CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2023
Call: NG1M
Operator(s): NG1M
Station: NG1M
Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: Classic
QTH: RI
Operating Time (hrs): 16
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 9
40: 185
20: 363
15: 38
10: 279
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Total: 874 Prefixes = 448 Total Score = 1,005,312
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
I have been seriously contesting in my basement with my FLEX 6400 since 2020.
And all of these contests have gone rather flawlessly. Last year I purchased a
FLEX Power Genius Amplifier, which is not only amazing, but idiot proof.
Everything was running smoothly…
Until Friday.
I love this contest and spent part of the week getting ready for it. I mounted
a new (old) monitor to provide additional information. Tuned my 80M dipole. Ed
W0YK and Craig K9CT were very helpful getting a digital interface window in
N1MM+ set up for my second slice receiver. I tried something different this
year and had THREE RTTY Engines translating – 2Tone as the primary, with MMTTY
and GRITTY for additional translating – getting different looks at what was
coming in. This turned out to be very helpful.
Friday night – the radio was not always transmitting. When it was, the radio
was not talking to the amplifier. Something weird was happening to ANT1 vs
ANT2. Nothing was working. Saturday morning – still not working AND my wife
got sick. So, I intermittently tried to figure out what was going on, updated
ALL the FLEX software, and worked on my taxes… NINETEEN HOURS into the
contest I realized a SELF-INFLECTED error of an incorrect setting. Once fixed,
everything was smooth & perfect! After ~50 or so near-perfect basement
contests, these things happen. Such is life.
In the end I ran for ~16 hours in the CLASSIC overlay, not the 24 CLASSIC I had
planned. My rate was better than last year - I had an amazing run on 10M Sunday
morning, including JAs. 20M was also hot. The overall rate was +10% greater
than last year. I think that was due to running Europeans on 10 & 20Ms
quickly as opposed to domestic contacts on 40M. Better for points also. I ran
a vast majority of the contest – if you’re not running / you’re not
racing!
The multiple RTTY engines proved to be a plus. Sometime only one would pull a
call sign out of the noise. It was taxing on my old PC – another motivation
to finally upgrade it. And trade my 6400 in for a 6600 so I can try SO2R.
FLEX 6400 & Power Genius XL Amp
N1MM+ with 2TONE, MMTTY & GRITTY RTTY engines
WTRC 2014 Tower & Wires
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