7th Call Area QSO Party
Call: K7IA
Operator(s): K7IA
Station: K7IA
Class: Cnty Exped SO HP
QTH: AZAPH
Operating Time (hrs): 13:37
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80: 73
40: 198 18
20: 414 81
15: 29
10:
6:
2:
----------------------------
Total: 714 99 0 Mults = 60 Total Score = 140,040
Club:
Comments:
I missed the past three years of operating the 7QP from a nice little spot in
Arizona's tall pines in Apache County as an expedition station. Three years
ago, I fell ill en route, two years ago, the pickup truck fell ill en route, and
last year Erin I made it to the campsite, had supper with KK7AC and his Bride
and fell victim to a tight travel schedule conflict without ever closing the
key. This year, we avoided schedule conflicts, took plenty of Vitamin C, and
gave the truck a complete check-up beforehand. And this year, we made it!
I've had great success with an "Air Boss" compressed air launcher for
lobbing a 2 oz. fishing weight over or through the tall trees, pulling a
monofilament fishing line along for subsequent attachment to a Dacron haul line.
This year I selected somewhat taller and "friendlier" Ponderosa Pines
to position homebrew Moxon Rectangles for 20 and 15m higher AGL than in previous
years. Ditto for vees for 40 and 80m.
Sadly, the Forest Service has placed some signage and has marked some beautiful
trees, presumably for cutting, and it appears that the unimproved forest area we
have been using for 7QP will be turned into a forest campground. This might be
our last 7QP outing in Apache County, recalling the considerable destruction of
the County's forested areas from the massive "Wallow Fire" a half
dozen years ago.
Weather forecast predicted some snow and rain possibility for our elevation of
8000 feet, but every morning began with beautiful cloudless skies and temps
rising into the low 70's (nighttime lows in mid 20's). All of the equipment
worked perfectly, but the operator had BIC troubles and needed frequent breaks
to stretch the muscles and joints. RV dinette seating is adequate for a quick
meal but not for extended hunkering over the keyboard!
20m was wall-to-wall CW activity, especially after the NEQP and INQP warmed up.
Conditions were pretty good with low levels of QRN in our forest location. QRN
worsened in mid afternoon, however. I was delighted to hear signals on 15m.
Had more operators checked 15 for activity, perhaps more Qs could have been
made. I heard no SSB signals on 15, however. Still, it was worth the effort to
raise the 15m Moxon...
10 non-VE DX stations called--all to the east. Best DX was 9L/KW4XJ, an ATNO
for me. Thanks, Mark! As a former QRPer, I make it a point to try to work weak
signals--Mark was just above the noise on 20m, and I'm grateful for his patience
with me as I pulled out his call. I wasn't so lucky with some other caller's
signals--my apologies.
It was great to be back into the 7QP saddle again! I anticipate some travels to
Arizona in the coming year, looking for another pristine operating site for next
May...
Thank y'all for the fun!
73, dan
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