WQ6X Muses over the Many Methods for Meticulous Manipulation

While the WQ6X Contest BLOG is largely about the contest operations themselves, other Blog entries document the equipment behind the operations, as well as unique operating procedures to leverage different devices towards working in unison.

Having an array of 7-audio filters (front-ended by a Radio Shaft 16-channel stereo equalizer) is
an example of this.  The Stereo-audio concepts I have so thoroughly documented in these Blogs,
are possible thanks to the pair of Old-school, Analog, Autek QF-1A dual-filter units front-ending the stereo audio chain.

I asked Ashley @A-I to pretty up the above picture and she recommended something like this.

It seems that Ashley has a bit of an aesthetic flair to draw from.

I then asked her to put the two units closer together - she suggested this:

On the antenna side of things, not only has the 10m Long John yagi been found to tune
easily as a shortened-yagi on 15 meters, for 20 meters it seems to work as a rotatable dipole. 
On 40-meters, in many situations the configuration seems to be an excellent low-noise RX antenna
(a Beverage Yagi?).

In the middle of a recent slow-dragging radiosport contest, while waiting for the bands to recover
from some NASTY Space-WX, I rigged a coax switch for the Long John Yagi:

• LEFT:  The COAX-2 connector on the MFJ-993B IntelliTuner
• RIGHT: The RX-ANT jack on back of the FT-2000

Since then, the Long John has been "Vindicated" for BOTH receiving and transmitting purposes.

Unfortunately, the lower band neighborhood vicinity noise level seems to have increased in recent years.  The next "experiment" will be to re-insert a languishing MFJ-1026 noise canceler in the receive antenna line, in an attempt to phase-out the noise BEFORE it gets into the FT-2000 transceiver.

In preparation for upcoming radiosport events, I always check the contest website(s) for rule
changes, as well as the score(s) from previous years, to create an estimation of how to run this iteration of the upcoming contest.

It is really easy to come to the wrong conclusion(s) regarding signal reception in a given area.

There are several offbeat (altho useful) things that can be done to improve our operating experience:

• Beacon Tracking - Tracking the NCDXF and Russian military beacons can assist us towards getting a better handle on propagation issues.
• The Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) is an excellent way to determine whether in fact our signals are being heard around the globe.  ([CLICK HERE] to read my take on it back in 2o22.)

Bottom-line is that when I am not running a radiosport contest weekend, I am probably trying out new techniques to eek that last 5% of operating performance improvement to make the next major contest GiG an even better success.

What about YOU?

Do YOU experiment with novel techniques?

Further Investigations into those ubiquitous Russian Military Beacons

Over the last 9 years, I have written extensively about the ubiquitous Russian military beacons.  Recently, using those beacons during numerous radiosport contests, it occurred to me that due to recent Russian military escalations, we are overdue for an update on the status of these beacons,
at least the Eastern Asian ones.  ([CLICK HERE] to read some of those Blogs.)

In my thinking, there are two groups of Russian beacons: those based in North/Central Europe
and the beacon trio operating in Eastern Asia ("F", "M" & "K").  I first heard the EU beacons on the University enTwente Dutch SDR.  In doing research for this new Blog entry, it made sense to return
to that SDR during the EU evening/nighttime hours to discover which ones could be heard.

On the Asian end of things, while I frequently rely on the Eastern Asia beacons
("F" (Vladivostok), "M" (Magadan) and "K" (Kamchatsky)), frequently for whatever
reason, one or more of those beacons appear on the west coast to be AWOL.
To investigate that situation, a search was made to find web SDR in and around
Asia solely for the purpose of listening for this trio of beacons.

For some time, only the [relatively LOUD] "K" beacon could be heard in California. 
Recently, the "F" beacon could be weakly heard, altho the "M" seemed dormant. 
Having bookmarked over a dozen Asian-based web SDR sites, late in the morning
(evening in Asia) I cycled thru the SDR list noting which beacons were being heard
when / where at times when the bands should be open to those areas.

