WQ6X Wangles a Woozy Contest Weekend into a Station Rewire Opportunity

The 1st contest weekend in June is always very quiet with only the TIZA Cw cup and the Kentucky QSO Party (KYQP) on the contest calendar.  I always miss the TIZA GiG because of its Weird  starting/ending time. Recent weeks in May not only produced consistently high (~180+) solar flux numbers, the month was littered w/geomagnetic storms and radio blackouts.  As a result, it's not surprising that the typically quiet KYQP QSO Party was all but a DuD, resulting in only 8 Cw 

contacts in the log.

10-meters was a no-show all weekend, while the only 15-meter opening to Kentucky mid-afternoon lasted less than 30 minutes.  The rest of the op-time was spent on 20-meters.  By the time 40-meters began opening to Kentucky (00:45z), the QSO Party GiG was over (15 minutes later).

This of course underscores my beef with (non-CQP) QSO Parties, many end just as the low bands are coming to life.  Either extend the Sat. ending time or give up a 2nd go on Sunday (as is done in BC, CA, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, KS, ME, NH, NV, OK, ON, PA, SD, TX, VA, 7QP and New England).

Saturday's Redwood Radio Roundtable (10:30pm - 05:30z) on 3849 was quite a challenge due to low-band atmospheric noise.  While 20, 15 & 10 were relatively noise-free, the D-Layer absorption attenuated signals dramatically.  40-meters was again plagued with the OTH radar both mornings around 10:00z, centered EXACTLY on 7033.50 in the CW band.  Wassup with E. Russian RaDaR inside our amateur bands?  At least, back in the day, the original Russian Woodpecker would park itself Just-OUTSIDE the 20-meter CW band (~13.955), altho its pulse was significantly WIDER.

Sunday, being an off-contest day was transformed into a station cable rewire in preparation for
the upcoming replacement antenna installation at W7AYT's QTH in Concord.  Relying on multiple external audio filters to accomplish the stereo audio method encouraged rerunning the various 12-V lines to each unit to eliminate various ground-loops that crept into the system during random cable changes made during the last 18 months.

A recent reinstall of IP-Sound on computer #2 is opening the opportunity for remote running
the FT-2000 with full-duplex audio. 

The stereo audio line for this station configuration consists of:

• a passive 4-channel input mixer branching to a Radio Shaft (32-2059) stereo
  equalizer with 15 frequency settings for each channel (Left/Right), each outputting
  to an Autek QF-1A filter, creating the stereo Cw effect.
• A pair of customized MFJ-752 filters to improve Ssb audio intelligibility.
  
  
  
  
  
• An MFJ-784 DSP for the left channel.
• An NIR-10 DSP into an NIR-12 DSP unit for the right channel.
  
  
  
  
  
• a 4-channel Rockville mixer (using RCA connectors) combining the above-mentioned
  filter lines emptying into a 4-position switch box directing the audio to:
  
  
  
  
  
• A 2-channel (A/B) Yaesu SP-5 speaker
• Speakers built into the monitor that accompanies the resident
  ICOM-7000 backup transceiver.
• A pair of LEKATO JA-02 II usb-powered speakers
• A headset audio line which can be split for wired headphones or a pair
  of OWNZONE wireless headphones.

As you can see, a LoT of Audio Redirecting happens on the WQ6X end of your transmission.
While the above array of devices may seem like over-kill, in actuality, each filter and filter combination have a specific purpose, depending upon the operating mode.  Of course, these external filters are supplementary to the array of filters already built-in to the FT-2000, FT-100mp and ICOM-7000 radios currently in use for WQ6X radio operations.

When the weekend was over, the Kentucky QSO Party was but a brief BLINK in a typically
Quiet radiosport weekend.

DiD YOU work the KYQP QSO Party?

How many Kentuckians are in YOUR LoG?