For the last couple of years we’ve been going on a short camping trip the first weekend in may, this happens to be on or near Joy’s Birthday. Its about time to get the camper our and get it on the road, though usually it’s already been with me up to the Jet Boat Races a couple weeks prior. But the first weekend of may the bulk of Joy’s classes are over and before the onslaught of her having to grade portfolios begins. This trip is just to hide… Get a little time away from everything and relax around a campfire for three days. No backpacking, hiking, fishing, photography or any of the normal work that accompanies a camping trip, just relaxing. Eat, Sleep, kick the fire, eat, sleep, read, kick the fire, eat, sleep… Last year it rained the entire weekend, it was great! This year, it rained, snowed and just about everything else.

This weekend also happens to be a ham radio contest, the 7th area call district QSO Party (7QP). I only worked the contest for a couple of hours total, but had some good contacts. It was also a great chance to think about and plan for Field Day.

I had planned to work until I got a contact in every 7-land state; Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana. I thought I was done after making a contact into Wyoming which was a tough find, I even shut off the radio and power to get ready for bed. But I wanted to count states and contacts before so my wife and I read through the list, both realizing that I hadn’t made a contact with another Idaho station. It wasn’t going to be very easy either, most of the folks I had talked to told me I was the first Idaho station they heard. But I turned everything back on and searched 80 meters for a local. Eventually I heard KE7ADU from up in Boundary County (350 miles north). He was replying to stations calling CQ and working his way up the band, I went a few khz up the and started calling him, thankfully he found me and I got my own state. With Idaho on the log, it really was time for bed. As it is now. Keep reading for station/log info >>

I was running my Yaesu FT-897 (only 20w for most contacts) and LDG Z-11 ProII Tuner into homebrew G5RV-ish dipole at 50 feet. Power was via Battery on the camper and solar charge, though with the snow and rain, didn’t get much out of it.

All in all I worked 68 Contacts (some count twice) working 16 States and 2 Provinces, not bad for a couple hours of kinda sorta operating.

40m N7EKD Oregon

40m W7RN Nevada

40m K7XV Utah

40m WA5ZUP New Mexico

40m KF7P Utah

40m WA6ST California

40m KK7OO Washington

40m KF6T California

40m K7EAR Arizona

40m VE5BCS Saskatchewan, Canada

40m W6AFA California

40m K0JJ Oregon

40m N7NKO Washington

40m N7BV Washington

40m WX7P Washington

40m WI7F/M Washington

40m K7LY Arizona

40m KI7MT Montana

40m KK7AC Arizona

40m WQ7A Washington

40m W9QL Illinois

40m W0BH Kansas

40m W7SUR Utah

40m WA5KTC Oregon

40m AC0PR North Dakota

40m NO7Z Oregon

40m KF7GYE Arizona

40m AE6YB California

40m K7IA Arizona

40m K6GDP Oregon

40m KE7AUB Oregon

40m N7TT Washington

40m VE7CV British Columbia, Canada

40m NN7ZZ Utah

40m N7GTE Utah

40m K0GM Colorado

40m N5KGY Mississippi

40m KE7YF Arizona

40m KD7SWP Oregon

40m WB6OKG Colorado

40m W5IAY New Mexico

40m W6JEO California

40m N7RN Arizona

40m K7UN Oregon

40m N6KD California

40m W6NF Nevada

40m AA6XV California

40m KB7PA Arizona

40m KG6WHA California

40m AD7MQ Montana

40m WA0AUX Iowa

40m N7UR Nevada

40m WA7LZC Arizona

40m WB0YCQ California

40m KG6YPH California

40m WB4UIC Wyoming

80m K7HPT Washington

80m WA7SRZ Washington

40m K7L Arizona

80m N6WM California

80m N7LE Oregon

80m NB7O Oregon

80m KE7ADU Idaho

Tags: 7QP

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Ham Radio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.