7th Call Area QSO Party
Call: K7IA
Operator(s): K7IA
Station: K7IA
Class: Cnty Exped SO LP
QTH: AZAPH
Operating Time (hrs): 13:52
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80: 55 1
40: 187 16
20: 320 48 1
15: 5
10:
6:
2:
----------------------------
Total: 567 65 1 Mults = 54 Total Score = 98,874
Club:
Comments:
This was my first single op 7QP from within the 7th Call Area. Many months ago,
I'd planned to do a Cnty Exped Single Op, noting that Apache County in the past
was activated by only a mobile or two. I knew the country well from my
hunting/fishing days in the 1970's and because my New Mexico Field Day site is
close to Apache County.
When contest points are at stake, greed can overcome. Here's my story:
Pouring over topog charts of the area, I found several forest roads crossing
boundaries between Apache and adjacent counties. So, wife Erin and I packed up
the old Jeep two weeks before the event, and, thinking the snowpack had melted
by mid April, we made a recon mission to find a county line site offering tall
trees for wire antennas, high in-the-clear terrain, and access allowing passage
of our 4WD truck/camper. No such luck! The Alpine, AZ area had a total snow
accumulation of 12 feet this winter, and even though temps in April were rather
warm, considerable snow remained on those rough roads. The closest we could get
to any of the possible sites was 1/3 mile (by GPS). It looked like a single
county operation.
Greed resurfaces: I watched NOAA Weather predictions daily after the recon
mission and noted temps in the 60's up until a few days before the event. I
thought enough snow melt may have occurred to allow another recon. Therefore,
after towing the Jeep behind truck/camper to the Alpine area, we parked the
truck and started a second recon mission with the Jeep. Not 200 yards off from
the highway, we hit a bump, and the transmission/transfer case mount fractured
and the rear driveshaft fell out of the transfer case. The noise was terrific
and indescribable! Yep, it could have been worse--we could have been six miles
from the highway. My attempts to remove the dangling driveshaft were
unsuccessful, so we walked to the highway to flag down a ride to Alpine, about
10 miles away. Old Hwy 666 must be the lonliest road in Arizona--we waited
about 30 minutes for the first vehicle--a pickup truck driven by a nice young
gal who took a chance on her safety by giving us a ride to the best little
garage I've ever encountered.
Car/truck problems in Arizona's White Mountains? No problemo--contact Alpine
Garage! They towed the Jeep, inspected the entire driveline, discovered that
the previous owner had not only rebuilt the driveshaft but also used one that
was too short, and they discovered the fractured transmission mount. They
called measurements of the proper drive shaft to a fabricator in Show Low, 75
miles away, and then they gave us a lift to our truck/camper, about 10 miles
away. They treated us like we were the only business thay had that day, but
they had a yard full of vehicles waiting for work. Our mechanic builds "real"
off road vehicles for a hobby, so I knew that we had fallen into good hands.
Once in our truck, we headed for Show Low, hoping the fabricator would build
our new drive shaft while we waited. It was already getting late on Wednesday,
and we wanted to deliver the new drive shaft to Alpine Garage when it opened on
Thursday. Arriving at the fabricator about an hour and half later, we were
stunned--the owner had already built the shaft, and it was waiting for us!! It
turns out that the owner had previously owned the largest driveline fabrication
business in Phoenix before he "retired" to Show Low. We got the best!
So much for the sweet and sour of greed. With the Jeep in the shop, it was
time to find a spot to activate a single Arizona county. We picked the only
campsite in the Luna Lake campground that had in-the-clear terrain and
reasonably tall trees, and that's where our Wednesday came to an end.
On Wednesday night, NOAA's prediction for winds gusting to 50-60 mph came true.
In addition, snowflakes began to fall late on Wednesday night, and on Thursday
morning there was an inch of accumulation. Light snow flurries, strong winds,
and low temps were the norm from Thursday AM to Sunday AM, when we hurridly
took down antennas, packed up, and left for home in a growing snow storm.
We put up the following wire antennas in between flurries beginning on Thursday
morning:
Vees for 80, 40, and 20 meters @ 50-60 feet
Homebrew 20 meter Moxon Rectangle @ 40 feet
Vertical wire wrapped around a 32 foot fiberglass telescoping pole attached
near the roof of the camper, tuned with a Smarttuner, plus counterpoises along
the ground.
Antenna heights are dictated by heights of Ponderosa Pines, ability of a
slingshot to shoot a 3/4 ounce fishing weight and monofilament line, and skill
of the slingshot operator in high winds. Because of strong winds and not
wishing to break the redwood spreaders, I left the assembled Moxon on the
ground until late Friday afternoon. Once lifted into place, the Moxon survived
all of the weather thrown at it.
At QSO Party start, outside temp was 22 F. The only thing that could upset the
operation plan was a generator that wouldn't start. Ah, but I use a 1 kW
Yamaha, so it fired up on the third pull of the rope.
It must sound like despite a busted Jeep and difficult weather, everything fell
nicely into place--and that's exactly what happened! After days of low temps,
strong winds, anxiety about the Jeep, antennas, and future weather, once I got
into the chair with headphones on, N1MM working, and signals to work, I slipped
into operating mode and gave not a thought about potential problems until my
energy gave out with 2.5 contest hours left.
I probably should have started on 40 meters, but I gave 20 the first hour.
Skip was long with many EU's responding to my CQs. All stateside Qs were in a
rind along the East Coast extending inland to IN, OH, MI, etc. I worked 40m in
the second hour and was surprised by a VK4 caller who confirmed his callsign
after my "huh??" response. In all, I worked 43 DX stations, indicating
considerable interest in the 7QP by operators in other continents.
The antennas worked very well, judging from the ease in making contacts. Even
in S&P mode I was often the first station called in an existing pileup. Good
terrain and antennas up high surely make a difference!
SSB is not my major interest, though. Because of hearing loss in the
communications range, I'm limited to calling only strong signals. I got a few
interesting replies to my announcements of "59 in snowy Apache County
Arizona!"
With a CW rate lull on 20 meters, I switched over to RTTY, tuned around, and
worked the only QSO Party station calling CQ. The rest of the RTTY activity
was furious exchanges of serial numbers--I would have been out of place with
"AZAPH" and unusually high serial numbers.
Many thanks to the 7QP sponsors and to all of the operators who took an
interest in the 7QP--especially to those who made the effort to juggle
exchanges between three QSO Parties! Regarding weather woes, mine were
magnified by my county expedition/small camper arrangement. With major storm
systems existing in the midwest and south, I'm certain that many ops would have
gladly accepted our WX in favor of the punches they received!
Sometime in the summer, when residual snow is unlikely, we'll just fire up "old
reliable" Jeep and tour those back roads. Who knows what we'll find for the
Arizona QSO Party in October?
73,
Dan k7ia
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