2021 7th Call Area QSO Party
Results
On May 1, Jay, WA0WWW, and I put 24 counties in the four states of MT, ID, OR, and WA on the air. We started on the MT Beaverhead - ID Clark county line on a dirt road at the top of Monida Pass. From there we headed south into Idaho then meandered westerly across the Snake River Plain in Idaho before turning north toward Boise, then again westerly to catch OR Malhuer and onward to my home in Moscow, ID (IDLAT) as the clock struck midnight PDT and the end of the party. We take turns operating for two hours then switch to driving for two hours. That helps break up the day. It was a long 19 plus hours from Dillon, MT to Moscow, ID, but we had an enjoyable time.
Our final QSO count was 632 with 51 mults for a claimed score of 96,696 which was an all time high for us. We had 467 Qs on 40 m and 165 on 20 m. Around 2300Z 20 m became so unproductive that we just stayed on 40 m for the rest of the party. In the last two hours of the party, 40 m was productive enough that we never went to 80 m.
We missed only six states, DE, MD, ME, MT, ND, and VT. A JA found us early in the party on 40 m and on 20 m DX from DL, JA, OM, and TM found us. Our most constant customer was, once again, John, N6MU in CA, who worked us in 19 of our 24 counties. Stations with 10 or more of our counties were W6TDX in CA with 13 counties, VE5MX in SK with 11, and W6OAT in WA with 10. A total of 314 different calls made it into our log.
Early afternoon as we were heading westerly in ID Owyhee, there was a very large and very dark storm cloud over ID Canyon, ID Ada, and ID Boise, our next three counties. We managed to stay west of the major portion of the rain and wind. Boise airport reported sustained winds in excess of 30 mph and a wind gust of 55 mph. We were happy to avoid that.
The biggest surprise was between New Meadows, ID (IDADA) and Grangeville, ID (IDIDA). This 80 mile stretch is almost all in the deep canyon of the Little Salmon River and the Salmon River. In our previous several passages from sunset to an hour and half after sunset, it has never been productive for us. This year I drew the short straw to operate that section. With 20 m non-productive by then and 80 m not yet expected to produce much, I sat on 40 m. In that 80 mile section, I saw 130 Qs per hour on the 10 Q rate meter several times, had one minute with four Qs, and only briefly saw it drop below 60 Qs/hr. The 80 miles and 96 minutes was good for 88 Qs.
The rig was an Elecraft KX2 and Elecraft KXPA100 to a Scorpion 680 antenna mounted in the center of the my 2002 Ford Ranger. We used N1MM+ on an HP laptop with full rig control and a MORTTY for CW keying.
We had a great time and thank everyone who worked us or tried.
Pictures and comments from along the route.
As Jay was operating at the top of Monida Pass, a four locomotive train passed by. Jay said the electrical noise from the diesel-locomotives was S9.
Here near sunset we are in ID Valley county at a city park in McCall. The Scorpion 680 antenna shows nicely in this picture. Note the snow on the distance peaks. The two bags in the bed of the truck are Northwest River Supply Bills Bags. There isn't room in the cab of the truck for our overnight gear so we put in those bags and bungee them in place.
The Plan
Jay, WA0WWW, and I will start in MT Beaverhead county then 14 ID counties, a brief excursion into OR for Malhuer county, back to ID for seven more counties, into WA for Whitman county, and finally ending in ID Latah county for a total of 24 counties in four states. All of the operation will be CW. We will try to split operating time between 20 and 40 m until 20 m dies out. You can work us each time we change bands or counties. Watch the RBN for K7TQ. Our sunset will be around 0350 UTC so we will concentrate more on 40 and 80 after that. We will try to be on frequencies ending in 0385, such as 7038.5 or 14.0385 MHz.
Here is a schedule of when we hope to enter a county and a route map.
