[Mldxcc] [NCCC] W6CQP in CQP

[Dick Wilson]

Results from W6CQP (AD6E) in Merced..

Goal was for 1500 QSOs and a new Merced record.

Goal achieved .. barely.
NI6T beat my Monterey record so one lost and one gained.

Probable 3rd place S/O county expedition :(

Various flaws and limitations in my county expedition setup. I need to
really think about how to break through this 1500 QSO barrier. Last
several similar expeditions also were in the 1500 QSO range. I gotta find
an easier and better way to do this. Suggestions (off line) welcome.

I have photos. If you're interested, contact me and I can email some.

160    0 CW       0 PH
  80   99         96
  40  165         40
  20  276        180
  15  284        190
  10  116        122
tot  940        628  or   1568 total QSOs

never heard ND or HI so only 56 mults = 228,256 score.

Station setup:

Elecraft K2/100 plus TL922 put out about 500W. Power limited due to 110VAC
line loss and puny 2.5kW generator that kept running, but huffed and
puffed when the amp keyed.

Antennas:  A3 tribander at 15 feet on top of a nice hill - good down slope.
            Inverted Vs at 50 ft for 40 and 80. Separate inv V for 75.
            Heard N6O and others on 160 but no one could hear me.

QTH:  San Luis Res with special permission from the park service.

It was great to hear 10 meters open. Also great to hear the EU gang ..
often louder than east coast on Sunday.

Wierd stuff:

The K2 operated mostly fine, but several problems made me wish I used the
1000mp instead. I use a foot switch and need to key both the amp and the
K2 on SSB. So I wired it all up and it worked fine. However in CW, I still
need the foot switch to key the amp since the old TL922 has a big clunky
relay. Unfortunately the K2 sends a string of dits when the PTT line is
keyed. That means different PTT wiring for CW and SSB.

I was QRT several times when the K2 decided to go on strike for no
apparent reason. On Sunday I finally figured it out. The foot switch was
sometimes lifted at the wrong time resulting in high SWR in the K2. The K2
responds by PERMANENTLY shutting down the TX until you twist the power
knob.

Writelog problem: I used the "Enter in free form" option for the first
time in many years. My original DOS CQP logging program has this .. I
think it's still on the CQP web site. The problem with WL version of this
is the entry window is too small. Several times I entered the exchange
without the space (space bar is getting old) and got 223NJ as the call
sign. That would be OK except the real call scrolled off the window to the
left and the guy is gone. Think I lost 3-4 QSOs because of this. Also lost
a few more because I forgot to hit ENTER to log the QSO and wrote over the
old QSO data with the next QSO.

Good news is that my back problem wasn't a problem at all except for
getting up in the mornings.


73, Al  AD6E // W6CQP Merced



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