WW7LW Operates in 2017 Salmon Run
In Past years Chuck AC7QN and Rich KR7W operating as WW7LW in the WA State QSO Party - aka Salmon Run - would venture over to the east side of the state as a ROVER (now called EXPEDITION) station visiting 3 or 4 counties- sometimes from a county line. This practice stopped when KR7W sold his old VW EuroVan mobile ham shack.
For the 2016 Salmon Run AC7QN, KR7W and WT7N ventured to Ferry County's San Poil River area and set up a camp site Expedition Station. That effort was fun but didn't provide the previous thrills of quickly setting up, operating for a time, tearing down, driving to a new county or county line, and repeating the process. The stationary expedition station also didn't provide other SR participants a chance to work some of the other hard to get counties. We missed, "Thanks for going there, guys!" kind of appreciative comments.
After many hours of studying Google Earth... our plan was hatched:
Day 1, Friday, Sept 15: From Tacoma... drive 325 miles to Asotin County and spend the night at Chief Timothy State Park- 8 miles W of Clarkston- the most eastern edge of WA State.
Day 2, Saturday, Sept 16:
A. Set up and operate station at the Asotin-Garfield County Line on Highway 12, about 3 miles W of the campground.
B. Continue W on Highway 12, take a 10 mile northern jog on highway 121 to Whitman County, to Central Ferry at Lake Bryan-a Army Corps of Engineers conservation area just north of the Snake River to set up and operate a couple of hours
C. Return to Highway 12 heading W to Columbia County at Lyons Ferry. Camp and operate from KOA tent campsite.
Day 3, Sunday, Sept 17:
A. Drive approx. 70 miles north along Highway 21 to the Lincoln-Adams County Line. Set up station along Davis Road. At 5 PM, drive back to Tacoma.
A new operating position was created in the tailgate area of KR7W's Subaru Forester to replace the VW EuroVan shack. A slide out desk top- similar to an older house kitchen breadboard- was fabricated and installed. Ham station equipment was housed in a home-built plywood Go-Box (GatorBox like). A roof rack was fabricated to house items so the car wouldn't be chock full of stuff to get in the way of radio operations. A holder for quick deployment of the 11 ft chain link fence rail mast was added to the roof rack.
Here, KR7W is at the controls on the ASO-GAR county line. Rig in the box is Elecraft KX3 + 100W KX3PA, LDG antenna tuner, 35A Power Supply, Homebrew amplified speaker, and homebrew PC to rig interface. It sits on the pull out breadboard desk top.
Expedition car sits in county line pull-out. The station is AC powered by Honda 1KW Generator. The antenna is 3 band light weight FAN dipole. Mast is a 23 ft fiberglass windsock pole slid onto a 11 ft chain link fence rail positioned into a custom under the tire pipe mount.
Next stop: Whitman County. We parked in a turn around drive area that looks to be a defunct camping park. This place was Oasis like with large shady trees next to Bryan Lake (Snake River) vs wheat fields for miles and miles.
On the air just before 1300 Local Pacific Time and operated for about 2.5 hours. 28 QSOs were made on 75M SSB and
7Qs on 20M CW. At 1430 LT, we headed to COLumbia County.
Our destination was the Lyons Ferry KOA campground- which is down hill in the gully of the Snake River. Upon reaching our campsite it was apparent that we couldn't erect our 120 ft antenna here without interfering with fellow campers. A wide open spot was found back up the hill adjacent to the highway with lots of room for our antenna and away from curious campers.
At COLumbia County- we were on the air at 1725 LT under cloudy skies. 59 SSB and 8 CW QSOs were made- all on 80 meters.
Above, AC7QN in control. Here in COL County (our 4th county)- we began to encounter hams who tell us, "Oh WW7LW- You are a dupe". We ask, "Yah, but what county did we report?" They say, "Whitman or Garfield or Asotin". We say, "But now we are in Columbia County". "OK Fine Business, got it. Where are you heading next?" Quite a few hams wanted to know when we'd be arriving at ADAms and LINcoln counties the next day and what frequency to find us on.
We operated until 8:30 PM LT. It was very dark at this location. Super bright LED headlamps were a must have item here.
Sunday morning we leisurely shoved off from Lyons Ferry KOA and headed north to Highway 21. About 70 miles later we turned off the highway onto the ADAms - LINcoln county line, aka Davis Road- then into a wheat field following some combine tracks. As promised... at 1100 LT we were set up and on the air.
pl
102 QSOs were made with 51 avid Salmon Run ham from our wheat field QTH. For a while we thought that we were the only hams in Adams and Lincoln counties- but with great effort a QSO with K7TQ on 20M CW in Adams Co. was made.
Towards the end of our stay a loud signal pounced on us. It was WW7D/M, Darrel who reported that he was on the ADAms-LINcoln county line. I asked his location and he reported Highway 21 and Davis Road- 1/4 mile from us. Darrel was roving as a mobile station and he had more county lines to visit with one hour to go... otherwise I am sure he wudda stopped by for some camp stove coffee. KR7W operates Morse above.
Chuck AC7QN... Still having fun... At 1600 LT, after 5 hours at our wheat field QTH- 102 QSOs were made. Our grand total was 249 QSOs from the 6 counties we visited... and if it matters- the score was 25,431 points... which are not spendable at Starbucks or HRO.
Just like in previous years... no Clean Sweep for us- as we were missing ASOtin and GARfield Counties- the first two counties we visited. But 37 out of 39 counties ain't bad for 100 watts and a low elevation antenna.
