Washington State Salmon Run
Call: WW7D/M
Operator(s): WW7D
Station: WW7D
Class: MobileMixed LP
QTH: WA
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 87 291 0
40: 74 1 0
20: 159 58 0
15: 0 0 0
10: 0 0 0
6: 2 8 0
2: 4 16 0
----------------------------
Total: 326 374 0 Mults = 75 Total Score = 129,950
Club: Radio Club of Redmond
Comments:
I had fun with this Salmon run, activating 22 counties as a mixed mode mobile,
split between WWA counties on Saturday and EWA counties on Sunday. My route and
equipment were almost identical to the 2017 effort. Equipment held up and,
aside from one construction detour on Sunday, the route worked out.
The contest started Saturday on the PIE/KING county line. Band conditions were
horrible all day Saturday. I made fewer QSOs for the day on Saturday than I
usually make in the first 90 minutes of the contest sitting on the King/Pierce
line. Specifically, 20m was totally underperforming all morning and seemed to
close early in the afternoon on Saturday. 40m was okay, but not spectacular.
The big surprise was 75/80m. I made more 75/80m QSOs than 20m and 40m combined
on Saturday. Specifically, I got into the habit of checking into the
"net" on 3933 usually run by W7BJN or K7RLD whenever I was on a county
line. They were great in letting me hold the frequency for as long as people
would respond to my calls. I very much appreciated this, because my time at
each county line stop is very limited and, for several reasons, doing 80m while
in motion is more difficult than working other bands. I checked 15m throughout
the contest, and never heard another station and got no responses to my
occasional CQs. It rained on and off throughout Saturday, with a particularly
nasty, but short-lived downpour around 0030z.
I finished up on the SKAM/CLAR line on Saturday at midnight, and then drove to
a hotel in The Dalles for about 5 hours of sleep. I got up early for a 2 hour
trip to the YAK/KLI county line for a 9am start on Sunday. When I arrived,
there was a great big rainbow to the West, but I hit rain all day.
The bands seemed to be in good shape Sunday morning (or maybe the difference
was being in E. Washington?). Actually, 20m and 75/80m were good all day on
Sunday. I tried and tried for 40m QSOs, but only got 5 QSOs total on Sunday
until the final hour on the OKA/FER county line, where I got a small run going
for 14 more QSOs. At my final stop, on the OKA/FER line, someone saw me and
pulled over. It turned out to be AF6TS, who was on his way home nearby. After
a brief conversation, he participated by standing on the same county line with a
handheld, and worked me on 6m and 2m FM for a total of 8 QSO!
After removing duplicates, I ended up with 700 QSOs (322 CW and 374 PH). This is
an improvement over 2017 when I only had 630 QSOs, worse than 2016 with 719 QSO,
but well below the 972 QSOs from 2013 when the sun graced us with something
resembling serious propagation. There were 186 unique calls in the log.
Multipliers included all but 4 WA counties (missed DOU, LEW, STE, and WHI). I
missed 10 states, and only worked two Canadian Provinces (AB and ON). I worked a
couple of JAs, but no other DX. This year I did not hear W7DX on CW at all, but
got 500 points for phone QSOs. My claimed score, 129,950, is a nice improvement
from last year's 119,440.
Top stations worked were WU7H and N7EPD (28), N6MU (25), N7IR (23), K7IDX/7
(22), KB7QPS (20), W7DK (18), N7HCJ (16), K9CW and K7RLD (14), W7PU and K7RMZ
(12), N7PP (11), WW7LW and W7VAS (10). I very much appreciated the portable
operations, particularly the folks on county lines. I believe the only /M I
worked this year was WW7LW, who provided a great set of rare counties: WAL, GAR,
FER, COL, and ASO.
Even after the slow start on Saturday, I had a great time in this edition of the
Salmon Run.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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