California QSO Party - 2023
Call: W6HY
Operator(s): N6DE WA6ZDO
Station: W6HY
Class: M/S HP
QTH: DELN
Operating Time (hrs): 11
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160:
80:
40: 16
20: 228 182
15: 232 150
10: 138 54
--------------------
Total: 614 286 Mults = 58 Total Score = 151,612
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
N6DE CQP 2023 Story:
Saturday: Crescent City, Del Norte County. W6HY Del Norte Amateur Radio Club
station.
Sunday: Pike, Sierra County. W6MY station.
Many thanks to Christie Lynn WA6ZDO, Chip W6MY, and the Del Norte Amateur Radio
Club for making all of this possible.
Pictures:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/aFC4n31KdQzyEwcRA
Stats:
* 16 hours 17 minutes of operating time on the air: 11 hours in DELN, 5 hours 17
minutes in SIER
* 20 hours of driving, round trip
* Sleep Saturday night: about 1 hour
* 1,009 miles driven
* 1,487 total QSOs made
Accomplishments:
* Broke the oldest CQP record: M/S HP Del Norte County, set in 1975.
* We made 1,000 QSOs from DELN on Saturday only. This was far higher than my
expectation. I was planning for 500 QSOs. I could not believe the high QSO
rates. I did not intend to operate on 40m, but I was almost at the 1,000 QSO
milestone, so I tuned the long wire and made 16 QSOs on 40CW to reach 1,000
QSOs.
* Set a S/O-Assisted LP record in Sierra County.
* Felt good that I tried my best to get rare counties DELN and SIER on the air
this year. This was not the plan over the summer! I had planned to team up
with N3KA to do a combined expedition and mobile adventure in other counties.
Several things came up which changed those plans. What caused me to operate in
DELN and SIER is that four planned operations in DELN and three planned
operations in SIER either canceled or changed their operating county. So I
contacted WA6ZDO and W6MY, which led to my efforts from these counties. This
would not have been possible without their help.
Conquered these challenges:
* Flat tire at 4:30am en route to SIER. Pitch dark and stranded. Almost called
off my SIER trip. But AAA was going to take too long, and I remembered that I
brought a portable outdoor light. I removed all my gear from my trunk, removed
the spare tire and the jack, and changed my tire. Limped slowly to the W6MY
station. I only had the small "donut" spare tire that is supposed to
be driven a maximum of 70 miles. I had a 200 mile trip home. Chip came up with
a great idea: I give him my flat tire and credit card, he travels a long
distance in his vehicle to a tire shop that is open on Sunday, gets my tire
replaced and comes back, while I operate the contest. After the contest, I
installed the new tire and headed home.
* Fatigue and confusion set in when departing the W6MY driveway. Got stuck in a
ditch. Chip got the neighbor's help to bring a floor jack and scrap pieces of
wood which he cut on site to assist in me getting out. Success!
* SteppIR SWR problems. Chip had a family emergency the day before CQP. He had
spent months repairing the site and the station building from last winter's
water damage. The SteppIR control cable had gotten severed and the antenna
showed >7:1 VSWR on 15m and 20m. It needed to go through the recalibration
routine. So I started operating with the OCF dipole on 20 and 10 CW, tuning it
with the Elecraft K3 internal tuner. We bypassed the amplifier and power meter
to keep things simple, as we were not sure of their operating status. I knew I
was weak with the OCF wire but at least I was putting QSOs in the log. Chip
worked on the SteppIR control cable while I was operating and restored all the
wires. He recalibrated the SteppIR and it worked! So I used the SteppIR from
that point until the end of the contest.
* CW pileup. After almost no sleep and the flat tire adventure, I was not in
the best mental state to properly handle a big pileup. Once I called CQ with
the SteppIR on 15CW, I was mobbed with callers. I have never heard a pileup
like that in all my years of operating CQP. I was really having trouble digging
out letters and callsigns, with most stations zero beat. My apologies for
sounding like a lid until the pileup finally tamed down. Then I could finally
get into a good QSO rhythm for the rest of the contest on CW, cycling between
10m, 15m and 20m. Strangely, I did not get many callers on SSB on Sunday,
despite trying several times on all three bands.
A big thank you to all of you who were active in CQP! Between terrific band
conditions, outstanding county coverage and very high overall activity, CQP 2023
will be extremely difficult to match in future years. Thank you for being a
part of what was a legendary CQP 2023.
73...
-Dean - N6DE
CQP Chairman
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