As it turns out, all 3 Asian beacons are active, altho the "F" and "M" beacons are clearly
running on reduced power (compared to past years) or there are antenna problems (or both). 
Being geographically closer to California, the "K" beacon is always reasonably LOUD. 
The fact that we have difficulty hearing "F" and "M" beacons may have less to do with lack
of propagation, then it does with the beacon installations themselves.

Tuning around, it was noticed that the "A" & "P" beacons seem to be off the air.  Near those frequencies an "I" beacon and "L" beacon were heard. The "I" beacon was very weak, while
the faster "L" beacon was relatively strong.  The PRIYOM.org website is where I first discovered
these beacons.  At this time. it would seem that the "I" and "L" beacons are not yet documented.

Now that the operational status of the Asian beacons have been [relatively] confirmed, attention
can be given to Europe - the missing "A" and "P" beacons and the arrival of the "I" & "L" beacons.
Then again while writing this Blog entry, listening one the 10.871 frequency, the "A" beacon was heard, albeit barely - very weak.

This brings us to a final conclusion.  While signal levels from each of the individual beacons are certainly affected by atmospheric propagation (the main reason we listen for them), remember that these beacons are what I call self-autonomous - a human being initiates their operation and then comes back every few years to check out the hardware.

With the Japanese JIDX Cw contest coming up on April 11th, closer attention/scrutiny will be given to the East Asian beacons ("K", "F" and "M").  Awhile back, with the assistance of the Gemini A-I facility, I unearthed the mysteries regarding the "DW" (Desert Whooper) beacon. 
([CLICK HERE] to read that.)

Whether we pay attention or not, the HF radio spectrum is LITTERED with propagation beacons
that we radio amateurs (especially radiosport contesters) can take advantage of.

Have YOU ever listened to the above mentioned propagation beacons?

What Discoveries have YOU made?

WQ6X Runs a Raucous BARTG RTTY Rendezvous

Prior to this weekend's annual BARTG HF RTTY contest, in checking the contest website,
the discovery was made that last year's QRP entry from Ramona resulted in a 1st-Place for
W6 and NA (North America) - who woulda thunk it could happen, considering limited resources available.  ([CLICK HERE] to read the write-up on last year's BARTG RTTY contest.)

One of the things I like about the BARTG event is its 02:00z (7pm PDT) start time.  Cobbling the proper cable configurations for RTTY is a challenge considering that each computer on the network
(2 on WinDoze-7, 1 on WinDoze-10 and 1 on WinDoze-11) each come equipped with a unique soundcard configuration.

The settled-on configuration was to run the K3/0-Mini unit from the WinDoze-7-1 laptop at my office
to open the contest.  Then later, the operation can continue on the WinDoze-7-2 laptop in Concord by transferring the settings back and forth by way of a .ADI file.  The file was made but never used - the internet at the Concord QTH was so horribly unstable that effective communication was all but impossible.  As it turned out, Concord was just a place to sleep.

This of course reiterates the one inherent weakness in running remote - poor internet
connections can undermine the best of operator intentions.  It became very clear that cobbled experimentation would be the operating backdrop for the rest of the weekend; luckily there was
36-hours left to make an attempt at surpassing last year's 1st-place win.  Unfortunately, HORRIBLE Space-WX compounded the situation.

The commute from Concord to my Alameda office is just over an hour (plus equipment packing/unpacking/setup time).  It's better to invest 90-minutes in a commute than to spend
the rest of the weekend fighting internet connectivity that might never be resolved.

In the Blogs on Stereo-RTTY, I have documented the cable configurations needed to make
RTTY work (stereo or otherwise) -([CLICK HERE] to read those write-ups.  Because there is a risk
of DC "ground loops" creeping into the audio lines, there is a judicious use of audio isolation blocks, altho they sometimes introduce an approximate 6db insertion loss.  This isa small price to pay for more-or-less "clean" audio - essential for satisfactory satisfying RTTY audio in both directions. 
To reduce receive signal levels, a USB mixer box was put in the RX audio line.

