California QSO Party
Call: W7YAQ/6
Operator(s): W7YAQ
Station: W7YAQ/6
Class: SOCntyExp HP
QTH: Smith River DELN
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160:
80: 159 12
40: 93 61
20: 116 2
15: 11 0
10:
6:
2:
--------------------
Total: 379 75 Mults = 53 Total Score = 68,211
Club: Willamette Valley DX Club
Comments:
This was my 6th trip to DELN and 3rd as a single operator. Our (my wife and I)
700-mile round trip from Central Oregon to Del Norte County included two days at
the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland prior to CQP and a visit to the
historic town of Jacksonville on the return home.
Finding an ideal QTH in DELN is a challenge. In 2008 the windows of the fire
lookout a group of us had rented at Bear Basin Butte blew out in a storm, and a
Spiderbeam became pick-up sticks. The house we rented in 2015 was recently
sold, and the resort we stayed at in 2016 went out of business. This year we
found another house to rent in Smith River. The place looked good on Google
Earth, right at the mouth of the Smith River looking west, with an ample parking
area to the east, and vacant lot to the south for extra antenna space.
Unfortunately, the house was only available Friday and Saturday nights, but we
decided a partial activation of DELN was better than no activation.
We arrived Friday afternoon in a light rain to discover that there was a web of
power line feeds over the parking space, and a 6-foot stone wall between the
house and the “vacant lot”, which now had some RVs parked on it. So, my
available antenna space was reduced to a small lawn directly west of the house.
The rain steadily increased so by the time I had erected my R5 and a 33-foot
fiberglas pole with a vertical wire for 40 and inverted L for 80 taped to the
pole and 8 radials thrown in the bushes and over the bank, I was drenched.
The noise level from the wet power lines faded as things dried out on Saturday,
but was never as low as I would have liked. I often had to ask for repeats from
those I could hear, and I’m sure I was considered an alligator by others who I
could never pull out. The good news – signals from KH6 and KL7 rocked! I was
pleasantly surprised by having all the VE/VO/VY mults call in the first few
hours. But as I had to tear down by 1530 UTC on Sunday, 5 mults went missing.
I was sorry to hear that N7MZW missed DELN, as I missed WY.
Overall it was a fun adventure and thanks to the CQP organizers for their
encouragement to get DELN on the air.
73,
Bob W7YAQ/6
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