[3830] CaQP N6TRI M/SCntyExp HP

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Sun Oct 4 21:10:08 EDT 2015


                    California QSO Party

Call: N6TRI
Operator(s): NY7N KK6ANP
Station: N6TRI

Class: M/SCntyExp HP
QTH: SDIE
Operating Time (hrs): 14.5

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
  160:   0       0
   80:   0      41
   40:   0     227
   20:   0     293
   15:   0      39
   10:   0       0
    6:   0       0
    2:   0       0
--------------------
Total:   0     600  Mults = 54  Total Score = 64,800

Club: 

Comments:

The whole genesis of this operation came from my friend and co-operator Daniel,
KK6ANP, who's still fairly new to HF. After having a good time at Field Day
this past year, he commented to me that he didn't want to wait another whole
year to do a portable operation. I suggested we find somewhere fun in CA to set
up for CQP, and it took off from there.

We operated from a cabin at the Butterfield Ranch Resort, south of Julian in
San Diego County. Not that San Diego is rare, but more that Daniel knows the
manager of the campground, and knew he'd be okay with us stringing some wires
through the trees for the weekend.

We put up a fan dipole for 80-10 about 20ft using army surplus fiberglass mast
and a custom base Daniel fabricated just for this purpose. Three conveniently
located trees provided anchor and guy points for the mast and antenna, which
turned out to be fortuitous, as it survived 50mph+ wind gusts on Saturday
night.

KK6ANP provided his FT-920 and a laptop for logging, I brought my trusty old
SB-201 for a little extra pop on our signal. Never hurts.

This was mainly intended to be a fun, semi-serious yet semi-casual operation. A
way for me to scratch my contest itch and be the hunted for a change, and a way
to introduce KK6ANP to contesting - and to SSB operation, since he's kind of a
digital guy.

>From that standpoint, it was a total success. We definitely had fun, we handed
out the SDIE mult to a bunch of people, and some adult beverages may have been
consumed along the way as well.

The operation wasn't without its issues. Late in the evening on Saturday, the
T/R relay on the SB-201 started sticking, which was fixed by turning the amp
off and letting it cool down for a bit. After a few hours Sunday morning, it
hung up again. That, combined with the FT-920 randomly power-cycling itself
ever 10 minutes or so if the RF output was much above 50w led to us deciding to
hang it up a little after 1800z on Sunday morning.

Still, a good time was had for sure - and I can't complain about running a 96
QSO hour on 40m with nothing but a dipole at 20ft and 500W.

We'll definitely be returning for CQP in 2016, and we'll definitely get the
kinks worked out for next time. And maybe add something directional to put up
in the air...

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading - and I'll leave you with one of
my favorite quotes which sums up our experience in this contest quite well.

Perennial NASCAR backmarker Delma Cowart's trademark quote about his lack of
success in top level motorsport was: "I ain't never won a race, though I
never lost a party."

We sure as heck didn't lose our party.

See you on the air.

73, Andy NY7N


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