Wow, great fun for the rookies and state QSO party folks this past weekend !!

Stanford W6YX recruited three rookies for this event, one first timer KK6CWV and a Father/Son returning pair Keith KJ6PUO and Peter KJ6PUN.

We started our runs out on 10, 15 and 20 to keep each station well separated from the others and soon realized that 10 was not going to work.  Even though we were making contact with stations in Florida, there were not enough takers to make any good gains in QSO counts.  We moved Peter KJ6PUN from 10 to 20 and his rate picked up significantly.

Amanda KK6CWV/W6YX a tech class op opened on 20 and stayed there through the whole event.  This was her first time operating on the HF bands and she took to it like a fish in water. Rig: Yeasu FT-1000MkV at 100W and a 6-el Mono at 65'.

Keith KJ6PUO and Peter KJ6PUN, returning rookies and father/son pair had their choice of rigs at the open, Keith let Peter pick his station, a K-Line setup with a K3, P3-SVGA. and a 5-el 20m mono at 35'.

Keith settled in on a Yeasu FT-1000MP and a Force12 C31XR for his run on 15.

It didn't take much to coach Amanda into the contest and exchanges, she took notes during our briefing and followed the prescribed exchange and subsequent request for fills to a tee.

Well into the contest, Dave AA6XV came by for a visit and proceeded to assist Peter with pulling calls and exchange information from the noise as well as providing some excellent mentoring on his technique.

Both Keith and Peter bettered their scores from the last time they worked this event and left feeling very satisfied with their accomplishment.

All-in-all, everyone had a great time.

Thanks to the Stanford Amateur Radio Club W6YX for the use of their station and to everyone who supported rookies across the country as participants, coaches and elmers.