California QSO Party 1992 Alpine County

Well we thought it was.....
Turns out we were really in Mono County by a few thousand feet. This was the first contest for Tina (KD6MYG) and Robert. I scouted out this site a few weeks before the contest. It is located on the side of Leviathon Peak, which is right on the crest of Monitor Pass.

I had hoped to use the fire lookout on the peak, but got turned down by the Forest Service so we wound up here. This picture does not do the site justice, it takes 4 wheel drive to get into it (very steep). We arrived at about 10PM on Friday night, the contest was to start at 10AM the next morning so we had only 12 hours to sleep, get the station setup etc.

The first problem was that there were no level spots to set up the operations tent. So we took turns digging into the side of the mountain and rolling boulders. Finally we had an 8 by 10 pad for the operating tent. Then we set up the antennas, generator, sleeping tent (on the slope), and the potty tent.

By 2AM we climbed into the sleeping tent only to find that the air mattresses did not hold air and everyone kept rolling downhill until he were in a heap at the bottom of the tent. After a few hours we all moved into the operating tent, which was level, and fought over the one remaining mattress that had a little air in it.

When the contest started I made a mistake. See that thing on the tent wall above Robert? Well that's a $20 bill. I pinned that up there before the contest started and said " he who makes the most contacts gets to keep this". About 11:30 all the coffee I had drunk was wanting out, so I asked Tina to take over.... big mistake. I never saw the microphone again.

I tried pushing her out of the chair, but she refused to give up the microphone and Robert was on her side. I didn't have a chance so I was demoted to cooking and putting gas in the generator and reading. Tina made the contacts, and Robert logged them into the computer. I figured I'd get even by getting up before her in the morning and grabbing the mike before she had a chance. No way, she beat me to it.

On the way home all Tina could talk about was how she was going to come back next year and bust the record for Alpine county (see cqp 1993).

The worse part of mountain top contesting is the fact that after two days of sleep deprivation you have to break down the station, pack it up and drive home. Come to think of it, putting away my toys has always been my least favorite thing.

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 Main Page