WQ6X Wings a Wonkily-wrung Radiosport Weekend

This was a radiosport contest weekend that got sidetracked by another contest weekend.

The two weekends prior to the classic CQ WPX ("Weird Prefix") Cw contest are relatively quiet
contest periods, depending on what I do with them.  This 3rd weekend in May happened to coincide
with the Toastmasters District-57 final conference prior to being merged into a new District: D-205.

Because the conference was held in Rohnert Park, I made the trek over to the GRATON casino to scout their Blackjack tables (very disappointed) and then check-in with the district speech contest chair in case I happened to fluke my way into the district speech contest at the last minute.

NoT being a contender in the May contest, I high-tailed it back to my Alameda office just in time to
watch the speech contest live video stream while tuning the bands for any ARQP stragglers while keeping an eye out for K-o-S CQ calls.  Eventually, not hearing much, WQ6X put out a series of
CQ calls, attempting to "force the band to open".  (Remember, if everybody is listening and no
one is calling CQ, any band can sound: dead, Dead, DEAD!)

Probably the easiest way to explain the King-of-Spain GiG is to share the score I posted
to the 3830 Scores Website.  This is whut I said about this year's King-of-SPain GiG:

There are certain radiosport advantages to operating from (almost) anywhere in Europe.

When it was all over, the only thing I really have to say about this relatively quiet contest weekend

is - "I WUZ THERE!".  Otherwise, it was nothing more than a remote access training exercise.

DiD YOU work the King-of-Spain CW contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Wings a Weak CW-Only Radiosport Weekend

The 2nd radiosport weekend in May is overall a simplistic affair.  To make things easier, it turned
out to be a CW-only operation.  For weekend 2, the 3 radiosport GiGs on the agenda included:

• [X] - Volta RTTY Contest
• [X] - CQ-M DX Contest
• [X] - Canadian Prairies QSO Party

Opening with the Volta RTTY contest, the audio wiring was flawless.  Unfortunately, N1MM's implementation of the contest refused to log USA and VE stations.   As the day moved forward,

I heard very few RTTY stations, vindicating the decision to spend the rest of the weekend running Cw.

Thanks to noticeably declining solar flux numbers (SFI=124), 10 and 15 meters have become largely a pipe dream.

The Canadian Prairies QSO Party always has me hoping this year will have more activity than past CPQP events and yet, every year, another disappointment.  We work many VE4, VE5 & VE6 stations
in other contests, yet when it comes to their own QSO party, we have to enlist an electron microscope
to find the less than one dozen stations we do manage to work.

The CQ-M contest was of course loaded with activity, altho EU had 3X the activity heard in North
and South America while 40-meters was constantly littered with non-contest JA stations (day and night).  Virtually all of them were engaged in some sort of domestic Japanese radiosport GiG which
has been going on for many weeks.  Only one JA station (JG1LFR)- made it into the WQ6X CQ-M log.

The CPQP QSO Party ended at 03:00z (8pm PDT).  Ironically, some of the best CQ-M activity surfaced during that final hour (02:00z - 03:00z) period.  Choosing to run the WA6TQT station
in Anza @90-watts all weekend, stacked yagi's on 40 and 20 meters made for some nice contacts with Europe, which would not have been possible running QRP power or running remote from KN6NBT's station in Ramona.

After midnight, operating time was split, jumping between 20-meters, 40-meters and then back
to 20-meters repeatedly.  Calling CQ brought many EU stations calling in.  At 12:00z (5am PDT)
it was all over.  The only thing left was to come back, gather screen shot stats and produce Cabrillo
log files.

The projected stats are posted on the 3830Scores website, while the logs are sent to the appropriate contest sponsor.  It almost seemed as if the admin-to-Op time ratio is relatively large on slower contest weekends, altho the need for everything to be done properly does not change.

According to 3830, WQ6X took a 1st-place running LP-Cw only for CA / W6 in the CPQP.
For the CQ-M contest, it would seem that WQ6X took 1st-place for North America running
LP Cw-only.

