Washington State Salmon Run - 2019
Call: N7WA
Operator(s): K7TQ N7WA
Station: N7WA
Class: MobileCW LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 144 0 0
40: 147 0 0
20: 456 0 0
15: 0 0 0
10: 0 0 0
6: 0 0 0
2: 0 0 0
----------------------------
Total: 747 0 0 Mults = 63 Total Score = 140,994
Club: Western Washington DX Club
Comments:
Having heard that Randy K7TQ would not have his usual partner running mobile in
the Salmon Run, I asked if he would like to join me going mobile. We once ran
together as a mobile during the 7QP and he did a wonderful job in planning the
route. I asked if could plan our route for the Salmon Run as well. He did
another great job that had us able to visit all 20 counties in eastern
Washington. Many of the counties have a very small ham population base and
activation by mobiles is essential.
Randy lives in Moscow, ID and I live in the Seattle area. The best location to
meet up, so neither of us would have to drive too far, was the middle of eastern
Washington. It just so happens that mutual friend Bob N7AU lives in Ephrata and
was willing to let us crash Friday night before the test. It also allows us to
test out the gear one last time in a suitable location.
The week before the test, I got email from Eric, N7EPD. His concern was for
locals being able to work us mobile. 40M went long too early and he had prior
success using 80M. Neither Randy or I had considered doing 80M during daylight
hours and we did some testing using the RBN. 80M looked very good for locals and
maybe a bit further out. We decided that we would spend the first five minutes
and the last five minutes of each county on 80M. In most situations, that would
be a solid 10 minutes on the air. That also helped limit the antenna adjustments
since 80M and 20M were the same antenna.
The basic plan was to start in the middle of eastern washington, work our way
west to the Cascades, then along the southern counties back to Moscow to crash
for the night. Sunday, we headed to Northeast Washington and started the test
there, working our way back along the northern counties back to Ephrata. We were
only late a couple times from our published schedule and there was always a
group waiting at each new county. The 80M idea worked like a champ and will
probably become a permanent of both Randy's and my mobile protocol.
Every Salmon Run seems to have an animal component. This year it was a horse
(being walked by a girl in Yakima County), turkeys in Stevens County (never
trust a flock of turkeys), and a rattle snake in Douglas County. All were in the
road as we went by, usually forcing some kind of slow down. The rattle snake was
just sunning itself in the middle of the lane and we just drove over it leaving
it unharmed and not realizing what it was until we had passed.
The only real equipment issues were amplifier faults in the KPA100. At times,
the high RF environment just causes issues that get resolved by adjusting the
antenna tap slightly. Sometimes it was hard to get it fixed. Of course, there
was the one time on 40M where the tap just disconnected and was blowing in the
breeze. That was a first.
On our Sunday jaunt across the northern counties, we found that one route was
closed to us at the Keller Ferry which crosses the Columbia River. This caused
some anxiety among our followers as our reported counties were not matching the
published schedule on our new route. Fortunately, we were able to recover.
It was amazing to still be able to work some DX from a mobile. Probably more
of a testament to the ears of the DX than the strength of our signal. All in
all, it was a lot of fun this year. Thanks to all our followers. It is always
great to work the same group of guys and gals as we get to each new county.
Many thanks to my partner Randy K7TQ. You can read Randy's comments
at https://sites.google.com/site/randyk7tq/home/2019-salmon-run
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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