2024 7th Call Area QSO Party

Results

On May 4, Jay, WA0WWW, and I put one MT county, twenty-one ID, one OR, and one WA counties on the air.  After 17 and a half hours of operating time, we had 708 Qs and 59 mults in the log for a claimed score of 125,316 for our best 7QP in the previous six times.

We started on Monida Pass which is the MTBEA/IDCLA county line where in 30 minutes we collected 56 Qs.  From there we meandered our way westerly through Idaho to ORMAL then north to my home in IDLAT at midnight and the end of the party.  Our best county was IDADM where in almost two hours we made 79 Qs (it is a big county and one cannot go fast).  The lowest QSO count was in ORMAL with a measly four Qs.

The weather was nearly ideal this year with no rain like last year.  We did have stong winds most of the day until mid afternoon in IDOWY.  A bit of drizzle in IDWAS and IDADM, but it wasn't a deterrent.

We were able to keep to our schedule until IDADA when a road closure resulted in us being 20 minutes late into IDBOI.  Quite difficult to make up that much lost time.  We cut short our supper time stop in IDWAS and got back on schedule.

This year we had to use hamsticks for 15, 20, and 40 m because my Scorpion antenna wasn't available.  Except for the longer time to change bands, the hamstick seemed to perform well.  20 m wasn't very productive after IDJEF so we spent a lot of time on 15 m during the daylight hours.  About 0300 GMT in IDADM, we switched to 40 m and stayed there the rest of the party.  Our band counts were

Band QSOs Mults

40 133 7

20 321 36

15 254 16

Total 708 59

Our most frequent customer was Jeff, N8II, in WV with 14 Qs.  Others with 8 or more Qs were Laci, OM2VL with 12 Qs; Drew, K9CW in IL with 10; Joe, AA2IL, in CA with 8; Lar, K7SV, in VA with 8; Paul, NS2N in NY with 8; and Ed, W5TM, in OK with 8.  15 m was good for DX most of the day with OM2VL, DL3GA, KH6AQ, KL7SB, RZ1OA, HA3NU, G3WFP, SM3DMP, JN1CNJ SM2BLY, and SM6CUK all making our log.

A special Thank You to the 29 stations who kept me occupied the last hour of the party when we were in IDNEZ, WAWHI, and IDLAT.  Of those 29, AJ6V, N7A, and N7EPD were there in all three counties while N7N, KE0TT, KA0PQW, NX6T, and KH6AQ were there in two of the last three.

The rig was an Elecraft KX2 and an Elecraft KXPA100 to 15, 20, or 40 m hamsticks on a mag mount atop my 2002 Ford Ranger.  We used N1MM+ on an HP laptop with full rig control and a MORTTY for CW keying.

Jay and I thank all who contacted us as well as those who tried but didn't make the log.

Pictures and comments from along the route.