WQ6X Barely Balances another dual-OP NAQP Cw ConTesT

Thanks to summer solar storm noise, the NAQP Cw GiG is always a mixed bag. 
From one point of view the solar-WX anomalies were "minor", except that doesn't
take into account atmospherically caused noise from such things as lightning bursts
across the continent.  Nevertheless, this weekend's main goal was to replicate the dual-OP
NAQP Cw operation from the GiG in January.  ([CLICK HERE] to read the write-up on that.)

Normally NX6T runs high power (HP) in most contests, except that the NAQP contest purposely 
does not allow for a high-power category (only LP and QRP).  What NX6T has going for it in
a low power contest is WA6TQT's massive antenna farm up on the hill outside of Anza.

With its minimal Name/State exchange, I think of NAQP GiGs as the PERFECT introduction to domestic radiosport contesting.  On the other end of the spectrum is the November Sweepstakes (domestically) and the Worked All Europe (WAE) contests on the DX end of things.

NAQP Cw/Ssb is scheduled twice each year - in January and again in August.  (The NAQP RTTY GiGs materialize in early February and late July).  All events are scheduled to run during "winter propagation" conditions and then once under "summer propagation" conditions.  Frequently the difference between the two periods are dramatically different.  Just looking at the Space-WX numbers tells us a lot. (More on that later.)

A feature of the NAQP rules for all Single-OP stations is the specifically imposed limit of 10 operating hours.  In exchange, single-op stations can change bands at any time repeatedly.  Conversely, multi-OP stations are allowed to run all 12 hours but with a band change restriction requiring us to remain
on each new band for a minimum of 10-minutes after the first contact is made.

Running dual-OP, I had to always be cognizant of which station I was running

• DX LoG Software on ANZA Stations STN-1 & STN-2
• N1MM+ Logger Software when running remote from Ramona

While running 10-meters on STN-2 Saturday morning, looking for mults, I rotated
the yagi stack to 0-degrees and then swept it slowly towards South America (120-degrees). 
That's when I remember that the 10-meter yagi stacks are interlaced with the 15-meter yagi
stacks on the same tower.  I was of course turning the entire tower while my compatriot was
running a frequency on 15 meters.  I would hope he got some "new ones" not otherwise possible
w/o my "OOOPS".  When "nobody was looking" the yagi-stacks "magically" were back at 65-degrees.

I've participated in dozens of NAQP GiG over the years, with WQ6X always running as "Ron in CA" while NX6T always runs as "Pat in CA".  Thanks to the callsign lookup facility built-in to most logging software, "Ron and Pat" will always be "Ron and Pat".

WQ6X (/QRP) ran the 21:00z to 00:00z period and came back on the air at 03:00z.  Looking at the contest online scoreboard found WQ6X resoundly in 1st-place with K4OV a somewhat distant 2nd-place.  At 04:45z one of the NX6T operators called asking me to take the last hour on Anza STN-2.  Noticing that K4OV's score had not changed in 1/2 hour, figuring my 1st-place was secure I switched over to STN-2, added 20-Qsos on 160-meters and then spent the rest of the contest calling CQ on 40-meters, milking the leftover stragglers looking for a final handful of QSOs to end the evening.

Comparing the January and August NAQP events, it seems ironic that while January was run under
K-Index=4 conditions, the band openings on 10 & 15 meters were far superior to August with its relatively low Space-WX numbers.  Much of January's success came from lack of the summer lightning storms that are often considerably worse than space-WX storms during the winter.

After the contest, collecting stats for this Blog, the scoreboard now documented that during the
last hour of the NAQP GiG K4OV started back up and bested WQ6X's score by 815 points (we had the same 157 QSOs however his score contained 5 more multipliers) - REALLY?  The even bigger surprise came via the 3830 score reports with K6GHA surpassing both our scores combined - GO Figure.  The scoreboard only shows stations who periodically submit their run stats during the contest - evidently, K6GHA doesn't enable scoreboard reporting.

For NX6T, after correcting a score discrepancy, the San Diego Contest Club came in 3rd-place just above N6RO.  The 1st and 2nd place submissions were way beyond our scores - operating from the east coast has its advantages.

When it was all over, two different sources indicated that WQ6X took a 3rd-place for the Single-OP Assisted category.  Even if WQ6X had run the last contest hour, nothing would have changed, validating my op-time with NX6T, offering the opportunity to give the 160-meter tri-Square its
first domestic contest run since the phasing cables were re-cabled.

While both NX6T and WQ6X were run remotely, the audio came thru the Elecraft K3/0 and was directed through the Stereo-audio configuration cobbled together over the years.  Thanks to Stereo-CW, running pileups were more effective.  Unfortunately, Stereo-CW doesn't resolve "internet jitter". 
Many QSOs required repeats, even when the station was S9+.  Then again, if the above are my
only complaints, then overall, we enjoyed a relatively stress-free NAQP Cw contest.

DiD YOU work the August 2o26 NAQP Cw event?

Is WQ6X or NX6T in YOUR Log?