2002 CQP - Fall in Mono
 

This was our 11th year operating a county expedition from Mammoth Lakes in Mono County.  When I arrived on Thursday before CQP, there was 2” of fresh snow on the ground.  Fortunately the WX warmed up and Friday antenna raising was done with the help of a beautiful clear Sierra fall day. 

Once again we had our traditional pre-CQP warm up dinner at the local Chart House Restaurant. We linked up for the third year with another Mono County expedition, W6M (W7AB & W7FD).

Every year we try to improve on the mix and placement of the antennas.  This year we had 3 element wire beams for 15 & 20, a 3 element yagi for 10, 2 dipoles for 40 & 80 plus an 8JR all band array.  The 10M yagi was on a 30ft push up mast and all the other wire antennas were 50 to 70 ft up in the pine trees.  Everything worked great except for one of the borrowed amps.  So we were barefoot on 10M and 80M, but it probably didn’t change things too much.  Condx often seemed to be a struggle, especially on 20M.  We only worked a handful of EU on Sunday AM.

Too bad the band conditions weren't as beautiful as the fall in Mono County.  Our score was about 4% below last year.  We improved on 80, 40 and 15, but loss ground on 20 and 10.  Our PCs were networked with shared serial numbers, but we had some start-up problems that kept us off 15 & 20 for the first ½ hour of the contest.  Near the end of the contest I called N6ED on 15M CW and gave him my #2978 and he gave me his #2475.  He had me repeat my # three times.  Guess he didn’t know we were multi-multi and his Single Op score was still a winner.

The Eastern Sierra in the fall sure is a pretty place to do anything and especially a fun event like CQP.  And a special thanks to Randy (W6SW) who had to break his streak of 10 years CQP in Mono, but let us borrow all his equipment & antennas including his trusty sling-slot.

 







73, Jim (W6KC), John (W6JTB), Dennis (K6JI) & Ron (WQ6X)

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