Unable to run RTTY from the Concord QTH, I was bummed by the prospect of missing out on
all the 40-meter JA multipliers.  If Saturday night is any reflection of Friday night (and there is no evidence to suggest otherwise), the flood of JA stations were all ragchewing on Ssb, not running RTTY or the RUS DX contest.

While the Russian DX contest began at 12:00z (5am PDT), I didn't connect with it until 13+ hours
into the event (01:30z).  Because the Space-WX numbers were so dismal, the idea of running QRP
was certainly not a consideration.  Running BARTG and VAQP made sense, however for RUSDX,
the power level was upped to 92-watts.  As it turns out, there were few Russian callsigns actually heard during the event and only a handful were actually seen in the bandmap.

At 01:45z, an interesting occurrence occurred when I started calling "CQ RU TEST WQ6X WQ6X"
on 7008.68.  Some IDIOT started sending "STAHLIN" after each CQ call.  Later (@02:07) on 7017.17 STAHLIN was back followed soon after with "PUTIN".  When I took the "RU" out of the CQ call, the IDIOT gave up his tirade.

Other weird things that occurred included:

• At 05:20z we had a new variation on the "A-Beacon'
• At 08:30z, 40-meters was LITTERED with JA ragchewing - they used to be dedicated contesters on 40-meters.  Now they are dedicated ragchewers.
• At 09:10z, tuning around 40-meters a numbers station was heard on 7184.11 @17-wpm sending an incrementing number followed by Question Marks.
  EX: 9912XX??8????.  Later at 13:30z the station was weaker sending 9916XX??8????
  The direction seemed to be Northwest from Anza (i.e. Asia)
• N7ESU works me and then moves up 1KC to call CQ - HuH?  The WHOLE band is open, why right next door?
  
• N6AR/4 worked me and then moved DOWN 1KC to call CQ.  REALLY?  WTF?!

Sundays in radiosport contesting are often
a mixed bag - they either allow us to "catch up"/pick-up on where we left off, or they can
turn out to be dismal DuDs, this one due to
the ongoing onslaught of geomagnetic noise.  

With WQ6X as an often-desirable callsign
to work, I often spend a not-insignificant amount of time calling CQ on Sunday afternoons.  

While there is often a dearth of responses to those calls, what else do we have going?

While we had until 02:00z to accomplish
(if you will) self-redemption, that mostly accomplished nothing other than to prolong
the agony.

The contest weekend may have ended Sunday evening however, the funky Space-WX
conditions were with us for another 36+ hours.

When it was all over, WQ6X managed just under 100 RTTY QSOs - enough to make a 2nd-place showing in this classic RTTY event.

DiD YOU work the plethora of March 14th weekend radiosport contests?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Wangles a Russo-Asian Radiosport Weekend

The 1st contest weekend of September is one of those "mixed-bag" affairs.  Being an Ssb contest,
All Asian is typically a major disappointment.   However, this year I discovered the Russian DX RTTY contest embedded in the packets of downtime in the All Asian GiG.

Client commitments kept me at my Alameda office (with no remote radio access) during Friday evening's potential 15 & 10 meter openings.  For WQ6X, A-A startup time did not begin until 06:00z, looking for a 20-meter opening while watching the greyline window, looking for Asia (JA in particular) to transverse into evening, when 40-meters opens in Japan towards their East - West Coast USA.

Being an Ssb contest, I was not surprised to hear the4 usual contest weekend non-amateur signals invading the lower 40-meters phoneband segments.  (For some reason, these intrusions rarely occur midweek).  The A-A contest weekend brought us the following 40-meter occurrences:

• 08:48z - 7132.66 - A station (LOUD S-9) was sending 5-character code groups.
  (WQ6X was running a frequency on 7135.35)
• There was what I call a "Data Cranker" - some sort of digital signal that sounds kinda
  like a toilet.
• There was of course the usual not-allowed Ssb operations in the middle of the CW/RTTY segment of the 40-meter band.
• The Russian "K"-Beacon is of course heard every evening, after about 07:00z on ~7.039.

