2016 7th Call Area QSO Party

RESULTS

On May 7, 2016, Jay, WA0WWW, and I put 1 county in Montana, 19 counties in Idaho, and 1 county in Washington on the air in the 7th Area QSO Party. Starting in Dillon, Montana we wandered across the Snake River Plain in eastern and central Idaho before turning north around Boise until we reached my home in Moscow, Idaho. Along the way we were in irrigated farm land, sagebrush country, forested mountains, and deep canyons before ending in the rolling Palouse hills. Our route took us 837 miles in the 18 hours of the contest.

After 18 hours of operating we managed 513 Qs for a score of 75,411 which was more Qs than last year's effort, but fewer mults. All the Qs were CW with 20 m leading the way with 354 Qs, followed by 141 on 40 m, and 18 on 80 m. We didn't go to 80 m until right at the end. We worked 42 states missing ND, SD, AR, LA, MS, GA, DE, and VT. Canadian ops in BC, SK, ON, QU, and NB found us. The only DX were JA and PY.

WA2VYA, Frank, in Texas was our constant companion with 18 band-counties. Frank worked us in our first county, Montana Beaverhead, and our last one, Idaho Latah. N6MM, John in California, found us in 14 counties followed by N8II, Jeff in West Virginia, with 12 band-counties. Our home club, Spokane DX Association, members supported us well lead by AD7XG, Gary, and K7OX, Gary, with 6 and 5 band-counties each. An outstanding effort was put in by WA1PMA, Wayne who now lives in Florida, as he found us in 6 counties using only a Buddy-Pole mounted on top of his motor home.

The rig was an IC-706MKIIG at 100 watts with a Hustler "Pitchfork" antenna. We used N1MM+ on a LT4004u netbook with three changes of batteries over the 18 hours.

We had a great time and thank everyone who worked us or tried to work us.

Pictures and comments from along our route

This is the Snake River Plain looking back to the east. Lots of irrigated agriculture here. We stopped for a short length of time on the Idaho Clark-Jefferson county line.

Another short stop on the Idaho Butte-Blaine county line. Foothills and lava flows of the Craters of the Moon National Monument have replaced the irrigated agriculture. Farther on in Elmore County those clouds produced some rain.

On the Idaho Boise-Gem county line we've made it through the traffic of Canyon and Ada Counties and are now back in rural countryside. The river to our left is the Payette River which makes it to the Snake River on the Idaho-Oregon border. Jay's Hustler "Pitchfork" antenna that covers 15, 20, and 40 m is plainly visible. We didn't make any 15 m Qs this year.

Randy works the last of the 20 m Qs at our stop in McCall in Valley County, Idaho. We are now in forested mountains. Soon we'll be in the canyons of the Little Salmon River and the Salmon River in Idaho Adams and Idaho counties. Tough to make Qs there.