[3830] 7QP K7LIX Cnty Exped M/M LP

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                    7th Call Area QSO Party

Call: K7LIX
Operator(s): K7KO KD7EHB KF7IBL KF7IBN W7BRO W7GH W7KNX
Station: K7LIX

Class: Cnty Exped M/M LP
QTH: King Mountain
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                   
   80:   201             
   40:   394    240      
   20:   333    337      
   15:   156    554      
   10:                   
    6:            3      
    2:                   
----------------------------
Total:  1084   1134     0  Mults = 67  Total Score = 369,840

Club: 

Comments:

It all started when Ron KF7IBN mentioned to Rob W7GH that sometime they should
do something to combine camping and ham radio.  Just over a month ago, Rob said
why not a Field-Day-style county expedition effort in 7QP?  The idea snowballed
with sudden speed, and a week later we had six people on board from two ham
clubs, Southern Oregon ARC in Grants Pass and Rogue Valley ARC in Medford.  Two
more people signed on the week of the contest.  None of us were hard-core
contesters, but we decided to do as serious an effort as we could manage on
short notice.

Originally we considered a Forest Service campground, until Carl W7BRO casually
mentioned that there is a three-county point on King Mountain where Josephine,
Jackson, and Douglas counties meet.  Wonder of wonders, the three-county site
at 5,100' (1,550 m) actually turned out to be suitable, with reasonably level
ground and plenty of natural antenna supports (some people call them trees). 
We also had good luck regarding weather: the last of the snow was rapidly
melting on contest weekend, although the wind tore through the trees most of
the time.

Most of the contest we had two radios going in two popup tent trailers.  For a
while we had a third radio on 6m, until SOARC's venerable TS-850S went kaput. 
We had a tribander yagi on a 30' (9 m) aluminum tower that worked very well,
given the dropoff to the east.  We had plenty of wire antennas.

We didn't have any first-rate contesters along with us, and we all had a great
time learning as we went along.  Rob W7GH and Steve K7KO, our CW guys, had
never really run stations before.  The first time felt like drinking from a
fire hose apparently, but somehow they got it together and felt reasonably
comfortable doing it by the end of the contest, although the grins on their
faces took quite a while to subside.  The SSB effort was ably led by Scott
KD7EHB and Jeff W7KNX.  The rest of the crew, Dan KF7IBL, Ron KF7IBN, Carl
W7BRO, and Joe AA7JS, learned very quickly and were soon running stations
themselves.

All in all, it was a fantastic fun time that none of us will soon forget. 
Several of us were introduced to serious contesting for the first time (Field
Day doesn't count).  Everyone pulled together admirably, and everyone made
vital contributions to the effort.  Ron, Steve, and Joe served up some
fantastic food.  What a wonderful weekend.  We're already talking about next
year!


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