[CQ-Contest] W7GG, THREE RIVERS FIRE, I.A.R.U. 2002..... LONG

Tue Jul 16 00:51:51 EDT 2002

   Hi All, thought I'd write about an experience I had over the weekend doing the I.A.R.U. contest from W7GG'S central Oregon
contest location, as it will be one that will most defineteley stand out as one that I will remember, and will be impossiable for us to forget !!

               It started off friday morning still not knowing if W7GG was going to do the test, as he had some sort of bug and was not feeling real well, but being the intense competitor that he is, he went to the doc, got a pocket full of medicine and gave me a call at my work QTH about 9:00 o'clock friday morning saying he was headed over to the contest station and was going to give it a try, and it should be no problem as he wanted to do c.w. (no talking, he could save his voice) and my youngest son and I could do phone part, sounded good to me !  but also to stick somewhat close to the 2 mtr radio as there was a small lighting started forest fire north of his location, and he'd give me a call and let me know the status of the fire after he got there.

              Somewheres around 2 o'clock friday afternoon I got the call on 2 mtrs from Bob, fire did not look all of that bad, was about 5 miles from his place, with a light wind blowing to the north, meaning away from his place, it was also several ridges over, on the other side of Lake Billy Chinook, and  on the Indian reservation, we could see no problem, as have been over there with them closer than that. So the contest was on, I'd get off of work, pick up my youngest son, pack the truck and make the 2-1/2 hr 129 mile  drive  from Gresham Ore  to three rivers. It should be a good time, and we would get a chance to check out all of the antenna
work that we had done a few months ago. I also got ahold of my dx-ped partner, Craig, AH8DX/W7, and let him know the contest was on, and that we would be heading over to Bob's place, and he was more than welcome to come over and use my station for the test. 

                To those of you who have worked W7GG,AI7B or WW7OR over the years and have wondered about his big signal, let me give a little run down on his contest QTH, Three Rivers is a gated community, way out in the "pucker brush" (literally) in the high desert of central Oregon, about 25 miles west of a small town called Culver, basically a vacation resort, with a few homes,mobile homes, trailer houses,etc, most people come over for the weekend, with a few living there all year roung,  there is no running water, no commercial power, (nearest commercial power is about 20 miles away) no flushing toilets, except the ones you make for yourself ! etc. etc. water is bought and stored on site, electric power at W7GG's place is either solar,wind mills,diesel or propane powered generators, towers and antenna's are many, 190 ft. rotating tower with 2 stacked full sized 3 element 40 mtr beams, stacked kt34xa's, 80 and 160 mtr wire 4 squares,  165 ft tower with stacked mono-band yagis for 20,15 and 10 mtrs,  125 ft tower with several other yagis, 100 ft. tower with another tribander, windmills, solar paners, etc. on it, that covers most of the antennas, He has this all situated on about 5 acres, and it is a very nice place to retire to on a weekend and play radio, so  when you hear W7GG on the air handing out Q's, it is at great expense to Bob.

               So, it was up over Mt Hood, and into central Oregon for what I hoped would be an uneventful drive, but my youngest son was driving, and anything could happen!!!  ( it didn't, he did a good job on the way over) By the time we came up out of Warm Springs and onto the flats into Madras, the sun was going down over the mountains, and we got a good look at the small forest fire
off in the distance, smoke was drifting to the north, which was good, as we were going to be south of it. So It was on into Madras, follow the signs to Lake Billy Chinook, and keep my eyes on the fire. 

               By the time we got to the top of the canyon road that drops you down into  Lake Billy Chinook it was dark, and that little bitty forest fire was looking a little on the menancing side, we were still about 20 miles away, so down into the canyon we went, over two very, very narrow suspension bridges and climbed up out of the canyon, once on top, we got our first real look at that little bitty forest fire,  it was no longer just menancing looking, it was damn scary looking, and we were headed right for it ! 
I called bob on 2 mtrs and tried to describe what I was seeing, he sounded a little concerned, and said that it was still 4 to 5 miles north west of him, with a very mild breeze blowing to the north away from him, so it should still be no problem, I said we'd be there soon, and signed off,  It was about then that I noticed that my normally lead footed 15 yr old son was looking out the windshield at the fire in front of us,mouth open, and eyes opened even wider !  and going very slow ! !  I knew he was just as stunned as I was,  I just looked at him and said, I dont think were going to be doing much contesting this weekend, were probally going  to Bob's place and packing the truck's up and getting the heck out of there.  I don't think in the fifteen years that I have been lucky enough to have Jordan as my son, that I have ever seen him agree more quickly to anything I have ever said ! 

