WQ6X Wangles a 5.5-Hour 40-Meter HaM SPIRIT Contest

The year 2024 brought us a number of 5-weekend months, altho not all
5th-weekends sported any radiosport activity.  Turns out, the 5th weekend in
November brought a radiosport event I've never seen before: The HaM SPIRIT Contest.

Stumbling onto a lone entry in WA7BNM contest calendar, following the link to the contest
website found it to be a Russian organized/run event.  By the time a log setup for the N1MM
software was created, there were only 7 OP hours left in the event.  Altho it was a multi-band
multi-mode event, the decision was made to run as a LP (Low Power) 40-Meter only Cw station.
This coincided with the morning Greyline period in Russia and EU - which was AMAZING!

Much of the 7 hours was spent calling CQ, encouraging all of the rare Russian
and deep Eastern European stations to call ME for a change, they being rewarded
with the rare "WQ6" prefix - kinda like in the WPX Cw contest.  Skimming thru the log file
after the contest, I am amazed at the different prefixes that responded to my CQ's, including:
RG9, RW9, R8, R2, RL4, RW0, RN3, RM4, HA9, ON6, YP8, Z32, F5, G4, OM5, LB2, DF1,
SP3, & IK0.  The BiG surprise was RD1A/MM operating from ITU Zone 75 and the QR Grid square.  While all those prefixes may not seem a big deal for OPs in the Midwest and the East coast, from Ramona, on 40 meters, those were amazing QSOs.

My BiGGeST beef were the LOUD USA stations who obviously could hear me yet would move 1/2 Kc away and start calling CQ.  I purposely choose oddball run frequencies (7003.69, 7006.69, 7007.77, 7008.88, 7009.69, 7014.14 & 7016.16), so when a station moves in on me, I know it's no accident.

Using Function Key F-11 ("QRL QSY!") a half dozen times usually does the trick. 
With one station station I moved down the 1/2 Kc, called him and made the QSO - he
OBVIOUSLY could hear me.  Notice that NONE of those offenders ever sent "QRL?"
before calling CQ.  Whatever happened to "QRL?" courtesy?

During the last couple of hours, to alleviate bore-dumb, while calling CQ, I began listening
to my calls on various SDR receivers to get a sense for where I was being heard.  Doing this
set the stage for an SDR research project Sunday morning.

The real disappointment in this contest was the final hour as EU and Russia came into daylight,
severing the pipeline with the west coast, just moments before.  The last QSO in the WQ6X
Log came at 06:59, with that remaining hour yawning while desperately calling CQ. 
ToTaL OP time ended up as 5.5 hours, thanks to that inert final hour.

All disappointments aside however, it would seem that deciding to run Single-band
40-Meters Cw found WQ6X in 1st place for that category.  Amazing!
Like has been oft said, "...sometimes just showing up is the major accomplishment".

DiD YOU work the HaM Spirit Contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?