"You haven't lived until
you have tried to put one of these monsters up in the
dark"...KM6OH
CQP 94 was my first attempt at what is known as a multi-multi
operation. That is, multiple transmitters with multiple
operators. This will have to go down in my personal record book
as the year that everything that could go wrong did. Murphy's law
was proven over and over and over again, until if I could have
found that guy Murphy I would have killed him, bare handed with
no remorse.
This
year I invited Jim(KE6BWH), his wife Georgie, who cooked real
food!!!! and Bill(KD6LFM) to join us in the assault on the
mountain. I had driven up to Monitor Pass a few weeks prior in my
4X4 and scouted out what I thought was the perfect place for the
operation. We were going to operate from Alpine county again and
since Jim was going to bring his Airstream trailer and Bill his
tricked out VW van my old spot would not do, too hard to get
into.
Bill, Tina and I took off on Friday
early in the morning, Jim was to follow as soon as he could get
away from work. About 3/4 of the way to the site, Bill remembered
that he forgot to bring his antennas for 40 and 80 meters. It was
too late to turn back... strike one... We made the traditional
stop at Ham's Station for a grease burger and shot on up to the
site. On scanning the horizon I noticed a huge antenna farm had
grown out of the hill top not 200 yards from where we were to set
up. We drove up to investigate this strange occurrence. This
monster antenna farm belonged to Bruce (AA6KX) our contest club
president. Somehow wires had gotten crossed and he was not aware
that we had reserved Alpine county and visa versa. Something had
to give as we could not both operate in such close proximity so
Bruce put us on to a site in Mono county, a mere 30 miles or so
south. This presented a problem as Jim had directions to the
original site and was who knew how far behind us.
Tina and I left Bill on Monitor Pass to intercept Jim when he showed up, and proceeded on to this new site to check it out. It turned out to be a fabulous plateau with plenty of room for all of us to set up.
Tina and I returned to Monitor Pass to wait with Bill. Jim and Georgie showed up around 5PM and we caravaned to the turn off to the new site, a very very steep windy dirt road. While parked at the bottom of the grade from hell Tina asked what that hissing sound was. Turned out to be my rear tire going flat from a nail, so Tina and I ran into town and an hour later returned with tire repaired.
We started up the grade only to discover that Jim's Eurovan could not pull the Airstream up the grade. I hooked on to him with a rope and pulled him up all 10 miles in granny low 4 wheel drive. It took forever and of course the sun was setting and the contest started at 10AM the next day.
Once we made the top, everyone dispersed and began setup. Tina and I got the operating tent up before nightfall. The rest, including raising the antenna, was done by flashlight. We collapsed about 1AM.
Come morning Tina, who I don't think
slept a wink (I know I didn't) started contesting right from the
beginning. We could hear all kinds of signals, but no one was
hearing us. After about an hour of this I discovered that I had
the antenna pointed backwards. Once I turned the antenna east,
the contacts began to rack up quickly.
Jim, having never been in an outback contest, gave it his level best, as did Bill. But yours truly had failed to factor in that radio stations set up so close to each other will interfere with each other. Score wise.... well it was pretty bad. But there is a certain magic about setting up a radio station in the outback that keeps you coming back. And so we have CQP 95....
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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