               By  the time we got to the main gate to pick up a pass to go onto Three Rivers property, the normally empty parking lot was full of fire trucks, heavy earth moving equipment, fire fighters, etc., and the fire was a site to behold, the entire night sky to the northwest of where I was standing had the most sureal, eerie orange "glow" that I have ever seen
 I went in to get a pass, came back out, stood in awe, and looked at the fire in the sky, made a few choice four letter "observations", and was already planning in my mind what I could pack in my little truck and how I could get it in, just in case they gave the word to evacuate.

              Made the mile or so drive from the main gate to Bobs place and pulled into his property, Meet Bob outside, parked the truck and we sat on the outside deck and made plans of what we should do if we had to leave in a hurry, all the while looking to the northwest at the "orange glow" coming over the top of the tree's. 
By now, there was no breeze, some cloud cover, and we could smell no "smoke"
that was about 10:00 o'clock in the evening, 
by 11:00 we decided to try and get some sleep, only problem was, it was too hot to sleep in the house, and it was still 94 degrees outside !!!!  So for Jordan and me, It was make a bed out on the deck and try and sleep in just shorts !  by midnight I knew it was going to be a long hot,semi sleepless night ! and what was worse, was that every little breeze that came along, I found myself trying to determine what direction, north, south,east,west,  is there smoke on that breeze, can I hear the tell tale sounds of burning trees, and on and on, and then there was that eerie "orange" glow from the fire, it was reflecting off of the cloud cover and everything I could see had an "orange" glow to it, trees, grass, house, towers,antennas, gravel, etc, literally everything ! was very un-nerving !   At one point Jordan got up, had a white t-shirt on, walked by me, and he was even "glowing orange" !!!!  
It was somewhere's around 3 o'clock in the morning that I noticed that the "glow" was no longer around, got up, looked to the northwest, and could no longer see much of anything, no smoke rising, no orange glow,  laid back down and finally fell asleep with the thoughts that the fire was dying out, and the firefighters had it under control, I felt much better, and actually got about 3 hours worth of sleep ! 

                   bob was up at 4:30, ready to start the test at 5:00, he started out on 40 c.w. with JA5ING/1 first in the log at 5:06 a.m. local time. By the time I got up with several cups of coffe in me to try and shake off my restless night,and take a peek around the side of the house to check on the fire, ( hurray, looked like it was pretty much gone out ! )  there was 210 Q's in the log, 
We traded seats and I started off of 20 mtr ssb, with N0NI  first in the log at 7:57 a.m. local, made a total of 13 q's on 20 ssb and decided that was not the place to be, last q's on 20 that morning was W1AW/5 at 8:25 a.m. local, bad rates !

                15 mtrs sounded much, much better, with W6XR first in the log, europe was open and was answering my c.q.'s ! 
so for the next hour and a half or so, I ran and ran, watching the rate meter at times aproaching 185 q's, not bad, not bad at all  for way out here in Oregon !   And then I had something happen to me that I have read about many times over the years, about 9:30 local time ( 14:30 utc) I was calling c.q. with the voice keyer, I heard something, stopped, and heard the tail end of a c.q. message, what I heard was, seven germany germany   contest !  I had thought it a little odd for a split secound, and then realized that was my VOICE !  my first long delayed echo ?? 

              Bob walked into the shack at about 10:00 a.m. local, looked at the rates I was having on 15 phone, and I could see by the look in his eye's ( plus the drool coming out of the side of his mouth !) that he wanted some of the action,  I took a break and let Bob run some c.w.  went into the kitchen, grabbed a cup of coffee, walked out the back door to check on the fire, and everything looked just fine !  no smoke, no clouds, no fire !  looked like we were gonna have a great time this weekend after all !

             by 11:00 a.m. local time, I looked out the south window of the shack and noticed that it was getting hard to see the big tower about  400  hundred feet away, and the smell of burning wood was starting to come into the shack !  I took one look at Bob, and he looked at me as I was putting down my drink, letting Bob know I was going to go and check things out.
            Grabbed a set of binocoulrs on the way out of the house, headed over to the pole barn, grabbed a climbing belt and headed out to the small tower to the northwest of the property, up the tower I went and hooked on at about 60-70 ft., well above the tree line and took a peek, by then there was so much low lying smoke in all directions, it was hard to tell where it was coming from, but with a little bit of squinting, I could see that it was coming from the northwest, so far it looked like a smouldering camp fire, and from what I could see, was still about 4-5 miles away. Down the tower I went, into the shack and discussed what I had seen with Bob, we had heard nothing from the main gate about evacuation, so decided to to worry just yet. 

