K6QLF Runs a Memorable 1st-time ever CQP Event

Every CQP operation I've ever been a part of has had an overall theme (or flavor) about it; from the
4-GiGs at Mammoth Lakes (W6ML), to the 3 GiGs w/N6GEO in MODOC county, to the Multi-OP
and Single-OP records from Tuolumne county (TUOL) and the records set in Contra Costa (CCOS),
and of course, remoting in to assist NX6T in Fallbrook while running CQP from East Bay counties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For 2021, a new set of opportunities made possible a unique Multi-Operator operation introducing members of the Amateur Radio Club in Alameda (ARCA) to the world of Radiosport (in general)
and the California QSO Party (in particular).  LooKing for a SAFE location to run the 30-hour
event, it was suggested that we coordinate with the California Historical Radio Society (CHRS),
whose museum JUST happens to be 2-blocks from my office in Alameda.

After presenting the idea to members of the ARCA club, ARCA Secretary Zach and I as ARCA President made a visit  to the CHRS museum after our Saturday morning board meeting and met with Steve Kushman, President of CHRS that afternoon.  Steve saw the PR-benefits of holding an ARCA event at their location and gave the go-ahead for a process which involved rallying various people at ARCA in conjunction with assistance from the tireless volunteer workers at CHRS.

The overall goal(s) for CQP included putting Alameda county on the radio, introducing newer-licensed club members to the world of radiosport contesting, running a Field Day (FD) style operation and testing out new computer/radio (CAT) configurations (N1MM+ was recently installed on the newer Toshiba WIN-10 laptop.

While other club members provided setup assistance on Friday and logging assistance on Saturday,
it was Roger W6QLF and Ron WQ6X who actually made contacts on the radio.  Being a heavy CW operator, Ron put most of those 3-pointer contacts in the log and was backup operator for the Ssb mode.  Roger had his first experience of what it's like to run an Ssb pileup and absolutely loved it. 
For 2022 Field Day, he is going to be an accomplished pileup runner.

Because CQP is a Ssb/Cw contest, operators get to sit down and run their favorite mode; mine is of course Cw, however, I had a LoT of Fun on Ssb
as well.  

Unfortunately, band conditions were typical for contest weekends - horrible and noisy, creating a signal copy-challenge for newer operators.

We utilized an OCFD dipole atop the CHRS building with the caveat that physically, it is close to numerous sources of electronic noise from all the electronic equipment in the building.  When the CHRS volunteers shut everything down and left the building the noise-level dropped from S9+ to about S5 to S7.  We also had ran with a classic Butternut HF2-V vertical (for 80 & 40 meters). 
While verticals tend to be more noisy antennas, being 30+ feet from the building, the HF2-V was in many cases quieter than the OCFD, technically 6 feet from the electronic devices in the building.

Running CQP from the outdoor location at CHRS felt just like past Field Days.  Eventually, Roger (W6QLF) turned the station over to me.  I ran 40 & 80 meters, Cw and Ssb alternately until about 12:30am when I covered the station over and left the premises.  When I came back at 9am, the CHRS people were just getting back to their work of preparing classic military radio equipment
for an upcoming auction-style event; we got back to the work of putting QSOs in the K6QLF log.

Our goal of besting the current county record for Multi-Single Alameda county, was easily accomplished; actually, a no-Brainer.  While we are to be commended for that, we were easily
out-operated by the team of W6TCP up on the west-side of the mountain overlooking Alameda county.  Having a plethora of operators, antennas and elevation going for them, they nearly 5X'd
our score.  At least we can be proud of taking a 2nd place for Alameda county.

Now that we have some experience running K6QLF in a CQP operation, we can apply this knowledge and ability to an even better operation for 2022 - things are already being planned in that direction.

DiD YOU operate the California QSO Party back in October?

Is K6QLF in YOUR LoG?

NEWSFLASH (Feb-10-2022):
The CQP results have just been published. 
The 2nd-place win for K6QLF has been confirmed.