[3830] NMQP K7IA Single Op LP

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                    New Mexico QSO Party

Call: K7IA
Operator(s): K7IA
Station: K7IA

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Catron (CAT)
Operating Time (hrs): 10:08

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                   
   80:                   
   40:   39     25      0
   20:  143     91      0
   15:    8     31      0
   10:                   
    6:                   
----------------------------
Total:  190    147      0  Mults = 65  Total Score = 68,510

Club: 

Comments:

I operate Field Day from Catron County every year as QRP, but since the county
name isn't part of the FD exchange, no one knows that "rare" Catron is
activated on Field Day.  Therefore, with predicted weather looking good (as of
two weeks ago) and with a homebrew ground mount to "portable-ize" an old nine
band Butternut vertical, it was a natural decision to try to put Catron on the
map for the county hunters.  Two weeks before the event, wife, Erin, and I made
a recon mission to look for a relatively low elevation site that was in the open
and with good take-off angles all around.  We found a nice one on open range
supporting a few dozen head of cattle that kept the grassland mowed down to the
nubs--no fire danger in this drier-than-normal season.

We drove the 4WD truck-mounted camper to the site on Thursday and set up on
Friday, a beautiful sunny day marred only by 30 knot winds all day--a great
test for the B'nut's ground mount.  Because the surroundings were so
dramatically scenic, we took lots of photos on Friday, especially at sunset. 
Good thing, because it snowed (horizontally) all day on Saturday.  From many
reports, we weren't the only folks enjoying the snow, but I think everyone else
was in their (warm) home digs.  RV propane furnaces aren't exactly RF-quiet, so
I bundled up and looked like the Michelein Man...

Before this writing, I looked at the two dozen or so NMQP posts already on 3830
and was "pleased" to see that I wasn't the only one enjoying poor conditions. 
QRN was quite high, even between snow flurries, so I couldn't blame "snow
static."  Erin's ears, far better than mine, detected no T-storm sounds, so all
of the QRN must have been coming from the horrible wx in the Midwest and points
east.

Many thanks to the ops who chose to give the NMQP a go, given the smogasborg of
events to choose from!  At the moment, there's no telling how many NM ops were
on the air--certainly not many compared to Georgia's turnout.  And it was
wonderful how the GA & MT ops accomodated the NM exchanges for "twofers!" 
Thanks, guys!

There weren't many NMQP posts to look at, and the out of staters reported less
than five dozen NMQP QSOs.  Special mention is made of the following ops:

I worked N2WN 3 times of his total of 50 Qs
VE7CV 4 of his 39
N6MU/QRP 4 of his 51
VA3GKO 1 of his 11 (and my only VE3 mult!)
AB1OD 1 of his 6

Equipment:

K3, N1MM, tiny footpring Acer laptop, Butternut, 900 watt (sea level) Yamaha
generator (two gals gasoline total).

Next portable event for K7IA will be as county line portable in Arizona for the
7th Call Area QSO Party.  See you then?

73, dan k7ia


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