WQ6X Bumbles and Stumbles thru a 4-GiG Radiosport Weekend.

The 4th radiosport weekend of April not surprisingly turned out to be quite a messy affair overall.
Two years ago, the events were rather Whacky, altho not quite messy.  ([CLICK HERE] to read that.)

Here are the 6-GiGs there were to choose from:

• [X] - SP DX RTTY Contest
• [X] - UK / EI DX Contest
• [X] - Nebraska QSO Party (NEQP)
• [X] - Florida QSO Party (FQP)
• [X] - Swiss Helvetia Contest
• [X] - BARTG SPRINT-75 Contest

While the above six events occur every April, the UK/EI event and Helvetia contest never seem to happen for WQ6X.  For weekend #4, the largest contributing factor to poor radiosport performance was disruptive Space-Wx, even tho the Space-WX numbers inferred conditions would be more favorable.

Both state QSO parties bracketed the RTTY contests, all run from my Alameda office using separate computers for each mode, altho ironically both computers dovetailed into the same K3/0-Mini and RRC-1258 configuration.   As it turns out, running AFSK the the K3/0-Mini control head, it's easy to overload the mic audio circuits creating excess sideband splatter requiring careful laptop audio adjustment.

Lack of NEQP participation and the 04:00z Saturday evening break for the FLQP left us with the poorly attended SPDX RTTY contest.  Being a Polish-based contest, there was probably lots of EU activity which I got a sliver of by periodically turning to 20-meters several times during the evening.

Even tho the SFI climbed to 156, in Ramona, 10-meters was a complete no-show, with 15-meters producing only a handful of QSOs for all events.  On the other end of the spectrum, scouting 80/75 meters found no contest activity, only more-or-less ragchew activity.

For WQ6X, the SPDX RTTY contest quietly faded into oblivion at 12:00z.  Later Sunday morning brought us part 2 of the FLQP (Nebraska was another no-show) and eventually the 4-hour BARTG-75 RTTY Sprint contest @17:00z.  Running 75-baud RTTY (instead of the usual 45.45-baud) made for increased adrenaline, metaphorically and physically.  75-Baud signals require more careful VFO tuning to achieve readable decoding.  When it was over, a whopping 7-QSOs made into the RTTY Log

To wrap things up, one more search for was made for Florida stations.  Other than the rover stations activating new counties, all the other stations were DUPES - Bummer Dewd.  While the weekend hardly went the way originally anticipated, at least it can be said that WQ6X made the scene.

When it was all over, it would seem the one real accomplishment was taking 1st-place for
California in the Florida QSO party - I GUESS that is something worth celebrating.

DiD YOU work the last contest weekend in April?

How did things turn out on YOUR end?

XYZZY