California QSO Party - 2023
Call: W6MY
Operator(s): N6DE
Station: W6MY
Class: SO(A) LP
QTH: SIER
Operating Time (hrs): 5:17
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 173 4
15: 165 11
10: 100 34
--------------------
Total: 438 49 Mults = 55 Total Score = 77,660
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
N6DE CQP 2023 Story:
Saturday: Crescent City, Del Norte County. W6HY Del Norte Amateur Radio Club
station.
Sunday: Pike, Sierra County. W6MY station.
Many thanks to Christie Lynn WA6ZDO, Chip W6MY, and the Del Norte Amateur Radio
Club for making all of this possible.
Pictures:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/aFC4n31KdQzyEwcRA
Stats:
* 16 hours 17 minutes of operating time on the air: 11 hours in DELN, 5 hours 17
minutes in SIER
* 20 hours of driving, round trip
* Sleep Saturday night: about 1 hour
* 1,009 miles driven
* 1,487 total QSOs made
Accomplishments:
* Broke the oldest CQP record: M/S HP Del Norte County, set in 1975.
* We made 1,000 QSOs from DELN on Saturday only. This was far higher than my
expectation. I was planning for 500 QSOs. I could not believe the high QSO
rates. I did not intend to operate on 40m, but I was almost at the 1,000 QSO
milestone, so I tuned the long wire and made 16 QSOs on 40CW to reach 1,000
QSOs.
* Set a S/O-Assisted LP record in Sierra County.
* Felt good that I tried my best to get rare counties DELN and SIER on the air
this year. This was not the plan over the summer! I had planned to team up
with N3KA to do a combined expedition and mobile adventure in other counties.
Several things came up which changed those plans. What caused me to operate in
DELN and SIER is that four planned operations in DELN and three planned
operations in SIER either canceled or changed their operating county. So I
contacted WA6ZDO and W6MY, which led to my efforts from these counties. This
would not have been possible without their help.
Conquered these challenges:
* Flat tire at 4:30am en route to SIER. Pitch dark and stranded. Almost called
off my SIER trip. But AAA was going to take too long to rescue me, and I
remembered that I brought a portable outdoor light. I removed all my gear from
my trunk, removed the spare tire and the jack, and changed my tire. Limped
slowly to the W6MY station. I only had the small "donut" spare tire
that is supposed to be driven a maximum of 70 miles. I had a 200 mile trip
home. Chip came up with a great idea: I give him my flat tire and credit card,
he travels a long distance in his vehicle to a tire shop that is open on Sunday,
gets my tire replaced and comes back, while I operate the contest. After the
contest, I installed the new tire and headed home.
* Fatigue and confusion set in when departing the W6MY driveway. Got stuck in a
ditch. Chip got the neighbor's help to bring a floor jack and scrap pieces of
wood which he cut on site to assist in me getting out. Success!
* 4-el SteppIR Yagi SWR problems. Chip had a family emergency the day before
CQP. He had spent months repairing the property and the station building from
last winter's water damage. The SteppIR control cable had gotten severed and
the antenna showed >7:1 VSWR on 15m and 20m. It needed to go through the
recalibration routine. So I started operating with the OCF dipole on 20 and 10
CW, tuning it with the Elecraft K3 internal tuner. We bypassed the amplifier
and power meter to keep things simple, as we were not sure of their operating
status. I knew I was weak with the OCF wire but at least I was putting QSOs in
the log. Chip worked on the SteppIR control cable while I was operating and
restored all the wires. He recalibrated the SteppIR and it worked! So I used
the SteppIR Yagi from that point until the end of the contest.
* CW pileup. After almost no sleep and the flat tire adventure, I was not in
the best mental state to properly handle a big pileup. Once I called CQ with
the SteppIR on 15CW, I was mobbed with callers. I have never heard a CQP pileup
like that in all my years of operating CQP. I was really having trouble digging
out letters and callsigns, with most stations zero beat. My apologies for
sounding like a lid until the pileup finally tamed down. Then I could finally
get into a good QSO rhythm for the rest of the contest on CW, cycling between
10m, 15m and 20m. Strangely, I did not get many callers on SSB on Sunday,
despite trying several times on all three bands.
A big thank you to all of you who were active in CQP! Between terrific band
conditions, outstanding county coverage and very high overall activity, CQP 2023
will be extremely difficult to match in future years. Thank you for being a
part of what was a legendary CQP 2023.
73...
-Dean - N6DE
CQP Chairman
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