Over the course of the 48-hour contest period, WQ6X made it all happen in only 3 operating periods:

• Friday Evening
  06:00z - 08:37z - 100 QSOs on 20-Meters
  08:50z - 12:35z - 59 QSOs on 40-Meters
• Saturday Evening
  06:41z - 07:27z - 8 QSOs on 20-Meters
  08:50z - 12:35z - 10 QSOs on 40-Meters
• Sunday Afternoon
  08:50z - 12:35z - 21 QSOs on 15-Meters

According to the 3830 Scores website, WQ6X took 1st-place for USA using Low Power (LP).

In between the non-Asian openings, I switched to running the Russian DX RTTY GiG.

Making this contest work using an older version of N1MM required patching two different
log segments together to deduce the proposed ending score.

The Tennessee QSO Party (TNQP) is one of those GiGs that doesn't know what weekend it belongs on.  While I like the idea of running on Sunday, this year, client commitments kept me off the air for most of the contest.  Then again, when I WAS on the air there were hardly any TNQP stations being heard, nor any being spotted - Wassup with that.

Bottom line, WQ6X added 3 contests to the 3830 Scores list to say I wuz there.

DiD YOU work the above radiosport contests?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

XYZZY

WQ6X Wanders thru a Watered-down Pair of QRP Contests

The last weekend of July is always a watered-down time, radiosport-wise.

During the IOTA, GiG, the condx were so poor, the decision was to run Cw ONLY.

This weekend brought us 2 GiGs on separate days which WQ6X ran QRP.

• [X]- Islands on the Air (IOTA) - Saturday @1200z for 24-hours
• [X]- Flight of the Bumble Bees QRP Contest - Sunday @17:00z for 4 hours

For IOTA, after resolving a few last-minute discrepancies, WQ6X was on the air remotely from
Ramona with the 1st QSO at 13:46 on 20-meters, working K4RUN, V85NPV, BY5SSB, VE7JKZ, V47EM & XE1AY - not a shabby way to start.  Being the 4th weekend of the month, after 15 QSOs the radio was shutdown as I made the trek to the Oakland Yacht Club (in Alameda) for the monthly club meeting of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA).  Our guest speaker was Mike K6MKF, who gave us an informative presentation on how amateur radio came into being in New England around 1904.  

After the presentation, I sat down to a battery operated ICOM 7300 feeding a horizontal J-pole
atop the story yacht club meeting.  The goal was to tune around the Ssb portions of the bands
looking for island stations.  Unfortunately, the electronic device RFI is so pervasive at the yacht
club no Ssb signals could be copied.  Moving down to 20-Cw, N9RV came in LOUD and Clear followed by V85NPV, verifying the antenna works, passing radio signals as well as power supply squeals.

This is inspiring me to put together a club presentation on utilizing the MFJ-1026 and TIMEWAVE ANC-4 noise phase boxes to eliminate the noise at the RX front end, before it can take over the RF
pre-amps and flood the I-F system.

I arrived back in Concord at 22:30z just in time to be drawn into troubleshooting an Xmit audio problem with STN-2 @WA6TQT's setup in Anza.  After an hour+ it was clear that a human needed
to be physically dispatched to the radio site for a close-up cable inspection.  

At 23:51z calling CQ on 21014.14, the band was open to Asia, putting JA6GCE, JA0FVU, JS1NDM, JM1SZY, JF2FIU, JF3BFS & JO7KMB into the log, with many stateside stations off the other end of the Stepp-IR set to run Bi-directional.

By the time I got into the groove (QSO-wise), the contest was already 1/2 over.  15-meters quickly disappeared, relegating a move to 20-meters.  As the solar flux continues to drop, 20-meters once again becomes THE Dx band.  Also lately, 40-meters has been opening later (03:15z), with skip distance(s) considerably less (than springtime), along with elevated noise-levels during the summer months.

Several trips to 80-meters yielded only one QSO (w/K7ARE).  Not only were there no other callers, but there were also no bandmap spots for the band.  Back to 40-meters, after working N2GC @05:05z, no other new stations were heard., giving me a reason to grab some sleep until 10:15z.

