WQ6X Offers ThoTs on the IARU HF Championship WeeKend

Being that the IARU is "subsidiary" to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the IARU HF Championship is a reminder that we should leverage the upcoming IARU HF Championship into an opportunity for global interconnectedness between all countries.  As I recall, there are teams competing from Ukraine and Russia and about 30+ other countries.

In brief, we could say that the IARU HF Radiosport contest is a perfectly unique 24-hour compromise between the 48-hour CQ WW and ARRL DX contests events.  Some of the differences include:

• IARU uses the IARU zones instead of the 40 CQ-Zones, states, or power levels.
• Being a 24-hour contest (instead of 48), there are no 2nd-day "Do Overs" - if we miss something, we miss it.
• The IARU championship leverages BOTH Cw and Ssb in one 24-hour period.
  Of course, one of the IARU contest challenges is which operating mode to use and when.
• Every 4-years the IARU contest coincides with the WRTC championship (the Olympics
  or World Cup of radiosport).

Because this is a worldwide
event, solar disturbances will distribute unevenly around the globe, favoring
(or disfavoring) different areas at different times. 

The REAL challenge for radio operators worldwide is navigating the geomagnetic effects by changing antenna direction(s) or making a sudden band change to leverage current ionospheric conditions.  

We often rely on reasonably consistently predictable propagation shifts to specific areas of the world at specific times - solar disturbances can either shift the shift or distort it altogether.

Running a multi-mode event offers the opportunity to leverage both Stereo-SSB as well as Stereo-CW methodologies.  Having decided to reprise the Ramona QTH again this year, the question becomes what power level (5-watts or 99-watts) to run. The influencing factors behind the decision include Propagation, Space-WX and Antenna settings.  

Even when they are available to me I don't turn on KW amplifiers when running Single-OP. 
For me, amplifiers are just one more thing that can go wrong.  At Anza, occasionally an amp has failed during an NX6T multi-OP run, requiring we switch to the backup station or revert to Low Power (LP); however, once you begin with HP, that is the classification the log will be submitted in after the contest.

Whenever possible in ARRL contests, I am always looking to be a part of setting Section and/or Division records.  In the IARU contest, in recent years, I have been a part of 5-records, with some
of them from running Single-OP of some sort.

This year, for me, plopped in the middle of Saturday morning is the first Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) Zoom training session during 16:00z to 20:30z of the IIARU contest - some screen juggling may be in order.  Thanks to a 32" monitor, the goal will be to position the VNC viewer and Zoom windows next to each other during those 4+ hours.  I guess we can call this SO2E (Single-OP 2-Events).

Prior to the contest, the 4-voice memories ion the remote K3 have been loaded, such that theoretically, we can Search & Pounce (S&P) w/o needing a microphone during the entire 24-hour contest period.

To use more than four voice memories,
I can turn on the VOX and use a locally
run copy of N1MM+ to play out local .WAV files, offering 8-to-12 additional verbal expressions.

When running Ssb, the N1MM function
keys F1 to F4 map to the M1 to M4 buttons
on the K3 radio series.  Voice memories
are recorded during a time when there is no internet jitter during the recording process.  Later, when jitter sets in, the memories will play correctly anyway.

Having a microphone connected to the radio along with a foot switch enables saying things that were not pre-recorded.  However, in general, using the voice memories most of the time reduces voice fatigue - especially near the end of the contest.

For Cw, the function key macros become a set of 12 messages that like the voice memories
will play out correctly even if there is internet jitter on my side of the connection.  Notice some
of the more unique function messages like "ROGER" and "WEIRD".  When operators do dumb
things, I salute them with the "W E I R D" key.  On Ssb, function key F-12 can play out the WEIRD.Wav file.  When asked if they got my exchange correctly, function key F9 sends: "R-R-R"

as in "Roger, Roger, Roger".  Otherwise, the necessary correction is sent and we go-round again.

With barely 13-hours remaining before contest start, it would seem that WQ6X is ready for yet another annual installment in the on-going saga of the IARU HF championship, with this year's attendant WRTC 50-team competition.

Are YOU geared up to run the IARU HF championship?

LooK for WQ6X on HF bands EVERYWHERE.