N7KQ MULTI OP HIGH POWER
The same group that did the CW test last month had so much fun and did so
well that we decided we would come back for the SSB part. I haven't done a
phone contest in many years and forgot why I didn't really care for them.
When we left the site after the CW test all three beverages we had put up
were left in place. One on Europe, Caribbean, and Japan. Since we only had
to run one more beverage for VK/ZL, we didn't leave for the mountains until
early Friday morning. The only real work would be launching the balloon
vertical and running the beverage for the pacific and setting up the
station. All the switches, cables, and tables were left in place from the
CW test. Besides, our "Balloon Master" Scotty, WA2DFI had this down to a
science and we expected to be completely set up and ready to go by Noon.
This would give us time to plan a schedule and relax before the start of the
contest which is 3 PM local time in Arizona. We knew there had been some
storms up in the White Mountains courtesy of "El Nino" but there had not
been any storms for over four days. We didn't expect to see much snow even
though Scotty kept worrying for all of use that we wouldn't be able to get
into the site. We traveled in separate vehicles, each hauling a certain
amount of equipment, food, and water. We had to take a lot of water because
there would be no water available at the cabin because it is strictly a
summer place. As we started climbing up from the desert floor of Phoenix
towards Payson we started to see snow down at the lower elevations where the
terrain is still cactus and sage brush. We were all wondering how much snow
would be up at the cabin which is at a location over 6000 feet. We still
were not concerned as WA7CPA, Randy was driving a 4 wheel drive rig with
large all terrain tires. We continued to chatter away at each other on
146.52 simplex giving Scotty a hard time about his VW bus which was carrying
two large tanks of helium getting stuck in the snow. the rest of us were in
trucks and not to worried about the snow. Scotty was taking a lot of
kidding and we told him his total function was to just launch the balloon
vertical. After that he could go back to Phoenix and the warm desert sun
and we would just shoot the balloon vertical down with one of the gus when
we left. Scotty got himself sideways on some black ice but straighten
himself out like Dale Earnhart, but his voice was at a high pitch when he
warned the trailing vehicles about the black ice.
(To be Continued with Part II)
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