California QSO Party - 2021
Call: AF6GA
Operator(s): AF6GA
Station: AF6GA
Class: SO LP
Class Overlay: CntyExp
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 18h22
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160:
80: 118 0
40: 200 0
20: 343 0
15: 260 0
10:
--------------------
Total: 921 0 Mults = 57 Total Score = 157,491
Club:
Comments:
First, thank you to the kind and considerate OPs who patiently repeated their
calls. There were a couple of occasions where my brain must have blanked but
they were great OPs who stuck with it when they could have easily moved on.
Thanks also for all the QSOs.
This was the third time I’ve been a run station, the other two occasions in
2014/2015 were also for CQP. So this isn’t a strength of mine but some
MorseRunner practice in the weeks ahead of time definitely helped.
Field day was cut short so I decided to look for a good radio/camping weekend.
A CQP expedition seemed like a good fit. Somewhere high, in a national forest
so I could include camping and free space for antennas. Colusa county ended up
the final choice with a bit of rarity and reasonable proximity to Santa Clara
county. The added bonus was going through an OHV park for some light four-wheel
fun. I’ve never been to Colusa county or the east side of Mendocino national
forest but the views from Goat Mountain are very impressive. That does have a
downside as far as contesting goes: I found myself taking extended food breaks
just staring at the scenery and enjoying the peace and quiet. Probably not the
best for the bottom scoreline, but it certainly added to the overall experience.
Something has to offset eating MREs to avoid any chance of burning down the
forest.
There were a few technical difficulties, the most annoying of which was a USB
issue on an aging MacBook (2006) running W7. Either the screen would go blank
for a second and then no more keying, or it would just hang the keying on. So
every 30 minutes or so either a CQ call would stop or more frustrating a call
would be lost. Closing N1MM and restarting fixed the issue. I’m sorry if we
were mid-QSO and you thought I’d gone AWOL. The generator running out of gas
was more considerate as I was just calling CQ at the time. October in CA is
still very warm, so I really wish I’d brought a fan. I suppose this operation
was on the border of just having fun and wanting things to go smoothly…
Conditions were excellent: getting called by SM2M on 15m and hearing the polar
path flutter that I’ve not heard for years gave me hope that things are
looking up again. 20 EU DX contacts with 12 different entities was a pleasant
surprise. As for mults: almost a sweep, just ND didn't stop by.
I usually use an FT-897 for portable use but decided at the last minute to use a
K3/P3 combo. That way I could find a somewhat free space to move to after
getting squeezed out or to be able to check band conditions. I checked several
times to see if there was any activity on 10m, but the P3 said no. A single
OCFD, Aerial-51 807-HD, at 16m on an 18m Spiderbeam mast and an old army surplus
29ft AL mast to support one end. A convenient tree supported the other end.
The end result was a great weekend and 939 Qs including dupes over 18h22m for a
raw score of just over 157k. That is more than the current COLU S/O LP record.
I doubt that will stand log checking as there are probably more than 2.9%
errors. So maybe there will be a return trip next year to see if I can get any
closer. A little less nature gazing/sleep and more time in the chair, together
with some S&P instead of 100% running and fixing the keying issues...
73,
Phil
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