This is the first CQP for my
new army surplus antenna mast.This is the first CQP for my
new army surplus antenna mast.
This thing is really cool, it is a tripod that is very strong and there are 8 sections of aluminum mast that shove up through the center of the tripod for a total of 40 feet off the ground.
I bought this thing at the flea market with CQP in mind, in past years I have used a push-up TV mast to get up 20 feet. It required that I stand on the top rung of a ladder and assemble the antenna. I decided this was pretty stupid considering the nearest hospital is 60 miles away.
Boy it is amazing just how
much this military grade aluminum will bend without breaking.
There were times when I would look up as Don and I were shoving
sections up and my heart would stop.
Ta Da it's up and boy working great.
Then the wind came up.
AAAAhhh is that thing supposed to lean like that?
Mac, the eveready bunny of the expidition, gives his approval, all bands working Fine.
Boy the operating tent sure looks squared away, the kitchen is set up and still in Mono county, we are ready to rock and roll. Little did we know what was lurking on the horizon.
This is what I expected to be
the primary operating crew: left to right KM6OH(me) W6BSY(Mac)
K6DPW(Don) KF6JMQ(Donald). For the most part Mac did all the CW
operations, I did a little, but hardly worth mentioning. Don ran
voice on Saturday night from about 10PM to 1AM.
Ok so the facilities were a little on the primitive side, but how many people do you know that have a view like this from their toilet.
Well all was fine until about
4pm onFriday, then the wind gods decided we had had too many nice
weekends on this mountain. The wind notched up to around 40MPH
with gusts hitting 60MPH or so, all weekend. These people are
holding up what is left of the operating tent on Saturday around
1PM.
Here Don and I are getting the equipment out of the tent after the big collapse. We lost the poles that held up the windward side, they sort of broke in half. By tieing the tent to my truck and using the extra poles I brought, we got a tent of sorts back up.
See that black blob? That is what is left of Mac's sleeping tent. He elected to sleep in the back of Don's truck Saturday night, but said that the wind rocked that pretty bad too. Don's tent trailer held up well, but the wind rocked it so bad that no-one really got a good nights sleep. It was really something to behold.
What you can't see in this
picture is the fact that my truck is the shadow, there are at
least a dozen ropes running from the tent to my truck. This is
the operations tent on Sunday, just prior to the linier blowing
up. The truck in the distance is KC6VLN who drove in late Friday
night. He brought our secret weapon. BARB!
Here I am logging for Barb, she had never operated a
radio in her life, had no contest training, tolerated Steve's ham
hobby, but never really understood the allure. Then we got her on
the radio and my god the QSO rate went to 190 per hour. She
worked the pileups like a pro, I broke a sweat just keeping up
with her on the logging computer, absolutely amazing!!!!
Somehow we managed to get the antennas down in the wind. I never looked up, I just kept lowering sections and hoping. The trip home was wonderful, we met up with the crowd from Alpine county in Jackson the the Round Table Pizza place. Turns out we beat them by the skin of our teeth....sorry Larry... maybe next year.....
Score 1208 Q's all 58 mult's = 155,556 points
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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