WQ6X Wings yet another Weird Worldwide Weekend

The 4th weekend in August is always a mixed bag - two state QSO parties with the YO DX contest placed more-or-less somewhere in the middle of it all.  Chronologically for the weekend it went like this:

• [X] - 04:00z - HQP - 48-hours
• [X] - 12:00z - YO DX contest - 24-Hours
• [X] - 16:00z - OHQP - 12-Hours

For the Hawaiian QSO Party (HQP), I like the idea of starting 4-hours later than most 48-hour contests.  My issue with HQP is the dearth of in-state operations - this year's event brought only
7-stations, with many of the island counties dormant (as far as HQP is concerned).  It is easy to
get used to the California QSO party (CQP), where making a county sweep is a distinct possibility every year.

By 08:00z, on 4 QSO with 3 stations (KH6LC, WH6R and NH6V) made it to the log.  With nothing further heard, the better use of my time was spent sleeping as I needed to be up early to make the monthly meeting of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) - I am club president - where we enjoyed a presentation by Mitch W6MLW on "Screwdriver" vertical antennas, after which WQ6X
made a brief presentation on the concept of noise-cancelling at the antenna end of things.

Tom WB6RUC always sets up a marine battery run ICOM 7300 Xcvr in the meeting room, feeding
a horizontal J-pole wire antenna atop the Oakland Yacht Club building in Alameda.  Running as WA6OYC, a search was made of the higher bands for OHQP stations.  The RFI-noise and atmospheric noise was so strong no Ssb copy was possible, prompting a switch to 20-meter Cw.  

With the 7300's digital noise reduction (DNR) enabled, after considerable "effort", KW8N made
it into the WA6OYC log.  Submitting that 2-point score to WQ6X's 3830 score list, added another
contest event to the list, bringing the GiG total to #86 thus far this year.

When it was all over, WQ6X set any records and made no high scores. 
Instead, the claim-to-fame was 4 contest events added to the 3830 scores list..

Thanks to the YO DX contest, I gained experience searching for Hawaiian stations
(altho somehow, I missed WH7T by not knowing when/where to look).

DiD YOU work the weekend contests?

Is WQ6X in your YO DX contest LoG/
How many HI & OH counties are in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Works a Weirdly disjointed Radiosport weekend

The third radiosport weekend in August offers up a mixed bag of events spread from Friday afternoon (west coast time) thru Sunday afternoon.  Over the years, different events have come and gone over that weekend, while the NAQP Ssb GiG occurs right on schedule.  The weekend schedule included:

1. [X] - International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend
2. [X] - SARTG RTTY Contest
3. [X] - North American QSO Party (NAQP) Ssb
4. [X] - CVA HF Dx Cw Contest
5. [X] - ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY

Contest weekend three runs concurrent with a non-Contest event known as the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (ILLW).  In 2012, I made a lighthouse activation driving trip
along the Central California coast, making NAQP Ssb contacts along the way, using the same
"Ron in CA" exchange from all location stops.

On the way back, I made mobile contacts for the rest of the NAQP GiG.  While technically, running mobile in NAQP is a violation of the fixed station rule, a checklog was submitted anyway, and the score counted as an event-point on WQ6X's 3830 event list for 2012.

Every year I promote the ILLW GiG and yet nearly every year I fail to hear (much less work)
and Lighthouse stations probably because I am engaged in other radiosport events.  Technically,
the ILLW is not a radiosport contest, it is an Operating Event (which is why it is never on the WA7BNM Contest Calendar).

For this year's NAQP Ssb GiG, NX6T was unable to find enough OPs for a Multi-2 Anza operation (@WA6TQT), so the station was offered up to K6JO who eventually took a 1st-place for single-OP.  The WQ6X goal was to run QRP from Ramona (@KN6NBT) in the NAQP Ssb GiG.

Interspersed with the NAQP and ILLW GiGs is the 40-hour SARTG RTTY contest, with its unique
8-hours on, 8-hours off, 8-hours on, 8-hours off and 8-hours on.  With the 8-hour breaks, it gives everyone the opportunity to sleep or engage in other activities outside of the SARTG contest.

The decision for Saturday morning was how many hours should be devoted to the SARTG RTTY event Vs. the NAQP Ssb GiG, considering that another SO-A QRP winning score is being sought.  WQ6X took 2nd-place in the NAQP Cw GiG - a 1st place for Ssb will ease the Cw sting a bit.  

