[Mldxcc] CQP - K6G - Glenn

[Robert Hess]

California QSO Party



Call: K6G
Operator(s): W1RH
Station: W1RH

Class: SOCntyExp HP
QTH: GLEN
Operating Time (hrs): 2.5

Summary:
Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
  160:          
  80:          
  40:          
  20:  92    9
  15:  13      
  10:          
    6:          
    2:          
--------------------
Total:  105    9  Mults = 37  Total Score = 12,321

Club: Mother Lode DX/Contest Club

This was a hastily prepared effort to activate at least Glenn or Tahema.  I kept waiting for someone to volunteer and, by Wednesday prior to the contest, seeing no one other than a mobile, I decided to go for it.  Saturday would be K6G.  Sunday would be K6C, operating from the home QTH.
I decided on Glenn after searching Google Earth for an operating location.  I chose a low security prison, on a ridge in the middle of nowhere in the Mendocino National Forrest.  4500 foot elevation and a 3 hour non-stop drive from Lotus.
Much of my remote gear was promised to W6A (K6TLR), in Alpine.  This included my generator, a Cushcraft A3S, various cables, and a 30 foot mast borrowed from work.  
I took Friday off to prepare and it was a busy day.  I had a TA-33JR tribander about 300 feet down the hill, mounted at 10 feet that I've been using for years as a low noise receiving antenna.  I took it down and broke it down to a size I could transport.  I repaired my SB-200 amp and also built a keying interface for it.  I made several cables.  Helped K6TLR and company load up.  Pulled a FT-1000MP off the shelf and loaded up a 6 foot non-penetrating mount with a twelve foot mast clamped to it.  Also brought six cinder blocks.  I picked up a generator from a friend, since mine went to Alpine.
I arrived at the site much later than I wanted, about Noon, but I worked late Friday getting things ready.
The prison guards were great.  They set me up quite some distance from the prison buildings on their helipad.  It was flat and quiet with a beautiful view in three quadrants.  The prison was on top of the ridge.  The helipad was about 100 feet down from the prison.  This is a low security prison, with the inmates walking around openly, wearing their bright orange jump suits.  Good thing I didn't wear my bright orange CQP shirt!
It took about an hour and a half to get everything set up.  I ended up using the tailgate on my pickup as an operating table.  
I could not get the Winkeyer to key the radio.  I brought extra cables and tried changing things around.  it was talking to Writelog, but no matter what I did it would not key the radio.  Spent far too much time trying to make this work.  Didn't have a key with me but I did throw an old serial port Winkeyer in the truck, so I grabbed a serial cable, plugged it into the Edgeport, and it worked.  Still don't know why the USB Winkeyer didn't work.
Got on the air and worked most of the big stations, but signals were nowhere near as loud as I expected them to be.  Got called by a couple of loud JA's and then thought that perhaps I had the beam in the wrong direction.  Apparently I did.  There's no internet out there, so I got in the truck and looked at the compass.  Turns out I was oriented NW for most of the time I was on the air.  I couldn't believe it.  I had a pretty good idea from Google Earth which way was which, but the heliport location got me disoriented.  70 degrees ended up with the beam looking directly into the top of the ridge.  Got the antenna turned and that helped quite a bit but then the SWR jumped up on 20.  Think I lost a trap, so shut down at 4:30 local time.   
My old friend, Paul, N4PN, got his sweep by working me, so there was a bright spot in the operation.  Ended up with only about 2.5 hours of operating time and totally exhausted by the time i got home.
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