Hearing the Russian "K" and "F" military beacons on ~7.039 (the "M" beacon has been AWOL for some time), at least made it clear that there was propagation to Asia.  This brought hope that already-worked JA's
would materialize on 40-meters.  

While many JA's stations were indeed present, being Sunday evening in Japan, most were engaged in some sort of JA-only JCC contest, not the IOTA GiG.

At 10:15z, S&P'ing put JH2FIU, JG1LFR and JN1THL into log (along w/N3QE off the back of the beam).  

The last hour of the IOTA was a COMPLETE DuD!  When the IOTA contest ended at precisely @ 12:00z (5am), I promptly went back to bed for another 5-hours, returning to the OP chair just in time to activate the 

4-hour ARS Bumble Bee QRP event.

In the Bumble Bee GiG all QSOs were worth 1-point, with BB stations (operating portable away from their home QTH) giving us multipliers for each numbered BB station worked.  According to the rules, all station were required to run 5-watts or less.  Considering this was already a QRP weekend, the BB contest fit right into my QRP goals.

When it was all over, WQ6X took a distant 2nd-place in the IOTA 12-hour category and
a close 3rd-place in the Bumble Bee GiG.  Bottom-line - 2 more contests were added to
my 3830 score ToTaL.

DiD YOU work the IOTA and/or Bumble contest GiGs?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

Another All-ASIAN ConTesT is ALL-Over the Place

The 2o25 All Asian (A.A.) Cw contest presented us with a mixed challenge, considering the rapidly declining solar cycle.  Unlike last year's 81 QSOs, this year, 10-meters was AWOL-DOA.  While the frequency runs SEEMED Bigger and Longer, according to comparison stats from last year, we made nearly 300 QSOs LESS - mostly on 80, 15 & 10 meters.

I had a fortuitous last-minute change of plans allowing me to run Anza STN-2 remotely from my office in Alameda, enabling the opportunity to run the first 3-hours of the event on 15-meters, while K6RC scoured 20-meters for multiplier stations (MULTS) on STN-1.

While the SFI has been declining-noisily geomagnetically, the MUF has been high enough to keep
15-meters alive, well into sunset, not only on the Left coast, but in JA as well.  20-meters maintained
its reputation of being a DX band; of course, on the Left Coast, we have the advantage of Asia (Japan
in particular), being a "short skip across the pond".

Setting up the K3/0-Mini in Concord @10:30pm (PDT) insured readiness for relieving the midnight operator in addition to my 2am to 6am shift.  Running 20-meters until 09:00z, the shift was made to 40-meters, just in time for an opening to JA.  At 11:30z, with nearly everyone worked, it was time to move down to 80-meters and start it all over again - putting 38 JA's into the log.

A Toastmasters training session from 9am to NooN Saturday morning kept me out of the
operator chair until the afternoon, when WQ6X finally up on 15-meters remotely, from the
Ramona site.  Running the 4pm to 7pm shift for NX6T found me running 15-meters while
occasionally futilely making CQ AA calls on 10-meters.  Despite running 1400+ watts, the
only RBN spots were from the Northeast, even tho the Yagi-stacks were pointed Northwest. 
 (On Sunday afternoon, a single JA6 was heard (S-7) and then disappeared just as quickly.

By Saturday's end, WQ6X had managed 123 QSOs, enough to have made a presence as
a Low Power (LP) station.  All Asian has no QRP category; otherwise, I might have considered
it.  Listening for the Russian Asian-based military beacons, only the "K" beacon was heard.
The "F" and "M" beacons have been AWOL for many months (if not, longer).

Due to the nature of the way the All Asian contests are structured, I have no expectations of any significant placement in the standings; instead, I simply use these events as DX training opportunities.

While the NX6T score was considerably less than last year, we DiD manage to clearly take a 1st-place for Multi-OP Single Xmtr. outside of Asia, leaving K3EST (@N6RO) to dominate the Multi-Multi category.

DiD YOU work the All Asian contest?