DiD YOU work the CQ-M Contest on CW?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

BesT LaiD PlaNs of Operators and Radiosport

This Blog title is of course a variation on an old theme.  For the 1st weekend in May, I dub it
"Cinco-de-Contest", altho some weekends have 6 or more events all happening in under 48 hours. 
For the 2o26 Cinco-de-contest weekend, despite thorough planning, what the insurance companies
call "acts of God" can occur at any moment, as the weekend so fortuitously demonstrated.

This weekend brought us the Italian ARI Dx contest and four state QSO parties:

• [X] - Italian ARI DX Contest (AR) - 12:00z
• [X] - 7th AREA state QSO Party (7QP) - 13:00z
• [X] - Indianna state QSO Party (INQP) - 15:00z
• [X] - Delaware state QSO Party (DEQP) - 17:00z
• [X] - New England states QSO Party (NEQP) - 20:00z

When running remote, there are four considerations that can become deal breakers:

1. - Operator fatigue
2. - Internet and/or equipment failures at the remote location
3. - Internet and/or equipment failures at my originating end.
4. - Power failures on my end.

Using a Toshiba Tecra Z-85 laptop at the Concord location, while giving me 5-Ghz internet
access requires running the WI-FI troubleshooter to reset the internet adapter which periodically
"trips over itself".  

My original plan was to run the 7QP, INQP and the ARI contest throughout the day until my 1st
2-hour shift for NX6T in the New England QSO Party at 00:00z (5pm), spending the rest of the
evening chasing stations in New England (until 05:00z) and the 7th call area until 07:00z when
7QP ends.  Afterwards, moving to 20-meters, the ARI Dx contest can be run as long as there are
stations to be heard.

Being asked to fill-in Saturday afternoon for NX6T shifted my attention away from Ramona
to the stacked Yagi's at the WA6TQT superstation where we ran STN-2 at nearly 1.5kw with
the yagi stacks all pointed to New England.  Ready to run again as WQ6X (QRP instead of QRO),
at 23:00z - WHAM - power outage at the Concord location - a tree toppled onto a power line, plunging several neighborhoods into darkness.  (You're probably wondering where the ubiquitous UPS backup power system was - so am I.)

With power resumed at 07:47z, the only thing left was the tail end of the ARI Dx contest - which for simplicity, was run as Cw only.  Pointing the 3-element Stepp-IR towards Europe, a total of 18 QSOs made it into the log before the 12:00z contest end.  While WQ6X made few actual contacts, the Reverse Beacon Network certainly heard the WQ6X QRP CQ Calls.

After some sleep, WQ6X was back in the OP chair running the NEQP at QRP power.  A quick
hour for NX6T at 19:00z gave me two frustrating hours looking for unique (i.e. not yet worked)
New England stations.  Back as WQ6X in Ramona for a couple of hours, the number of New
England stations were quite limited (many NEQP ops don't do Sunday).

I spent the last 2-hours running mixed-mode (Cw and Ssb) for NX6T. 
Out of desperation, I called CQ for NX6T as follows:  CQ NEQP  NX6T NX6T/CA. 
Of course, Billy-bob and his brother Barney called right in, not just on Ssb, but Cw as well. 
(I didn't even know that Billy-bob and his brother Barney could work Cw).  On voice, I said, "I'm working New England only", while on Cw I typed "NEONLY" into the callsign field and pressed F5.  When cousin Bozo kept on calling me, I sent: "KB4LID - 5NN CA".  He sent back "5NN GA" - using Ctrl-W wiped him from the log.

After the contest ended, working with N6KI (our team captain), Dennis vetted the log for any non-NE QSO party contacts, submitting what promises to be another 1st-place win outside of New England.  While the original goal was to run a Cinco-de-Contest (with NX6T in NEQP as a bonus), INQP and DEQP never happened this year.  With only marginal operating time, the hope for reprising last year's 1st-place 7QP Mixed-mode QRP win never materialized; for NEQP, at least 18 stations made it to the WQ6X QRP log.

DiD YOU work Cinco-de-Contest?

Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR LoG?

XYZZY