John, since SECC is making a serious effort in the CQP, here is some
more info you might want to share with the gang:
K2RD, AI6V and W6OAT will be one multi-op mobile station using the
single callsign of W6OAT/xxxx. We generally are planning for SSB on the
hour and CW on the half-hour. We're probably going to try to
consistently appear about 10 to 15 kHz above the CQP's "suggested
frequencies" in hopes that we can avoid some of the QRM. However, we
will be running 200 watts so hopefully we can be heard. Also, most of
our route will have us either along ridge lines or out in the wide open
spaces so maybe this year we won't get swallowed by the deep canyons as
happened to us in the "mountain counties" last year.
We expect 20m to be our main band, but we will be trying 15m (and maybe
even 10m) during our daylight hours, and then 40m and 80m at night.
Because we'll usually be spending no more than an hour in any one
county, I suspect our normal pattern will be only to call CQ (rather
than search & pounce) so that we can skim off the highest QSO rates
possible. This means that you'll most likely need to come find us
rather than vice versa.
If you have a good road map of California, you might be able to follow
our route and better judge the times when we're likely to change
counties. We're planning to begin the CQP at AI6V's house located in
Nevada City (Nevada County). We'll take state highway #49 south until
it ends in the tiny town of Oakhurst (Madera County); then highway #41
south to Fresno (Fresno County); Highway 99 south to Visalia (Tulare
County); Highway #198 west to Interstate Highway #5; we'll then
generally follow Interstate #5 north to Sacramento (with minor detours
to route us into San Benito, Solano and Yolo Counties); Highway #99
north to Yuba City (Sutter County); and finally Highway #20 east back to
Nevada City.
I think this CQP is going to be great fun. We look forward to filling
up your log with lots of QSOs from some good counties. KB, OM! :-)
73 de Rusty, W6OAT
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