Route 66 On-the-Air

from New Mexico

Part of the Route 66 On-the-Air event, we'll provide contacts from various counties and cities throughout the State from 9 Sep 0000 UTC to 2400 17 Sep.  Join us in celebrating "America's Mother Road."  Our goal is to put as many of you in the log as possible.  We are a small team, so watch for us on your favorite DX cluster.  Please make one QSO per each W6x station.  Check your log before calling any of these stations.

You can find details for this event at http://w6jbt.org/.  We hope to have confirmations in LotW; stay tuned on that.  Send QSL cards to Bill, K8TE, 4701 SOMBRERETE RD SE, RIO RANCHO NM 87124-1334.  I will only respond to those who submit an SASE.  We don't make any money on this, so a donation for your card is helpful.

We'll use cards from previous years (we have many) with the appropriate year on the card.  This is a lot of work (about 8,000 QSO's last year alone)!  We will NOT do anything with QSL's this week!  We're attempting to make as many QSO's as possible.  Please be patient. 

Like any special event station, we often have large pileups and expect to work between 100 and 200 QSO's/hour.  On SSB, give your full call phonetically.  That always saves time if we can enter the full call the first time.  Follow our instructions.  If we say "Suffix Phonetically", respond with just your suffix phonetically.  LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN.  See how the flow of QSO's occurs.

If you can't hear us well enough to tell if we have finished a QSO, DON'T CALL!  Wait for our signal to rise.  DON'T say just your suffix or prefix. Do NOT send our call!  We know our call.  Do NOT repeat anything unless asked.    Read and follow the DX Code of Conduct so you and all other stations will make fast, short contacts and we'll get more stations in our logs. 

Help us work you, and you will more likely make it into those logs.  Rude callers will likely not make the log.  HF Propagation and local noise make QSO's difficult at times.  Work another W6x station and come back to work us.  Use CW if SSB doesn't work.  The former is a fare more effective mode.  We'll slow down to your speed.

If you are operating another W6x station, check the cluster first.  Then, listen.  Don't choose a frequency with a pileup.  If nobody else is on or near (+/- 3 kHz on SSB, 0.5 Hz on CW), listen, then post on a cluster, ask if the frequency is use, and if it is not, call CQ.  Good luck and 73!  Bill, K8TE, NM W6H/RTE 66 OTA Coordinator