Because the 2nd shift of the SARTG contest ends at 00:00z, that factor requires consideration. 
Thanks to the 10-hour (Max) operating limit for Single-OPs, the main time allocations were
deemed to be:

• Forgo the 1st 2-hours of NAQP and work the SARTG RTTY contest.
• Forego the 1st/Last hour of NAQP, using those hours for SARTG.
• Begin NAQP @18:00z, taking a mode-break whenever the rate drops, propagation
  shifts unfavorably, Space-Wx worsens, or mode-fatigue (Ssb or RTTY) sets in.
• When boredom sets in on a mode - time to switch to the other

Because many stations run the first 10-hours (regardless of rate, or propagation concerns),
the final 2-hours can be (and usually is) painfully / excruciatingly Quiet

Part 2 of the SARTG GiG brought us a domestic opening on 20-meters, followed by
a reasonable opening to EU on 15-meters.  Typical of this period in the solar cycle,
10-meters was nearly a now-show (RTTY-wise at any rate).

Being that the Ramona station possesses no inherent (onsite) RTTY capability, a hybrid approach 
has been devised to generate/decode RTTY tones on my end thru the internet to the radio, which 
is controlled on the remote end by software on my end (instead of using the software on the remote end).

Even though the solar cycle seems to be on its way down, lots of Space-WX disturbances occurred before, during and after the contest weekend.  Why do Space-WX storms seem to always happen
during radiosport contest weekends?

As part of a competition team with the Southern California Contest Club (S-C-C-C), my NAQP
goal was to put in 8 to 10 hours for NAQP, while looking for RTTY openings in between lulls
in Ssb activity.  

Because NAQP counts multipliers on
a per-band basic, when K6AM (John)
called me on 75-meters, he offered to walk
me up the bands for a contact on each.

Thanks to John new multipliers were added
for 80 & 10 meters.  Altho WQ6X was QRP,
his QTH is within the groundwave distance
to Ramona on all 5-bands (no 160 yet @KN6NBT).

Being close-in, John could hear the Xmit audio "up close", noting any nasty artifacts from the weird cabling, implemented to switch the microphone jack between a Mic and the
RTTY computer audio.

Fortunately, the audio was clean.

At the last minute I discovered the Brazilian CVA Dx Cw contest.  The yagi was pointed to South America (SA) and a few QSOs were logged in that event - enough to say I wuz there.

When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X was the only Single-OP Assisted QRP
entry in the NAQP GiG, resulting in a 1st-place for that category by default.

On Sunday, there was a 6-hour ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY event, which encouraged
more RTTY activity to round out this weird contest weekend.

Did YOU work the NAQP and/or SARTG RTTY contests?

Is WQ6X in YOUR Log?

WQ6X Works another nearly-Wrecked WAE Contest

The 2nd radiosport weekend in August brought us a triple whammy radiosport weekend. 
Beginning with a solar CME blindsiding Earth around Friday evening, it became increasingly
chaotic as the weekend progressed, finally settling down by Sunday morning.  Offsetting that somewhat, I had access to  STN-2 @ super-station WA6TQT ("Radio Ranch") atop the mountain
in Anza, with it's bevy of stacked arrays.

Getting a later start than I wanted, on Friday evening WQ6X missed whatever 40-meter opening
there was; if Friday evening compares to Saturday, then approx. ~50 QSOs were missed by that
late start.  Only II2S and EA5FID made it to the log.  Tuning around on 20-meters no WAE activity
was heard.  Ironically, a dozen (mostly LOUD) VK / ZL stations were heard working Europe, even
off the back of the yagi stacks.  With no need to run a 2am shift (as is done when working Asia),
there was an opportunity to get plenty of sleep.

Saturday overall was largely a BiG disappointment.  Space-WX investigations revealed the K-Index between 4 - 5, with a comparatively high A-Index (40 to 50).  20-meters never opened until well after the poor opening on 15-meters (which produced another 2 QSOs)and brought only another 2 QSOs for a WHOPPING total of 6 (hard earned) QSOs.  

Being a Cw only contest, using the QF-1A-based Stereo-Cw facility often made the difference between no-copy on receive and shifting the signal to a different "location" in the listening experience
to pull a given station out of the noise (already reduced considerably by the K3/0-mini's NR facility).  When running frequencies. using the R-I-T control brought seriously-off-frequency stations perfectly into the passband.  When the F3-TU function key is pressed, it resets the R-I-T back to Zero (0).

Moving to 40-meters @02:06z, was just in time for a West coast opening to EU. 
Those on the East coast had been at it on 40-meters for hours.  While a LoT of time
was spent in S&P mode, w/the WQ6X call, calling CQ produced several fine frequency
runs w/enough QSOs to make possible sending several "books" of 10 QTC messages.

Throughout the day, the bands
were near-futilely scoped looking for Maryland DC (MD) QSO Party stations. 

With only 12 QSOs (with 8 actual stations) and no internet spots, I again asked the question: "What's the point
of hosting a state QSO party with only
a dozen in-state stations participating? "

At least another radiosport contest was added to the 3830 scores list (currently
@78 GiGs thus far).  As EU moved into daylight, one more QTC book was sent before, 40-meter  opportunities quickly disappeared  (@04:17z) - 20-meters offered nothing.

