Thursday, November 14, 2024

WQ6X Sprints thru another JIDX + WAE RTTY WeeKend


The 2nd contest weekend in November always brings us a variety of different activities to wrap
our operating skills around.  Because this is a 5-weekend month, things line up a little differently
than previous years.  This contest weekend brought us 4 radiosport GiGs of varying length:
  1. [X] - Worked All Europe (WAE) RTTY - 48 hours
  2. [X] - JIDX SSB Contest - 30 hours
  3. [X] - OK/OM Dx CW Contest - 24 hours
  4. [X] - NA Ssb SPRINT - 4 Hours

One of the things I like about the WAE contest GiGs is that they begin on Friday afternoons and continue for a FUL 48 hours, offering me numerous opportunities to participate, important when
I am also a shift operator for a concurrently run NX6T contest GiG - during this weekend it was
the JIDX Ssb contest.


Massive shifts in Space-WX conditions made for a challenging multi-GiG contest weekend.
Thanks to being a North America GiG, the Ssb SPRINT was largely not affected, except for
some low-level background noise, which we are largely used to.  The Aux. notch filter built into
each QF-1A audio filter (used to create Stereo-Ssb), made it possible to "shape" the passband,
reducing the noise-fatigue.

In addition to freaky Space-WX, this was yet another Ssb contest loaded with intentional QRM
of many different kinds.  For starters, at 11:20z on 3.805 a Cw signal (presumably Russian military) with the callsign 2JL4 made the scene.  With the 4-Square vertical array, it was easy to deduce the signal as originating from Eastern Russia.  Shortly later OTH RaDaR inundated 3.750 to 3.790. 
Then at 11:42z the 40-meter phone band was littered with RTTY QRM.

At 20:36z while running 14089.89 a repetitive chirping RTTY jammer made the scene.  30 minutes
later while running 14096.69, muffled Ssb could be heard, followed by unintelligible Cw and ending
up with FT8 making the scene - HuH?  Later, what I call a "data mixer" signal made the scene on 21098.89.  These kinds of occurrences seem to happen ONLY during contest weekends.

While I still enjoy the JIDX contest, with the rule change prohibiting me from running WQ6X
as Single-OP (i.e. separately) while also being an OP for NX6T, it's NoT Quite the SAME.  Serendipitously, the opportunity was then afforded to spend more time in the WAE RTTY
contest and keep the NIGHT shift alive on 40 and 80 for NX6T.  Somewhere in the middle
of it all, time was found for making CW contacts in the OK/OM DX Cw contest.

Also in the middle of it all, time was found to work the 4-hour NA SPRINT Ssb GiG - this weekend
was a BiG voice contest weekend, that's for sure.  Switching over to RTTY from time to time, gave
the voice (or should I say the voice KEYER) a break.

DiD YOU work the JIDX, WAE, OK/OM or Ssb SPRINT GiGs?

Is NX6T or WQ6X in YOUR LoG?


No comments:

Post a Comment