Thursday, May 9, 2024

WQ6X Works Another WEIRD Cinco-de-Contest


While the actual WPX Weird Prefix Contest is 3-weeks away, the "Weird Factor" has been building
up for weeks, partially influenced by some of the most pleasantly tumultuous Space-WX encountered
in this here 21st Century.  A recent Blast-from-the-Past retrospective blog entry regarding Cinco-de-Contest reinforced my amazement over successfully orchestrating a 5-contest weekend - year over year.  Chronologically, each of the 5-events flow perfectly in/out of one another.
  • [X] - 1200z - The Italian ARI DX Contest
  • [X] - 1300z - The 7th Area QSO Party
  • [X] - 1500z - INQP - Indiana QSO Party
  • [X] - 1700z - DEQP - Delaware QSO Party
  • [X] - 2000z - NEQP - New England QSO Party
With the exception of the ARI contest (which has no QRP category),
all other events during the weekend were run at the 5-watt power level.
When there is no QRP category, I am going to run the allotted 100-wats in the LP category.

For NX6T's multi-Single operation, a surplus of operators offered me the opportunity to focus
on the 7QP and NEQP QSO parties, while looking for European openings during the ARI DX contest running "behind" all of this.  I even got to run the NEQP final hour on Sunday for NX6T, after finding
no more "new" stations/counties that could hear my QRP signal over the elevated solar-induced, medium-level noise-wall.  I felt kinda-like a cleanup pitcher, bouncing 20 & 40 meters, looking
for 20-meter stragglers and a hoped-for 40-meter opening (which occurred in the last 15-minutes).

For NX6T operations, 15 & 20 meters (respectively) were the HoT bands to run.  For WQ6X, the HoT bands were 20 and 40 meters (respectively).  Overall, in So. California, 10-meters "kinda" opened on Saturday and was a complete DuD on Sunday.  While 10-meter condx. were marginal for QSO Party activity, the benefitted from the usual afternoon opening to South America.

This year, the NEQP GiG surprised us with a new change.  Connecticut, instead of counties,
"Note that in CT, stations will use Regional Councils of Government (2024)" for 'County' entry".

New England was a REAL PAIN.  After the contest, I manually edited the log correcting the county/council spelling.  7QP ended at 07:00z (midnight PDT) found me boosting the power
level back to 95-watts, working the 20-meter opening to Europe during their late morning. 
Missing the 40-meter shot to Europe, the ARI log was submitted as single-band, even tho
they no longer have a single-band category.  

Sunday was the typical desperate "looking for multipliers" day. I called CQ a LoT signing /QRP to get people's attention.  Unfortunately, Billy-Bob, his brother Barney and their cousin Bubba called in from the Southeast - NoT from New England.  Do you know what "CQ NEQP" means?  If NoT, then you should not call me.  If you DO know what it means and you are NoT in New England, then you
should NoT call me.  I have written about this ad-nauseum.  ([CLICK HERE] to read about it.)


When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X and NX6T made a number of 1st-place wins.
JUNE 12th UPDATE:

I would seem that WQ6X and NX6T received 1st-place certificates for our participation.
Unless there are any unexpected surprises, LooK for NX6T to win the New England QSO Party.


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