CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2023
Call: WD6T
Operator(s): WD6T
Station: N6RO
Class: SOSB/10 HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 22
Remote Operation
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80:
40:
20:
15:
10: 1116
------------
Total: 1116 Prefixes = 625 Total Score = 1,478,750
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
This was one of several parallel single-band operations at the N6RO contest
station.
Ten meter conditions were stellar. DX was plentiful (77 DXCCs worked) and the
new 10 meter stack at Ken N6RO's station was a pleasure to operate. The biggest
surprise was the strength of the European opening, with 322 worked. Most of this
was direct path, though there was a bit of skew path to the British Isles after
their sunset.
Then there was Murphy. I started the contest operating remotely, but ended up
needing to drive out to the station on both days, losing a couple of critical
hours. Still, the band was in such good shape that my claimed score squeaked
past the NA record (though probably won't stand up to log checking.) I followed
one simple strategy: favor DX over domestic, whether or not they are mults, as
long as the Q-to-Mult ratio was less than 2.0 (the final ratio was 1.8).
Here's how it all went...
The first evening got off to a good start with US and Asia. The band stayed open
well past our sunset, with the last QSO at 0301z. The highlight of the evening
(and the whole contest) was working 9N7AA at 0240z. Robert was weak, but
workable.
On Saturday morning, Murphy fired his first salvo: I couldn't connect the Flex
Maestro to the radio via SmartLink. I got around the problem by running SmartSDR
at the station site, but it was awkward and sluggish due to VNC bandwidth
limitations, and I missed having the tuning knobs. I managed the first QSO at
1507z and the first European QSO at 1510z. By 1523z, it was already possible to
run Europeans, and that continued for four hours. Needless to say, doing this on
10 meters from California is something we haven't experienced for many years.
With multiple simultaneous callers, call-stacking was used extensively.
Then Murphy struct his second blow. At 18z, the RemoteRig audio became choppy
due to extreme packet loss. Although it was still possible to operate (the
decoding/encoding was at the station site), it was painful to listen to. Not
wanting to miss any of the European opening, I stuck it out for another hour,
then jumped in the car, and drove 50 miles out to the station; so no Qs were
made in the 19z hour.
Once there, everything went smoothly again, as I tried to make up for lost time
with the US and SA. Later, the pace relaxed, as I had worked most of the JAs the
first night. Greg KK6PXT and his dog stopped by, and I had a chance to chat with
Ken, who was doing a single-bander on 80. After the last Q at 0245z, I headed
home.
On Sunday morning, everything seemed to be working and the audio was ok again. I
was treated to another terrific European opening with hours of running,
interleaved with SO2V S&P. But then the audio choppiness returned. We
decided to try resetting the VPN, but after the reboot, I could no longer
connect with either SmartLink or the RemoteRig, so it was time for another car
ride. This time, I lost the 18z hour, and made the first QSO at the station by
1920z. After a slow 15 minutes, I realized the amp was not on. From then, it was
smooth sailing until the end of the contest.
Many thanks to Ken for his hospitality, as well as to W9KKN, who is looking into
the RemoteRig issue.
Stats below.
73,
Dave WD6T
Continent totals:
NA 527
EU 322
AS 189
SA 50
OC 20
AF 9
Countries:
9A 6
9M2 2
9N 1
9V 1
BV 1
BY 11
C3 1
CE 6
CM 5
CT 2
CT3 1
CX 1
D4 1
DL 77
DU 3
E7 1
EA 19
EA6 1
EA8 6
EI 1
F 20
FY 1
G 15
GM 4
GU 1
GW 2
HA 1
HB 1
HI 3
HL 3
HP 1
HR 1
HS 1
I 45
IT9 9
JA 137
K 454
KH6 4
KL 5
KP4 2
LA 2
LU 8
LY 2
LZ 5
OA 1
OE 6
OH 5
OK 13
OM 6
ON 11
OX 1
OZ 1
P4 1
PA 9
PY 32
S5 7
SM 7
SP 19
SV 3
T7 1
TF 1
TG 1
TI 2
UA 1
UA9 6
UR 3
V2 1
V3 1
V5 1
VE 44
VK 9
XE 7
YB 26
YJ 1
YO 5
YU 5
Z3 2
ZL 3
CQWPXRTTY 2/11/2023 - Hour by Band Statistics
Day Hr 28 Tot Accum
2023-02-11 00 78 78 78
2023-02-11 01 67 67 145
2023-02-11 02 32 32 177
2023-02-11 03 1 1 178
2023-02-11 15 50 50 228
2023-02-11 16 91 91 319
2023-02-11 17 67 67 386
2023-02-11 18 62 62 448
2023-02-11 0 0 0 448 DRIVE OUT TO STATION
2023-02-11 20 74 74 522
2023-02-11 21 66 66 588
2023-02-11 22 50 50 638
2023-02-11 23 31 31 669
2023-02-12 00 41 41 710
2023-02-12 01 27 27 737
2023-02-12 02 20 20 757
2023-02-12 14 3 3 760
2023-02-12 15 61 61 821
2023-02-12 16 75 75 896
2023-02-12 17 50 50 946
2023-02-12 18 10 10 956 DRIVE OUT TO STATION
2023-02-12 19 33 33 989
2023-02-12 20 54 54 1043
2023-02-12 21 26 26 1069
2023-02-12 22 27 27 1096
2023-02-12 23 20 20 1116
Total 0 1116 1116 1116
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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