The 1999 Califormina QSO Party

The 1999 CA QSO party in October was one fun event. This year I stuck mostly to 15 meters, with only a couple of QSOs on 20 meters and none on 40 meters. The strategy was not so much to play to contest as to work counties I still needed in the state. The basic power level was 500 mWatts. I went up to 5 Watts when needed. I never had to go above 5 watts for any QSO. Thus the log for the contest went in as a QRP entry.

The final take? Well of the six counties I need to have work the state for USA-CA the second time, I got five. If there is any out there in Yolo County it is the last I need in CA. On the QRP front I came up with ten new ones. So now I need only seven counties to have worked every county in the state QRP. While at under I watt there were 18 new ones. This leaves 23 needed to have worked them all at under a watt.

The equipment for the contest was the Wilderness Sierra, the Norcal key, the Tick 1 keyer and a homebrew dipole. Except for the power supply this is a complete homebrew station. Now all I have to do is pull out my gel cell and I can claim it is a total homebrew effort and solar powered.