[3830] CaQP N6DE SOCntyExp HP

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                    California QSO Party

Call: N6DE
Operator(s): N6DE
Station: N6DE

Class: SOCntyExp HP
QTH: SIER
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
  160:             
   80:   220    165
   40:   279    248
   20:   374    520
   15:   134    131
   10:             
    6:             
    2:             
--------------------
Total:  1007   1064  Mults = 57  Total Score = 293,493

Club: West Valley ARA

Comments:

Elecraft K3
ACOM 1010
Force12 C3S tribander at 35 ft.
40m Inv-Vee at 41 ft.
80m Inv-Vee at 85 ft.
75m Inv-Vee at 58 ft.
Yamaha EF2400iS generator
Tower trailer

Sierra County
5200' elevation

For pictures of the expedition, and HFTA analysis of the site, see:
http://public.fotki.com/N6DE/cqp/cqp2009/

Major thanks to the West Valley ARA for the use of their tower trailer.

It looks like this score will set a new overall S/O Expedition record, as well
as a new S/O Sierra County record.

What a fun CQP this was!

Last year, some stations missed Sierra County for the sweep, despite W6OAT/M
doing a great job covering the county, and W6DSG and N5RA/6 passing out the
mult to some grateful stations.  Sierra looked like it needed some help, so I
decided to go there this year.  I had gone to Sierra in 2002 with K6ENT, K6III,
and KQ6LQ, and I could have operated from this location again, but I wanted to
explore the county for any other possibilities.  I got some great ideas from
N6YEU, K6ST, and KX7M.  I also spent several hours panning the county in Google
Earth, and took a day to drive to a few locations.  I found a ridge top clearing
at 5200' elevation near Downieville, and my HFTA analysis showed that it would
be a killer site at low takeoff angles.  To the U.S. and Europe, the terrain
drops off 1600' at 4000' out from the site.  The clearing is about 125' wide by
200' long, surrounded by tall trees.  It's a remote location on USFS land in the
Tahoe National Forest, yet required only two miles of dirt road driving.  The
other 224 miles from home were on paved roads.  

I arrived on Tuesday evening before the contest and stayed until the following
Monday evening.  Setup and teardown take longer when doing everything by
yourself.  Both CQP practices were valuable to me.  I had the tribander and 80m
CW antenna up for Thursday's practice.  Thanks to N6ML and K6VVA for helping me
with my K3 audio settings.  Things seemed to be going well until Friday.  Just
before darkness, I finished the 40m and 75m antennas.  I checked SWR on the 75m
antenna and found it resonant at 4MHz!  So I ran outside (now dark) with my
headlamp, cut two pieces of additional wire, lowered the antenna, lengthened
each end, hauled it back up, and rushed back to the tent for the start of the
practice!  The antenna SWR was good enough in the 3800 range, and that's where
it stayed the rest of the weekend!  

The start of the practice on 40m was terrible for me.  I could barely hear
anyone.  Then I went to 80m and had no problems.  K4BAI called in on 80m CW and
told me that he was calling me on 40m.  This was worrisome because I should have
no trouble at all hearing John's big signal on 40m.  On the 3610kHz net
afterwards, guys reported loads of QSOs on 40m.  I went back to 40m to listen
for stations and still couldn't hear much.  The S meter was at S9+, but I
figured that was just typical 40m.  It wasn't until I went to a dead 20m band
that I realized the problem... NOISE!!!  I was horrified to find an S5 noise
level on what should have been a stone quiet 20m.  And S3 on 15m.   How could
there possibly be noise at such a remote location?  Was there an RFI source in
my tent, or was the generator causing it?  I used the same equipment last year
and didn't have this problem.  And so the frantic experiments began...

I moved the generator several times, up to 150 feet away from my tent (250 feet
away from my tribander and 40m wire), with mediocre results.  Then I turned off
everything in the shack except the K3 and my Astron 35A regulated power supply.
 S2 on 20m.  Must be the generator?  Turn on ACOM 1010 amplifier: level
increases an S unit!  Plug in the battery charger for my Levono Thinkpad laptop
(with the laptop still off): level increases to S5!  That's when I dug out the
#31 2.4" OD toroids and the big clamp-ons from the NCCC group buy a few years
ago... thank God I brought a few of them with me!  I attached two big clamp-ons
around the power extension cable, two loops of the coaxial feedline through 6 of
the 2.4" toroids, and whatever else I had left on the laptop battery charger. 
All this suppressed the noise to reasonable levels (but still non-zero levels).
 At least this got me back in the game.  What a relief.  At this point, it was
1am and I went to sleep, having skipped dinner.  

Saturday morning, I was in a much better mood, and ready to rock.  What an
amazing contest!  Awesome activity and loads of fun!  80m CW on Saturday night
was like 20m!  And what a welcome sight the 15m opening was on Sunday.

I missed VY1 for the sweep.  Thanks to AL1G for my only AK contact.  

Saturday and Sunday nights were frigid.  I operated inside a sleeping bag from
my chest to my feet!  It started to snow at 1pm Sunday, and lightly snowed on
and off during the day.

A USFS ranger visited for a few minutes on Thursday.  Some motorcycle riders
arrived in the first hour of the contest on Saturday, but didn't stay. 
Although I saw a few 20 gauge shells on the ground, and heard some gunshots in
the background when setting up antennas, I was surprised that I didn't see any
deer hunters at the site.

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs and your participation in CQP!  What a blast it
was.  Hats off to all the expedition stations that braved high winds, snow, and
cold weather to activate rare counties.  

Anyone interested in joining me from this site next year for a M/M?

73...
-Dean - N6DE


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