         By 11:45 a.m. local time we had looked out the window and noticed there was a slight breeze coming from the south, and had cleared out all of the smoke !   GREAT ! no clouds, no smoke,  a slight breeze from the south, and the europeans were just booming in on 15 mtrs ! things were looking up ! it was also getting close to 90 degrees F. !  We traded off and I ran europe for about another hour or so,  By 12:00 or so in the afternoon, the temperature in the shack was somewhere around 94 degrees, and that was with two box fans going, one 20 inch box fan was in the west window of the shack, and we both noticed at about the same time, that the fan was speeding up and slowing down, and it wasn't due to voltage variations from the diesel generator,  Our slight southern breeze had changed directions and was now coming from the worst possiable direction, out of the northwest, and it was no longer a "slight breeze".           

                We traded off at 12:15 p.m. local, europe still booming in on 15 mtr c.w.,  I went to the kitchen to grab something cold to drink and find something to snack on and walked out the back door to check on the fire, by now I could see some smoke rising above the trees, but not coming at us, was starting to worry a little bit, as the wind was really starting to pick up, and it was really gettin hot ! it had to be somewheres over a hundred outside, with no humidity.

                 Went back into the shack at 1:15 p.m. to take over, noticed that the temp in the shack was getting close to 98 deg. F.
seen bob had changed to 20 c.w., so decided to try 20 phone and put in some much needed q's on that band, by 1:40 p.m. decided that 20 was not producing well, and went back to 15 phone for a little S&P, first in was TA3D at 1:49 p.m. local, did a little more S & P'ing, and found my first JA,  JA4DPL at  1:52 p.m. local, now I decided it was time to reposition antenna's, turn the TB-6 to the U.S., turn the rotating tower with the stacked KT-34-XA's to JA land, and use WX0B's six pack box ( the fun switch) to switch between the fixed european stack, U.S. antenna and JA antenna's, now it was time to really rock and roll ! as I had the whole world to work, europe was still booming in, U.S. was booming in, a few south americans, and the J.A. and deep Russians were starting to  roll !

                At 2:00 p.m. local time, Craig, AH8DX\W7 checked in from my station in Gresham, we exchanged numbers and info, he asked how it was going, I had stated that we were starting to really worry about the fire to the north of use, and was not sure how much longer we might be here, by then, the box fan in the window was really howing, from my operating position, I could not see out the window very well, but from the way the fan was howling, I was expecting at any moment flames to be lapping around the corner ! we only had at that time, 614 q's in the log, it had been somewhat difficult to concentrate on the contest, and was getting harder and harder to concentrate on the contest. the temperature in the shack was now at 99.9 deg. F., and it was much hotter outside.

                 Another 22 minutes went by and I had put another 40 q's in the log,  my son had showed up at my side, stating that he had been up at the front gate talking to a firefighter who had said that if you had and personal belongings, you had better start packing them and be prepared to get out. I had stopped and took a call on two meters from one of the other hams that live on the property, so far he had not heard anything from the front gate about evacuating.  About that time, bob walked into the shack, we all sat and discussed what to do next, I thought that maybe the best thing to do for the time being, was to grab the binoculours and a climbing belt and go back up the little tower and take another peek at the fire. All agreed that this would give us some sort of go\no go. So out the door I went, over to the tower, and up I went. This particular tower  I can only climb up on the north face of it, so at about the 65-70 ft level, I clipped on, grabbed for the binoculours, turned around, and damned near dropped the binocs !!  this time I did not need them, as what I saw put a chill up my spine, and stood the hair up on the back of my neck ! 

                What I was looking at, was no longer just a smoldering fire, it was a raging, wind whipped, out of control wild fire, with huge billowing clouds of smoke, what was worse, it was no longer 4-5 miles away, it was maybe 2, and heading southeast, pretty much right for use, what was even worse than that, was a fire had spread south of the main fire, and IT WAS heading for us ! 
by this time, the winds were whipped up to around 30 or so miles per hour.

