California QSO Party
Call: NE6LE
Operator(s): K2DI K4XU W7MT KS6U KI6Y K7YLO W7YOW W6RA, K7ZM
Station: NE6LE
Class: M/MCntyExp HP
QTH: Modoc
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160: 42 1
80: 102 118
40: 265 198
20: 349 165
15: 1
10:
6:
2:
--------------------
Total: 759 482 Mults = 57 Total Score = 184,737
Club: Central Oregon DX Club
Comments:
This was the annual contest outing of the Central Oregon DX Club. We do it Field
Day-style. The group left Bend at 0700 Friday morning for the 295 mile trip to a
fire lookout in the Modoc National Forest. The last 5 miles is rather difficult
dirt roads. We set up two stations in the 40F rain and 30mph wind. One
tribander at 50' on the trailer tower and one at 20', a 2 el 40 wire beam at
30', a single 40m vee at 20', an 80m Vee at 50' and a 200' long wire for 160m.
One station was in a 5th wheel trailer and the other in a small barn 50' from
the base of the lookout tower. A second trailer serves as bunk and kitchen. We
planned, as in the past, to use the 50' fire lookout tower to support one of
the tribanders and several of the other antennas.
The new district ranger had just decreed "no support for hams anymore". That
meant we had to use our generators all weekend and we could not put one of the
beams on their lookout tower. We could still use their outhouse. However, when
I went up to chat with the chap in the lookout, who turned out to be a Brit
from Yorkshire, he was fiddling with a 75 to 300 ohm transformer needed to hook
a DVR to his TV. It was thoroughly busted. The case was cracked, the center
conductor broken and the coax braid was on its last thread. "No problem" says
I, "just need to get my iron and tape. We'll have that fixed in no time". So
with the lookout guy happily watching his CD movie, he allowed us hang the 80m
vee off the corner of his tower. Mr. District Ranger doesn't work weekends.
We got all the antennas up before dark but the 160m wire. We had W7YOW's
girlfriend with us who readily took to mothering our whole group of nine. She
had homemade clam chowder waiting for supper Friday night. Splendid, as most of
us were soaked and quite cold. We had bacon, eggs and pancakes both Saturday and
Sunday morning. Thanks, Diann! We all retired at 9PM. Some to nice berths in the
trailers, two to pickup bunks, and KI6Y and me to cots in the barn. Friday night
passed with frightful winds and another inch of rain. All the antennas
survived.
On Saturday morning the weather abated for an hour and we hung the 160m wire
from the SW corner of the fire tower and down to a matchbox clamped at the
tower leg bottom. 1:1 SWR. The Plan was to have two stations operating with
small linears with antennas separated enough to permit simultaneous operation
on the same band, one ssb the other on CW. The N6TR logging was linked by a
RS232 line between stations. We had never operated two stations on the same
band before in a contest that requires sending serial numbers. When we opened
up on 20m Saturday morning, we were literally fighting over serial numbers. I
decreed "log what you send". That was followed for the most part, but it's damn
difficult to keep track of at 150 Q's/hr when the number the program logs by
hitting enter is not the number that it actually sent. I need suggestions on a
new program or work-around for TR.
I set up my station in the barn -- Omni6+, ICE409A filter, and Ameritron 811A
amp. Tuning up on 20m, the amp went up in flames. Time to get the SB200 backup
amp. It tunes fine and then I smell something and turn to see a wisp of smoke
rising from its power supply. Fine, we'll operate at 100W on this station with
the better antenna. That continued until 10PM or so when my Omni, faithful
companion for the past 8 years, its ALC system suddenly went berserk. Okay,
call for the backup rig, a TS440. Problem - the owner has neglected to bring
the power cable. Backup rig #2, a TS970. Incompatible key connection... so we
finally used the owner's iambic paddle plugged into the internal keyer jack,
set to its keyer to 'manual key' mode, and then wired our key line from the
external keyer and computer key across its dash paddle. Back on the air at
10:30.
The conditions seemed nasty. Actually, the problem was the new comm
installation on the mountain. The fire tower shares the mountain top with three
microwave relay stations. These had never caused us any troubles in the past.
But now the biggest one was festooned with three new Verizon cellular systems
controlled from shelters at the base of the 80' tower. The fenced-in area at
the base had been expanded to make room for the new installation. The RF noise
from these was grim. The sources were located using a small portable SWL
receiver. Broadband hiss, SMPS growlers that wandered about, and several S-9
modulated carriers that occupied 10 kHz bites about every 50 kHz. Most of this
was new since last year. We wonder if any of this stuff passes EMI specs or is
it usable only because the other stuff on the hill is all VHF/UHF?
Anyhow, by 3PM Sunday we managed 1250-odd contacts and 57 multipliers, missing
only Northwest Territory. The weather also got cooperative with just a heavy
mist and no wind. We had all the antennas down and rolled up and were off the
site 90 minutes after the contest ended. We made it back to Bend by 9:30PM.
So now I have a dead rig, two dead amps ...and an order in for a new K3.
Many thanks to NCCC for all the work they do and to everyone for the contacts
in the NE6LE log. See you all again next year, but don't forget the 7QP the
first weekend in May.
Dick, k4xu
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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