How many Asian countries are in YOUR LoG?

In APRIL 2026, NX6T received yet another FIRST-PLACE certificate for North America.

WQ6X Wings a nearly non-Existent VOLTA RTTY Weekend

 This Blog post opens on a sad note.

Accumulating Space-WX readings over the last several weeks, it would seem that the high-SFI party is now more-or-less over.  Not only have the SFI numbers seemed frozen at ~156, after a week of On/Off geomagnetic storms, the SFI has taken a dive down ~126.  If that all sounds like a carefully created excuse for what turned out to be a horrible radiosport weekend - IT IS!!

There were 3 events on last weekend's agenda

1. [X] - The Russian CQ-M DX Contest
2. [X] - The Italian VOLTA RTTY Contest
3. [X] - The Canadian Prairies QSO Party (CPQP)

For CPQP, the handful of callsigns barely hearable in Ramona, and virtually no band spots for
Canadian station, that GiG was a DuD!  Stations in the Midwest and East coast had a much better time of, whereas the horrible storms conditions made that all but impossible on the West coast.

The CQ-M certainly offered possibilities, except that 10 & 15 meters never happened to the
USA, much less to EU.  The hoped-for 40-meter opening to EU was another listen-only one-way propagation event at the Ramona location.

Last (and most important) was the VOLTA RTTY contest. The same dismal upper band
conditions existed, altho the 20-meter RTTY "corridor" produced a handful of QSOs.  Moving
down to 40-meters @01:35z, WQ6X kept a run frequency active for over 90-minutes, interspersed
with a brief appearance on 80-meters.  

Eventually, when there were no new stations on 40-meters (and 20 was too "long"), it was time
for a break to come back at 09:30z to hopefully a band full of Asian stations.  In fact, only 7N2UQC made it into the 40-meter log, with an S-9 signal no less.  What happened to other Asian stations - there were none to be heard.

Thanks to the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN), it was clear that the WQ6X signal WAS making
a presence.  The fact there were so few replies says more about poor participation from operators
in the areas that could hear my signal.

One of the drawbacks of a 24-hour contest ending at 12:00z is that there are no next-day "DO overs".  Considering that 80+% of the QSOs were made on 40-meters, the contest became an SOSB-40 log submission.  According to 3830 Scores, WQ6X was the only entry in the SOSB-40 category.

With "plenty of time on my hands" on Sunday, it was time to create an internet-based software
manual for the upcoming-release of the WQ6X DX Beacon Tracker Windoze software APP. 
([CLICK HERE] to find out more).

DiD YOU work the 2025 VOLTA RTTY Contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Blast from the Past: CQ WPX RTTY - Part 2

In preparation for this upcoming weekend's WPX RTTY contest, I took yet another look back at the WPX RTTY GiGs WQ6X has been a part of.  ([CLICK HERE] to read Part 1.)  The GiGs from 2020
to 2023 we miracles unto themselves.  These include:

• [X] 2020 - A SOAB(HP) remote run from Fallbrook as NX6T
• [X] 2021 - A SOAB(HP) remote run from Fallbrook as WQ6X
• [X] 2022 - A SOAB(LP) operation from Concord as WQ6X
• [X] 2023 - A SOAB(QRP) operation from Concord as WQ6X
• [X] 2024 - A SOAB(QRP) remote run from Ramona as WQ6X

For the 2020 WPX RTTY GiG, a call for operators produced no takers.  With that in mind, the goal was to run SOAB using the ACOM-2000 amplifier dialed back to around 770-watts.  With over 1100 QSOs in the log, NX6T placed 2nd for W6 and 1st for San Diego section and the Southwest.

For the 2021 WPX RTTY GiG, while the internet access had become more stable, the actual submitted score was considerably less than for 2019, probably because I ran fewer hours. 
Being at the BOTTOM of the sunspot cycle certainly didn't help matters.  Nevertheless,
it was a fun run, supplemented by Russian military beacon tracking.

