1991 was my first time to ever do a
contest. We decided to set up in Shasta county. After a few phone
calls to the forest service I had gotten permission to use the
top of West Prospect peak, which is just a bit north and east of
Mt. Lassen. 1991 was my first time to ever do a
contest. We decided to set up in Shasta county. After a few phone
calls to the forest service I had gotten permission to use the
top of West Prospect peak, which is just a bit north and east of
Mt. Lassen.
My lovely wife Jennifer, who is also a ham, (KD6BTJ) agreed to
join me in this madness. We broke down the whole home radio
station and antennas. Loaded the generator, camping gear, radio
gear, food, etc. into our poor old tired 4X4 and drove 300 +
miles up to the mountain top. We sort of looked like the Beverly
Hillbillies, less grandma.
I know this is a really blurry image,
but in the center is a little black bear. On our way up the
mountain we spotted what appeared to be a large dog sitting in
the middle of the road. When we got about 50 feet from him it
became obvious that it was a black bear. He sort of sat there and
stared at us for a few seconds and then got up and sauntered off
into the manzanita before we could get a good picture. So this is
the only picture we got. We sort of figured that this was a good
omen. 
The site turned out to be beautiful. You
could see for at least 50 miles in any direction and the solitude
was great. The new generator worked great but was so loud I had
to dig a hole in the hillside and drop it in so we could hear
each other talk. The contest started Saturday morning at 9 AM and
we were ready for it. All went well until around 6 O'clock when
we learned a very valuable lesson about mountains and wind. 
One of the remarkable things about being
out in the middle of nowhere, away from powerlines and
civilization is the lack of static on your radio. You can hear
and work very very very weak stations that you would not even
hear in the city, because of the noise level.
We decided to sack out around 3AM and get up in 4 hours when the
bands would be opening up again. Well we sorta slept in till
around 10 or so.
We finished the contest at noon and packed up and drove home,
very exhausted and satisfied with ourselves. We came close to
setting the all time record for contacts from Shasta county, and
had we not slept in we just might have broken it.
KM6OH - Kim
If you are interested in joining our expedition in future
years, drop me a note. You do not have to be a licensed ham to
join in and operate.
Please email me with any comments at kim@knjcomputers.com
Oh well so much for CQP ..... back to CQP
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