7th Call Area QSO Party - 2021
Call: N7WA/M
Operator(s): N7WA
Station: N7WA/M
Class: SO MobileCW LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 15
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 41 0 0
40: 130 0 0
20: 313 0 0
15: 0 0 0
10: 0 0 0
6: 0 0 0
2: 0 0 0
----------------------------
Total: 457 0 0 Mults = 54 Total Score = 74,034
Club: Western Washington DX Club
Comments:
One of these days, I am going to run a mobile operation and it will be
eazy-peazy... no problems whatever... ok... enough... enough! You can stop
rolling around hysterically on the floor. That's not nice. This year, I messed
up my published schedule, there were self-inflicted computer issues, Winkeyer
lockups, plus high winds pushing me all over the road towards the end of the
day.
I was looking forward to this 7QP run. Last year, the pandemic and health
problems with my wife contrived to keep me home. I even invited along one
grandson, Chris, who I haven't interacted with for over a year, to ride along.
(Too young to drive unfortunately.) I did warn him! It would be boring each time
I stopped to operate and to bring entertainment for himself. (Oh, and forget
about cell service on the back roads of eastern Washington so limited messaging
and on-line apps with his phone.)
Chris, has never been more than 50 miles from home, never-mind over the
mountains into eastern Washington which is way different than the wet side. On
the way, he learned about county's, the unique geology of EWA, saw large farms,
ranches and windmills, met cows on the road, and learned that tumbleweed is real
stuff.
We started on the Okanagon/Ferry County line, one of my favorite spots. Got
there half an hour early and started setting up the computer which didn't want
to talk to the radio. I finally gave up as starting time arrived. Despite the
early hour, only two Q's on 80M, four on 40M, but 20M was going pretty good.
Probably would have done better going straight to 20M at the start. Oh, as I
stored the computer before leaving OKA/FER, I saw the computer serial
connections had pulled out of the KXPA100. Considering it was a right angle
connection, I don't know how that happened but I blame my early start for not
figuring it out sooner. <sigh!>
As we headed for Douglas County, I saw another problem. The GPS said I would be
there a lot later than my published schedule. I expect I picked the wrong
coordinates (I have several) for Douglas County. That required some adjustments
for Douglas and the Lincoln/Grant County stop. I had enough time loaded into
lunch that we were able to get back on schedule after that. By lunch, I had 144
in the log, mostly on 20M. The surprises were DL, TK, and JA in the log.
After lunch, it was down to the Adams/Whitman county line. I worked three Q's
and the keying stopped. Computer or WinKeyer? QRX! Rebooted, tried again. Died
again. QRX! I worked about a dozen guys by hand (after I dug some paper out of
the backpack) until the pileup cleared. Then, I decided to try a ferite on the
USB cable to the Winkeyer. Success! No problems with that the rest of the day.
It was one of my more successful stops with about 70 Q's in the log. (Always
carry extra ferite.)
The next two stops, Garfield and Columbia/Walla Walla had us headed south and
west. Finally, towards home. Both were decent and trouble free. We could see
trouble ahead as we crossed Walla Walla County headed for Franklin County. At
first, it looked like thunderheads further south towards Oregon but as we got
closer to Franklin, the wind really picked up and so did the dust. After doing
my run sitting in a State Park, the amount of dust on the computer was pretty
obvious.
We picked up dinner and I made a decision of only one more stop. It was supposed
to be Benton County followed by the Klickitat/Yakima County line. I just went
with BEN/KLI. It would knock an hour off the trip and YAK is pretty well
activated. The wind driving to BEN/KLI was really hairy and I drove much of it
in the middle of the road at reduced speed. Fortunately, it's not busy road and
nobody passed us going the other direction for 30 miles. BEN/KLI was another
great stop. I could tell the evening was going to be good conditions. However,
for us, after an hour, we were done and it was time to head home. Chris got to
sleep almost all the way.
All-in-all, it was a great trip and nice to get out in the world. Driving and
operating is never efficient but I knew that going in. The "mobile
window" is a disaster. It was wall-to-wall non-mobiles. I am not sure there
is a solution but I want to think about it a bit. People complain when there
aren't enough rovers/mobiles but it's hard to be heard over the clamor. It was
obvious when I got spotted and I and other mobiles really appreciate it.
Thanks for the great QSO Party.
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