For the 2022 WPX RTTY GiG the FT-2000 ran its first WPX RTTY contest.  In an attempt to
combat fading, while running the high bands, the 8JK-Trapezoid wire antenna was hooked to the ANT-2 connector allowing it to be switched in at any time.  In the contest Blog for this GiG I also railed against the ridiculousness of still having to send 5-9-9 (or in my case "5NN). 
Running at 95-watts (full duty), the FT-2000 was "as cool as a cucumber".

For the 2023 WPX RTTY GiG, the decision was to run QRP remotely from KN6NBT's QTH in Ramona California.  According to the WPX website results, WQ6X took 6th-place for NA and 2nd-place for W6 (California).  A newly added MFJ-993B Intelli-Tuner to the FT-2000 installation turned the 3-el Long John 10-meter beam into a rotatable dipole for 15 & 20 meters.  The transceiver easily ran full-duty RTTY @95-watts, while keeping its cool.

For the 2024 WPX RTTY GiG

Any thoughts of repeating a RTTY run from Concord (East Bay section), were dashed during the previous weekend's Mexican RTTY GiG (which I ran remote from Ramona) when severe winds took out the antenna mast at W7AYT's QTH.  That returned WPX RTTY operations to running remote - this time QRP from Ramona.

Because of the crude (yet effective) interface cobbled together to run remotely, the score reduction reflected the difficulties of making it all work.  According to the WPX website results, WQ6X took
7th place for NA and 1st-place for W6 (California) - NoT bad for just faking it.

Bottom-line is that the last 5-years of WPX RTTY have indeed encapsulated WEIRD - in all respects.

DiD YOU run the WPX RTTY contest GiGs during 2o20 thru 2o24?

Is WQ6X (or NX6T) in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X & W6R Routinely regulate the RTTY RU Radiosport Experience

In a previous Blog entry ([CLICK HERE]) I described using the SARTG-NY 3-hour
RTTY contest as a proving ground for ways to run RTTY remotely, from multiple locations. 
That event was conducted using the Yaesu FT-2000 radio as a glorified PTT relay.  For the
RTTY RU GiG, the goal was to run the event as WQ6X (Anza) and W6R (Ramona), both from
my office in Alameda using the resident Yaesu FT-1000mp, eager to once again have a purpose.

Aside from that, the operating goals included setting all-time high QRP records for San Diego
(SDG) section, Orange (ORG) section and the Southwest Division, all of which were accomplished (assuming no last-minute surprise LoG entries).

This was a weekend of being surrounded by WEIRD signals, having NoThing to do with RTTY.

• A SWARM of R2-D2 sound-alikes suddenly appeared on my 7106.69
• At 13:40z dome digitally generated Cw suddenly appeared just above my 3588.88 run frequency, repeatedly sending strings like:  o --  o  o   o - - o o o.  The Cw sounded very RASPY - either power supply filter deficiencies or generated that way purposely from
  a digital source.
• ~7.039 of course is the home of the East Asia Russian Beacons ("F", "M" & "K")
  The "K" beacon had been awol for nearly a year and then came back, seemingly
  in conjunction with certain war escalations between Russia and Ukraine. 
  Then again, they may be completely separate, unrelated events.

The goal for W6R was to set a 1st-time all-time high score for San Diego (SDG section). 
Once that was clearly established, then the remaining operating time could be spent on WQ6X
setting records for Orange (ORG) section and the Southwest Division, both seemingly accomplished.

When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X DiD indeed take a 1st-place for ORG & Southwest Division and 5th-place overall.  W6R took 1st-place for SDG section and 9th-place overall.

DiD YOU work the RTTY RU contest?

Is WQ6X or W6R in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X/QRP Sneaks Around another CQ W.W. Ssb Contest

In recent years, during DX contest weekends that present us with a morass of stations to work
from all corners of the planet, the operating goals have been centered around running QRP Power.  Virtually ANYONE can work the world using 1500 (or even 100) watts of power; the REAL challenge comes from dialing it [all] back to 5-Watts.

