This year I wanted to give my three element 20M wire beam a try to take advantage of the improving propagation. I had not used it in 10 years and I forgot how big it was. It didn't fit very well in the space I had available...I couldn't get it that high, it wasn't level (35 ft at the high end and 25 ft at the low end) and it was partially blocked behind a cabin, but it seemed to work pretty well anyway.  All my other antennas were dipoles. Unfortunately, my 10M dipole stopped loading on Saturday afternoon after about 50 QSOs. I had to use my 80M dipole on 10M for the balance of the contest. It would only load to about 500W, but I was still able to get another 140 10M QSOs in the log. Missed Sections: NL, NT, NU, PE

One highlight was making 1,282 CW QSOs, my most ever in CQP, but I was disappointed in not being able to break my all-time best CQP score of 254,562 points from 2021.

And thanks to my neighbor in Mammoth Lakes, Hank, W6SX for helping me resolve several RFI and K4 issues that were part of my portable setup challenges. Also, thanks to N6DE and the NCCC doing another really great job in putting on this CQP.

Rig: K4, KPA1500, wire antennas high in the pine trees plus 8,000 Ft above sea level in Mammoth Lakes on the Eastern side of the beautiful High Sierra

 

All wire Antennas - Ready to be launched in the pine trees			Part of this Year's Support Team
20 Meter Wire Beam and other Wires - The SWR looks good!		CQP 2023 County Expedition Station W6ML in Mammoth Lakes, Mono County