2022 Salmon Run

Results

On September 17 and 18, Jay, WA0WWW, and I put all 20 of the Washington state counties east of the Cascade Crest on the air in the Salmon Run. We started in Whitman county and went clockwise to Douglas county where we spent the night in Grand Coulee, the location of the Grand Coulee Dam. Sunday we finished up the other 20 counties and ended operating from Pend Orelle county.

We were able to make 660 Qs and 74 mults for a total score of 146,520, the highest Jay and I have ever done. For the first time in several years, we made good use of 15 m with 67 Qs and 14 mults. Last time out in 2020, we didn't make any 15 m Qs. The idea of going to 80 m at the top of each hour was successful. During the daylight hours we picked up several WA counties.

Our most frequent customer was N7IR, Gary, in AZ. He made 32 Qs with us and caught us in all 20 of our counties. Others with 10 Qs or more were N7EPD with 19 Qs in 14 counties, K7GS with 16 Qs in 14 counties, OM2VL with 16 Qs in 11 counties, W7G with 15 Qs in 14 counties, K9CW with 13 Qs in 12 counties, W9PL with 13 Qs in 11 counties, W7DM with 11 Qs in 6 counties, K2DFC with 10 Qs in 10 counties, W7FN with 10 Qs in 9 counties, W6TDX with 10 Qs in 8 counties, and N8II with 10 Qs in 7 counties. In total 243 different calls made it into our log.

On Sunday a route plan in ADA county didn't work out. Way too much powerline noise, so we had to take a longer route into the next county which made us fall behind our operating plan. We got even further behind and entered our next to last county, SPO, with just over an hour to go. Lots of folks must have needed SPO on CW because the pileup was nearly more than I could handle. We got to our last county, PEND, with only 40 minutes to go compared to our planned one hour to finish up the Party. Seemed like even more folks wanted PEND than SPO. Either folks gave up or I was able to work the pileup down. I sent the first CQ in PEND and 16 minutes later I had 29 Qs in the log with no additional CQs.

You don't get many visitors doing mobile, but this year we got two sets. The first was on Saturday as were leaving the KLI/BEN county line. We had been operating on the county line, a gravel road leading to a house about a 1/4 mile away. A car pulled up and inquired what we were doing. We told him that folks all over the USA were wanting to talk to folks in all the WA counties. That seemed to satisfy his curiosity. The second set was a couple that had been behind us on the way downhill from the top of the pass in FER county mid-day Sunday. They passed us when we got down in the valley. We caught up to them as the Keller Ferry approached our side of the Columbia River. On the ferry they asked about the big antenna on my truck. Jay and I had a nice conversation with them about the Salmon Run and ham radio.

The rig was a KX2 and KXPA at 100 Watts to a Scorpion 680 antenna mounted in the middle of the Ford Ranger's bed. We logged using N1MM+.

We had a great time and thank everyone who worked us and those who tried, too.

Pictures and comments from along our route.