Sunday morning, starting @17:15z 20-meters seemed rather dormant (EU-wise), however
15-meters was loaded w/possibilities.  Thanks to a finally declining K-Index, the band remained
open for some time well after sunset in Europe.  Running out of QSO/QTC possibilities at  @22:17z, moving down to 20-meters picked-up (somewhat) where 15-meters left off adding 6-QSOs to the log.

Before I realized, the final hour was approaching and there were still 22 undelivered QTC messages.  Out of nowhere, EF5Y and RA1A enabled me to dump 16 of those QTCs messages, being stuck
with only 6  messages undelivered,  resulting in an approx. ~480-point lost opportunity.

When it was all over WQ6X placed 46th in the SOALP category.

In summary, looking back on the weekend, it would seem that the number of participating EU
stations was way down from last year, while the number of USA stations, significantly increased.

DiD YOU work the WAE Cw contest?

If you are an EU station, is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Dual-OPs another NAQP Cw contest.

Having taken 1st-place in the NAQP RTTY contest 2-weeks prior, the curiosity for NAQP Cw
is the possibility of taking a first place in the SO-Assisted QRP category in between a pair of
2-hour operating shift opening and closing the NAQP GiG for NX6T.

Internet problems on the Anza end made for weird operating quirks for BOTH stations running from the WA6TQT super-station.  Eventually, things settled down considerably, altho on the local end,
brief internet dropouts were a problem throughout the day.

Being that this was a Cw contest FULL advantage was made using the on-site Stereo-Cw facility. 
When running frequencies for NX6T from Anza, Stereo-Cw arrayed calling stations in a ~120-degree circumference around the listening experience, making it considerably easier to sort out the weaker signals from the stronger ones.  With the R-I-T control, the overall "location" of all the signals can be "rotated" around the listening experience.

At 20:00z, having survived the Anza settings debacle, the next 8-hours were delegated to the task of running WQ6X remotely from Ramona (KN6NBT's QTH)
running QRP power.  

The goal was to pickup yet another NAQP QRP win to match the QRP-RTTY win from the NAQP RTTY
GiG two weekends prior, followed hopefully by a QRP win in the NAQP Ssb GiG to weeks later, which I call a Triple-Crown operation.

Band changes seemed to follow
sine-wave pattern: 20 m- 15m- 10m- 15m- 20m- 40m- 80m- 20m- 40m.

Around 80% of the time WQ6X spent time running frequencies.  Being a QRP station,
eventually some MORON would move in "right next door" w/o a "QRL?" query first and call CQ. 
Answering their CQ (before finding a new run frequency), they would almost always come back to
me immediately - meaning they could hear me if they took the courtesy of listening first, followed
by "QRL?".  If I were to list the calls of the stations essentially bullying-in, you would be surprised
to know that it was nearly always stations who should know better.

As the day moved forward, WQ6X moved down band-by-band, eventually "camping out" on
40-meters.  A brief foray down to 80-meters (@03:40z) and back making only 5-QSOs was
almost not worth the effort, except maybe for the extra multipliers.  There were plenty of RBN
spots on 80-meters, however no NAQP OPs were actually listening.

The last two hours were spent running 80-meters while N6KI ran 40-meters and grabbed
a few multipliers on 160.  The fun of being the first to run on 80-meters is how many new
band multipliers we get to work, which for this contest was 39.

When it was all over, it turns out that WQ6X took a 2nd place in the Single-OP Assisted
QRP category, effectively putting an end to hopes for an NAQP Triple-crown for 2025.

DiD YOU work the Summer 2025 NAQP Cw contest?

Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR LoG?

 

WQ6X Blast from the PAST: NAQP RTTY - Part 2

After having been informed that WQ6X took 1st-place in the QRP assisted category for the NAQP RTTY contest, K6UFO wrote me and asked for a write-up and pictures.  Altho I had just published
a Blog on that event, it occurred to me that the last Blast from the Past Blog on this contest was written 6 years, creating the impetus to create a Part 2 on this topic.

Beginning with the original BLAST Blog, there are quite a number of entries regarding NAQP RTTY:

• [X] - July 2019 - WQ6X Blast from the PAST: NAQP RTTY
• [X] - July 2019 - WQ6X Solo-OP's NAQP RTTY - It Ain't Over 'Til it's Over
• [X] - July 2020 - WQ6X Works a slippery-slope NAQP RTTY Contest
• [X] - July 2021 - WQ6X Negotiates another Summertime NAQP RTTY Contest
• [X] - July 2022 - WQ6X NiT PiCKs another NAQP RTTY Contest
• [X] - July 2023 - WQ6X Runs a near-Negligible NAQP RTTY Contest
• [X] - Feb  2024 - WQ6X Weasels a Weird Multi-remote Radiosport Weekend
• [X] - July 2024 - WQ6X SQUEAKs Thru another NAQP RTTY Contest
• [X] - Feb  2025 - WQ6X Wobbles thru a WEIRD CQ-160 + NAQP RTTY WeeKend