

At 18:00z (8pm in central EU) the Tesla CW contest began.  Downloading the .UDF file found
it to be a VHF/UHF contest entry screen , even tho the website said it was an HF download. 
There was such a dearth of activity for this GiG that I decided to deal with it later (when I get
around to it).  Luckily @19:00z the Idaho IDQP QSO Party began, altho disappointingly so, as
I kept an eye for ID stations in the band map and tuning around. Unfortunately, the turnout was actually very sparse (similar to the Tesla GiG) until Sunday morning's, last 2 contesting hours
(ending @19:00z).  

It has often been suggested that my inability to hear stations does not necessarily mean they
were not operating.  However, if stations ARE on the air, internet spots and listening to nearby
SDR's should be indicative of activity.   While I am not allowed to use SDR's to make the actual
QSOs, I CAN utilize them as an indicator of band-openings and operating activity.

The bottom-line with all this is that WQ6X managed to spend time in a myriad of similar-but-different radiosport events or a more-or-less 40-hour operating period.  Often, the radiosport goal is NoT necessarily to win anything but to make a presence and test-run different hardware/software combinations - local AND remote.

DiD You work the 8-contest radiosport weekend?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

NEWSFLASH! (April 28th)
This JUST in - WQ6X TooK 1st-place for USA/NA and 4th-place Worldwide