                  I have always thought it rather unusual as to some of the things I remember in times of stress like this, and it seemed rather odd to me, that standing up on that tower, watching this raging fire, and thinking about watching an interview several years ago of the commanding officer of Clark Air Force base in the Phillippines after the volcano there covered up the air base, A reporter had asked him what indication he had, as to when to evacuate, his answer was when he seen a young seargeant running by him, yelling, General, I hope you gots some Jam in your pocket, as were about to be "toast" !  then he knew it was time to leave !
 and me, like the General, I sure wasn't much intrested in becoming "toast", so it was unclip myself from the tower, with Bob barreling out the back door of the house, saying we gots to GO !  and from 65 ft or so up, I don't think it took me 30 secounds before  my feet hit the ground at a dead run for the house, now it was time to try and decide what to save. 

                   It was now about 2:45 p.m. local, as we headed for the shack to try and save as much as possiable before the fire hit, we had maybe 2 hrs, 3 tops, I shut the computers off, noticed that we only had 661 q's in the log, with JA6FMR being the last one at 21:36 UTC. Bob, Jordan and I had a short conversation with what to start with, was easy, the most expensive equipment first, I started unplugging all of the 1000 mike papa's, Bob and Jordan started on all of the smaller radios,  power supplies and brick amps, we started stacking things on the front porch, from there, next was the Titan amps and power supplies, next from there was the Henry amps, both little Henry, and big Henry, by then we had quit a pile stacked up on the front porch, the next thing to do was to back my little pickup up to the deck and start loading, mike papa's, titans,power supplies,bricks,smaller radios into the back of the truck, next was to try and get the big amps into the bed, and from there, start shoving anything else that we could into it. At one point I remember looking up at the temp gauge, 100.5 deg. F. no wonder the sweat was pouring out of use ! and that damn box fan in the window was still howling !

               Don't ask me why, but for some reason or another, there was a surplus of unused cardboard boxes, and thank god there was, as we used every one of them shoving wallpaper,hard won contest plaques, family memories, stack match boxes,six pack boxes, relay boxes, filters, top ten boxes, four square boxes,monitors,computers, headphones,mics,footswitches,and anything else we could shove in them, and when we ran out of boxes, we found some plastic boxes full of linen, out went the linen, and in went the good stuff ! It was truly amazing, in about an hour and a half, we had that shack pretty much torn down to tables and chairs, and had pretty much gotten all of the equipment out, What was even more amazing was when I went out the back door to check on the progress of the fire, It was no longer "just" to the northwest of us, it was still spreading towards use, but was also traveling at a very high rate to the east, more or less parellel to us, and from what I could see, in the hour or so I had last checked on it, it looked like it had gone maybe 3 miles, with billowing smoke clouds that had to be reaching 25,000 plus feet, and streaching from just about as far as I could see to the west, to as far as I could see to the east, the sight of this made us move a little bit faster, as we still had plenty to try and load up.

                 It was now about 4:15, and we had more to try and load, we started loading motorcycles into Bob's truck, got them tied down, hitched up his boat, and proceded to shove as much stuff as we could into his boat, and  front of his Truck.
another 45 minutes or so had passed, and we had pretty much decided that we had all we were gonna get, my poor ole truck was so loaded, that it was pretty much draggin the rear bumper, and the tires were just about half flat, was gonna be a long slow ride home. Bob's truck was just about the same, don't think we could have shoved to much more into it either !
It was now a little after 5:00 p.m. and was time to leave, we took another look at the fire, it had grown even more, and looked as if it had traveled another 2 miles east, and now the smoke cloud was reminding me of what  MT. ST. Helens looked like when it blew its top 20 some odd years ago, not a pretty site !

                As we were getting ready to leave, Jordan came up to me, and with some pretty red and wet eyes, made the statement that this was just about the saddest day of his life, and I could not help but think he was probally right, as for the last five years this has been our radio contesting home, as  Bob and his wife Laverna have been gracious hosts to my two boys and I, we have gone there and played radio so many times in the last five years that the contests are becoming a blurr, we have had nothing but great times and great memories at the Three Rivers Contest Club, to think that it could be over with and that the next time that we see the place, it could be nothing more than "toast" it was just a little to mind numbing. About all I could do was give him a hug, let him know that there was nothing we could do at the moment, and just hope for the best. it was time to go.

            Here I am writing this late sunday evening, and still no word on what if anything has happened to W7GG'S place, they are not letting anybody in, and the news reports don't look all of that good, fire is still spreading.

for those of you that would like to send a kind word of two to Bob, here's his e-mail address:

bob.wrubble at verizon.net

vy 73...... Ken....... K7ZUM........ FS/K7ZUM........ PJ7/K7ZUM    

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