Chances are high that we'll be back next year to achieve that Clean Sweep. Thanks to WWDX Club for organizing this great ham radio event. Thanks to the 3920 Watering Hole frequency quasi-net control stations that helped us with our fun.
Written by kr7w.
For the 2016 Salmon Run AC7QN, KR7W and WT7N ventured to Ferry County's San Poil River area and set up a camp site Expedition Station. That effort was fun but didn't provide the previous thrills of quickly setting up, operating for a time, tearing down, driving to a new county or county line, and repeating the process. The stationary expedition station also didn't provide other SR participants a chance to work some of the other hard to get counties. We missed, "Thanks for going there, guys!" kind of appreciative comments.
After many hours of studying Google Earth... our plan was hatched:
Day 1, Friday, Sept 15: From Tacoma... drive 325 miles to Asotin County and spend the night at Chief Timothy State Park- 8 miles W of Clarkston- the most eastern edge of WA State.
Day 2, Saturday, Sept 16:
A. Set up and operate station at the Asotin-Garfield County Line on Highway 12, about 3 miles W of the campground.
B. Continue W on Highway 12, take a 10 mile northern jog on highway 121 to Whitman County, to Central Ferry at Lake Bryan-a Army Corps of Engineers conservation area just north of the Snake River to set up and operate a couple of hours
C. Return to Highway 12 heading W to Columbia County at Lyons Ferry. Camp and operate from KOA tent campsite.
Day 3, Sunday, Sept 17:
A. Drive approx. 70 miles north along Highway 21 to the Lincoln-Adams County Line. Set up station along Davis Road. At 5 PM, drive back to Tacoma.
A new operating position was created in the tailgate area of KR7W's Subaru Forester to replace the VW EuroVan shack. A slide out desk top- similar to an older house kitchen breadboard- was fabricated and installed. Ham station equipment was housed in a home-built plywood Go-Box (GatorBox like). A roof rack was fabricated to house items so the car wouldn't be chock full of stuff to get in the way of radio operations. A holder for quick deployment of the 11 ft chain link fence rail mast was added to the roof rack.
Here, KR7W is at the controls on the ASO-GAR county line. Rig in the box is Elecraft KX3 + 100W KX3PA, LDG antenna tuner, 35A Power Supply, Homebrew amplified speaker, and homebrew PC to rig interface. It sits on the pull out breadboard desk top.
Expedition car sits in county line pull-out. The station is AC powered by Honda 1KW Generator. The antenna is 3 band light weight FAN dipole. Mast is a 23 ft fiberglass windsock pole slid onto a 11 ft chain link fence rail positioned into a custom under the tire pipe mount.
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On the air just before 1300 Local Pacific Time and operated for about 2.5 hours. 28 QSOs were made on 75M SSB and
7Qs on 20M CW. At 1430 LT, we headed to COLumbia County.
Our destination was the Lyons Ferry KOA campground- which is down hill in the gully of the Snake River. Upon reaching our campsite it was apparent that we couldn't erect our 120 ft antenna here without interfering with fellow campers. A wide open spot was found back up the hill adjacent to the highway with lots of room for our antenna and away from curious campers.
At COLumbia County- we were on the air at 1725 LT under cloudy skies. 59 SSB and 8 CW QSOs were made- all on 80 meters.
Above, AC7QN in control. Here in COL County (our 4th county)- we began to encounter hams who tell us, "Oh WW7LW- You are a dupe". We ask, "Yah, but what county did we report?" They say, "Whitman or Garfield or Asotin". We say, "But now we are in Columbia County". "OK Fine Business, got it. Where are you heading next?" Quite a few hams wanted to know when we'd be arriving at ADAms and LINcoln counties the next day and what frequency to find us on.
We operated until 8:30 PM LT. It was very dark at this location. Super bright LED headlamps were a must have item here.
Sunday morning we leisurely shoved off from Lyons Ferry KOA and headed north to Highway 21. About 70 miles later we turned off the highway onto the ADAms - LINcoln county line, aka Davis Road- then into a wheat field following some combine tracks. As promised... at 1100 LT we were set up and on the air.
pl
102 QSOs were made with 51 avid Salmon Run ham from our wheat field QTH. For a while we thought that we were the only hams in Adams and Lincoln counties- but with great effort a QSO with K7TQ on 20M CW in Adams Co. was made.
Towards the end of our stay a loud signal pounced on us. It was WW7D/M, Darrel who reported that he was on the ADAms-LINcoln county line. I asked his location and he reported Highway 21 and Davis Road- 1/4 mile from us. Darrel was roving as a mobile station and he had more county lines to visit with one hour to go... otherwise I am sure he wudda stopped by for some camp stove coffee. KR7W operates Morse above.
Chuck AC7QN... Still having fun... At 1600 LT, after 5 hours at our wheat field QTH- 102 QSOs were made. Our grand total was 249 QSOs from the 6 counties we visited... and if it matters- the score was 25,431 points... which are not spendable at Starbucks or HRO.
Just like in previous years... no Clean Sweep for us- as we were missing ASOtin and GARfield Counties- the first two counties we visited. But 37 out of 39 counties ain't bad for 100 watts and a low elevation antenna.
Chances are high that we'll be back next year to achieve that Clean Sweep. Thanks to WWDX Club for organizing this great ham radio event. Thanks to the 3920 Watering Hole frequency quasi-net control stations that helped us with our fun.
Written by kr7w.