For the 2024 Ssb event, we were blessed w/more-or-less cooperate Space-WX conditions with
the all-the-while "threat of the delayed effects due to a CME-ejection occurring just prior to the DX contest.  That CME DiD eventually impact the atmosphere around 22:00z.  Thanks to the SFI peaking yet again and hovering in the 200+ range contributed to experiencing the high bands as WIDE-Open well into the evening - on Saturday, 15-meters was still producing QSOs at 10:30 (05:30z).

15-meters was SO productive that much of the possible 40-meter opening to EU was missed,
due to chasing VK/ZL/KH6 and even leftover S. American stations.  After a sleep-grab, 40-meters
was open to Asia with surprisingly NO RTTY/Intentional QRM to deal with.  Even the Indonesian fishing boat Ssb bootleggers were missing (altho they prolly just moved down to the Cw/RTTY segment of the band).

Listening for the Russian beacons ~7.039, the "K" beacon was LOUD and CLEAR, but with a flaw
in sending its ID:  "D K K K K" - the 1st "K" was NoT being clipped by propagation effects; it was CLEARLY mis-sent by the computer-generated Cw code keying the transmitter.

Saturday morning, I gave a presentation to the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA) on radiosport operating. focusing on working all 40-Zones in the CQ W.W. contest, with a brief look at the upcoming November Sweepstakes contest pair (coming in November).

After introducing the Zone map and the [free] N1MM+ logging software, we sat down to make some contacts using the OYC (Oakland Yacht Club) radio club's ICOM 7300 into a roof mounted horizontal J-Pole atop the yacht club building.  10 and 15 meters were wide-open to Europe, altho only KH6 (Hawaii), ED7 (Spain) and WX1USA actually made it to the log - nevertheless, we demonstrated
that it could be done.  A 3-QSO LoG will be posted on the 3830 Scores website and submitted
as a CQ WW contest log.

When it was all over, according to the 3830Scores.Com standings, it would seem
that WQ6X took a 1st-place.

DiD YOU work the 2024 CQ W.W. DX Ssb contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?

WQ6X Survives another QRM-ridden WPX CW Contest

Weird Prefix Contests are ALWAYS weird; however, they don't get any weirder than the 2024
weird prefix weekend.  For this GiG, the WA6TQT Anza station was pre-committed for an SO2-R operation.   As a result, N6KI ran single-OP from his home QTH while I ran the WPX GiG QRP from Ramona.  This offered up the opportunity to run remotely from my Alameda office Friday to Saturday morning, then from the Oakland Yacht Club (in Alameda) conference room, culminating in the usual remote setup from the Concord location, with its intermittent pulsing internet dropouts.

Prior to the contest, horrific Space-WX conditions have plagued the HF spectrum off-and-on for nearly 2 weeks.  During the WPX contest, the 40m to 10m noise-levels were reasonably quiet, while signal-fading effects we quite rampant; running QRP over 50% of QSOs made required Callsign/Serial-# repeats.  Using pre-programmed N1MM function keys reduced the frustration considerably.

Throughout the weekend, considerable non-contest related QRM added to the signal-copy
difficulties most infamously notable include:

• RTTY station QRM (2 stations) @06:47z on 14001.54 and 14002.47.
• OTH RaDaR GRINDing noises obliterating the entire 40m Cw band both (Saturday/Sunday) morning around 10:00z.  RoTaTing the 2-el Shorty-40 yagi
  confirmed the RTTY origin to be E. Russia.
• SCADS of Indonesian  Ssb QRM (not legal below 7.050 Mhz).

Listening for the Russian military beacons (~7.039) found that BOTH the "M" Beacon (Magadan) &
the "F" Beacon (Vladivostok) to be AWOL for several weeks/months.  The "K" Beacon (Kamchatsky) was not only active, it changed its transmission format several times during the weekend, confirming that human intervention is indeed happening with this beacon.

When it was all over, it would seem that WQ6X took 3rd place in the SOAB Assisted QRP Category.

The Soapbox I posted on 3830, picks up where this BloG left off.

DiD YOU Work the WPX Weird Prefix CW Contest?

Is WQ6X in YOUR LoG?