Thursday, June 25, 2026

WQ6X Wanders-thru and Wings [yet] another All Asia Cw ConTesT

Every summer, the weekend preceding Field Day (FD), I use the All Asia Cw contest as an orientation exercise to validate recent equipment/wiring changes.  15 years ago, when Field Day was run from Mt. Abel (8385' N/W from Los Angeles), I drove to the mountain a week before the rest of the W6SW team to run the All Asia GiG from the mountain top.

For 2o26, I joined up with NX6T running remote from WA6TQT's STN-2 in Anza (San Bernardino mountains in So. California) - STN1 was used for mult-hunting and propagation monitoring. 
During the in between shift periods, WQ6X ran single-OP low power (LP) from KN6NBT's in
Ramona, as there is no QRP category in the A-A contest.

The Anza location was relatively quiet with an almost near-latency-free internet connection, while the
Ramona location was much noisier (it's usually the other way around), coupled with a "jittery" internet connection, make Q% Cw copy a challenge at best.  With only 6 operators, we not only has several assigned time slots, we often also filled in for another operator who may have had connection problems.

With a declining Solar Flux Index (SFI was around 118, versus 145 10 days ago), 10-meters was
a weekend no-show until the last 90 minutes when the closing operator (K6PO) got a break and turned in some beautiful last minute mults.  On the other end of the frequency spectrum (80 meters),
I managed 62 contacts (out of 87) mostly with Japan.  The 80m and 10m QSOs were worth Two (2) points instead of 1.

As the main night shift operator, I encounter all manner of unexpected QRM issues on 40-meters. 
For this contest weekend, the issue was unlicensed Indonesian Ssb operations below 7.025 and
a pulse radar station @13:00z that started EXACTLY on my 7007.77 run frequency.  While I was running 80-meters for 25-minutes, the radar stopped; 5-minutes after I came back to the 40-meter
run frequency, the radar was back.  Coincidence?

Because summertime openings to JA on 160-meters coincides with sunrise, I was not surprised
to hear faint signals buried in a wall of D-Layer noise.

It would seem that NX6T has once again taken a 1st-place score, slightly higher than last year.

As WQ6X, only 20 and 15 meters were run this year.

DiD YOU work the All Asia DX Cw Contest?

How many Asian countries were in YOUR LoG?


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