[3830] CaQP W6ML(W6KC) Cnty Exped HP

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                    California QSO Party

Call: W6ML
Operator(s): W6KC
Station: W6ML

Class: Cnty Exped HP
QTH: Mono County
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
  160:            
   80:  122    117
   40:  144     74
   20:  258    202
   15:  230    166
   10:   61     63
    6:            
    2:            
--------------------
Total:  815    622  Mults = 58  Total Score = 213,962

Club: 

Comments:

After doing the last 12 years in Mono as a very successful multi-multi county
expedition, this year I tried it as a single operator county expedition.  My
goals were to try and break the 10 year old single op record for Mono County and
maybe achieve a top 20 score to get a prized bottle of California wine.  As it
turned out I did break the old Mono County single op record, but from all the
great scores I heard on the air, I’m probably destined for a dry year as far as
the wine prize goes.

I made the 300 mile drive from my home QTH to Mammoth Lakes in Mono County on
Wednesday evening before CQP.  Since I was a single op, I wanted to allow 2 days
to setup my all wire antenna farm.  It’s really a lot of work for one person to
try and setup a competitive station in a portable environment.  I ended up
spending about 12 hours setting up my antennas and station plus another 6 hours
taking it all down.  Add the 6 hour drive each way and contest operating hours
are less than the overhead hours.  But a year goes by and you forget about all
the work and just remember the fun of operating in CQP from a great place like
Mono County in the High Sierra.

Thursday morning I started launching my guy lines in the pine trees.  It began
as a beautiful Sierra day, but within an hour the clouds arrived and began
raining, quite heavily at times and even snowed for a few minutes.  I put on my
winter hat and coat and carried on.  First I got my 80M dipole up in its normal
set of trees at about 60 feet.  Next I had just about completed setting up my 3
element 15M wire beam up at about 50 feet, when one of the splices in the guy
line gave out.  The beam fell into the tree that it was still attached to and
got stuck on a tree limb at about 40 feet.  I tried for a long time to pull it
free, but no way was it going to come loose.  My solution was finding a fellow
that was doing some construction work nearby.  He proceeded to climb up the tree
up to where my antenna was stuck and get it free.  And then the rain stopped. 
Wow my luck was getting better again.  I finished getting the 15M beam back up
and then moved on to the 40M dipole leaving just the 20M wire beam which I
completed without any problems on Friday.

I started CQP humming along just fine on 15M & 20M, but my 500W amp started
arcing at about 6 hours into the contest.  I had to finish the last 18 hours
operating barefoot.  Without the amp I decided to emphasize CW a bit more which
seemed to give me a better rate plus more points.  By Saturday night I had all
my mults except for Hawaii.  Boy was I surprised when KH6QJ called me 0754Z on
75M SSB for my sweep.  I promptly retired for my 6 hours in bed not having to
worry about finding that last mutl on Sunday.  The 10M opening on Sunday was a
nice surprise, I had to use my 80M dipole barefoot, but it still seemed to work
pretty well.  Maybe my burned up amp cost me the QSOs I needed for a top 20
finish, but I was pretty happy about setting a new single op record for Mono, my
favorite county in California.

Thanks to all for another great CQP!

Jim, W6KC @ W6ML in Mammoth Lakes, Mono County
www.vistasierra.com/w6ml


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