Wednesday, November 6, 2024

WQ6X Successfully Navigates another NEAT QRP November Sweepstakes


Overviewing the upcoming contest weekend, THREE Major Goals were on the Agenda:

  1. Reprise last year's S-West Division QRP Win from KN6NBT's
    Ramona QTH (SDG Section).

  2. Join up with NX6T's remote-run low-power operation from WA6TQT's
    Anza QTH (ORG Section).
  3. FULLY-Utilize the Stereo-CW facility I talk so much about. ([CLICK HERE])
While BOTH operations seem to have produced high scores for S-West Division, it will be contest committee's last-minute log adjudication that determines whether N4QS remains in 1st-Place - it's
THAT close.

CW Sweepstakes is unique in that the contest begins in the PDT time zone and ends in the
PST time zone (USA operators across the continent experience this.)  This was especially tricky
as I had the 3:30am to 5:30am operating shift w/NX6T, offering access to the east coast w/the 80-meter 4-Square vertical array.

10 & 15 meters were [not surprisingly] wide open, which moves a lot of contest activity AWAY
from 20-meters (now viewed as a "Backup" band during moments of disruptive Space-WX activity. 
For WQ6X, 40-meters was THE band to some degree, due to moving down there before 01:00z on Sunday to end the contest.  Hindsight raises the Question of whether operations should have started on 40-meters on SATURDAY as well.

The navigation secret during this weekend's weird propagation and pile-up effects was certainly the virtually-embedded Stereo CW which resides permanently at W7AYT's Concord QTH.  Transceivers may come and go, however, the audio-out of those radios is switch-boxed to the Stereo-CW system.  Being a Cw contest, when running a frequency, calling stations each call-in uniquely-offset from the
run frequency - the higher pitched offsets appear in the upper-left of my listening experience, while mid-offset signals appear "directly in front of me" and lower pitched offsets appear more to lower-right.
Using the R-I-T control, I can "shift" a calling station to a mo-betta physical location, confirmed by the change in signal pitch.  Function Key F3 in the N1MM+ software sports a {ClearRit} macro call, resetting the offset to ZERO.


After it was all over, it would seem that NX6T took an overall 2nd-place and 1st-Place for Southwest Division, while WQ6X ended in 6th-place and also managed a 1st-place for Southwest Division.

DiD YOU participate in the November Sweepstakes?

Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR LoG?