WQ6X Wangles a WEIRD-ly Different ARRL DX Ssb ConTesT

Two weekends back, WQ6X ran a uniquely unique ARRL DX Cw contest, purposely operating
the in-house Yaesu FT-2000 transceiver I maintain at W7AYT's East Bay (EB) ARRL section QTH in Concord.  For the Ssb counterpart of the ARRL DX contest pair, permission was granted to run QRP Ssb from STN-1 @WA6TQT's Superstation on the hilltop in Anza California.  As it turns out, this was
a mixed blessing.

Having access to ~100' towered stacked-yagi arrays (40m thru 10m) makes a 5-watt QRP signal sound more like 400 watts - operators frequently don't believe I am running QRP until they lookup WA6TQT on QRZ.Com.  During the contest weekend, the downside of ~100-ft towers was manifest when 75-mph winds whipped through the Radio Ranch Real Estate Saturday & Sunday afternoons.  To protect the yagi-stack elements, the masts were all positioned @ more-or-less ~49-degrees, which of course while great for working Europe, was nearly useless when it came to quality communication with Asia and Hawaii.

While there was access to a KT-36 rotatable yagi pointed 300-degrees azimuth, at ~50-feet high, its performance hardly compares with 100-foot yagi stacks.  Essentially, it was either antenna safety at the risk of antenna destruction or risk it and take a chance.  The KT-36 safety method won out - as it turns out, Asian participation was significantly less for this year's contest incarnation.,

Behind the scenes, Space-WX anomalies of various flavors riddled (or should I say whittled) the operating experience.  Depending on which operators (at different locations across North America), EU was wide-open or non-existent.  At WA6TQT is was a mixed bag.  On Saturday, working into EU was an unfilled dream, only partially realized on Sunday morning.

DX Ssb contests are actually my least favorite of all radiosport events.  Stations around the world know just enough English (the predominant language used in radiosport contests) to more-or-less make 2-way QSOs a possibility.    Many OPs think all they need to be able to say is "5-NINE Kilowatt" and understand things like "5-NINE CALIFORNIA" - would that it would be that easy.

In the past, I have written a number of Blogs detailing my MAJOR Beefs during radiosport.

It would seem that the 2o26 ARRL DX Ssb contest has brought them back to the surface with
a few additional specifics.

• Stations often copied my callsign as Whiskey Quebec FOUR (4).  HuH? 
  How do you get QUEBEC-4 out of 6-XRAY?
• Otherwise, stations copied my callsign as Whiskey Quebec 6 Foxtrot? 
  HuH? REALLY?
  How does X-RAY become FOXTROT?  The don't sound anything alike.
• Operators spoke their callsigns WAY to FAST - the caveat being they were
  often mis-spotted Fast but Unintelligible. actually slows EVERYONE down. 
  The solutions is to STFD - Slow Down!
• Similar to Cw and RTTY contests, are stations who turn my uniquely chosen RUN Frequency (Ex: 21377.77) into their own run frequency.  HuH?  Wassup with THAT? 
  I understand coming somewhat CLOSE to my run frequency (Ex: 21377.00 21378.00) however, when they are EXACTLY zero-beat, I know that is no accident. 
  AT the very least, it is RUDE and poor operating ethics.
• During Ssb DX radio contests, the after midnight (local time) periods are often littered
  with bogus RTTY-type signals, such as the one heard on 7141.41 @09:58z.  
• Earlier (08:15z), there was what I call the "wind noise jammer" on 7144.44,
  with high-speed RTTY heard way in the background - HoW WEIRD is THAT?!
• Later, back on 7144.44, out of nowhere JA stations went into ragchew mode on 7143.09,
  creating UNBEARABLE SPLATTER!   Obviously, they are NoT going to move - time to yet again find a new run frequency, good until Billy-Bob and his brother Barney show to enjoy their cross-town ragchew, exactly zero-beat with my latest run frequency.
• Near the contest end, we were frustrated by 5Z4A (Kenya) who would call CQ despite already having 50-stations calling him on 14.172.  To make matters WORSE, this frequency also became a National Tuneup Frequency.  In the course of 30 minutes,
  I believe he work less than a dozen stations.  REALLY?  Am I missing something? WTF?!

When the contest weekend ended, just under 24-hours OP time made it into the WQ6X QRP LoG.
According to 3830Scores.com, WQ6X took 2nd-place of USA/NA in the event; not bad for just
winging it all the way.

DiD YOU work the ARRL DX Ssb contest?

If you were DX, is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?