Florida QSO Party
Call: K4FQP/M
Operator(s): K5KG
Station: K4FQP
Class: MobileMixed LP
QTH: FL
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40: 97 0
20: 1467 176
15: 86 16
10: 7 0
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Total: 1657 192 CW Mults = 71 Ph Mults = 48 Total Score = 834,428
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
Operators: George K5KG and Jim VE7ZO
Well, it certainly has been a treat for me to participate as an FCG mobile and
experience what I had head so much about. It is a great contest and as it seems
to have gained the critical mass that makes the fun and participation grow
exponentially. Congratulations to the FCG for the promotion and execution of
this terrific event.
Strategy:
Although most of our contesting pleasure is derived from the grace and
subtleties of the CW mode, George and I decided that we would attempt to balance
phone activity for overall score and to provide opportunity for out of state
operators to work some of the rarer counties on a different mode. We ended up
making Q?s on all bands but on 10M and 40M, it was CW only. By far the most
successful run on SSB was by George on 20M Sunday morning, perhaps because the
band had not become crowded enough to overwhelm our puny signal. As conditions
and activity grew throughout the day, any effort to sustain runs on phone was
thwarted by base stations, although a few diligent ops did find us. During
these excursions, we never got the sense that we were being spotted in the same
way as on CW, and the rates reflected that. As a final note, in spite of the
excellent publicity and recognition factor that the K4FQP call sign generates,
it is a mouthful on phone and was reminiscent of having to use S581I during an
earlier time. We yearned for the simplicity of the N4 Trembling Oscillator call
sign being used solely on CW.
Equipment:
It is hard not to say too many good things about the organizational ability and
commitment of George to providing a first rate station. His DX experience has
ensured that there are multiple back ups and contingency plans for each
emergency anticipated. We had three selectable verticals mounted on the roof of
the Explorer with one position being either 10M or 40M. A laptop with external
keyboard was used for logging with WriteLog driving an ICOM 756 Pro-II. The
station ran well during the contest with a couple of antenna glitches only as
the verticals on 40M and 15M would lose resonance periodically. By far the
biggest hindrance was the S6 noise from the DC/DC converter for the laptop that
we never did wholly cure on 15M. In order to hear properly on that band, the
converter had to be disconnected and we occasionally stopped the car to dig out
the weak ones. There were a number of multipliers lost in that noise, in
particular KH6D?
Routing:
The severe storms on Friday night and Saturday morning centered in the lower
half of the state caused us to reverse our operating plans on day 1 to the
northern half. Luckily, this did not conflict directly with the planned
activities of the other declared mobile operations. We started in PAS and did a
clockwise pass over the top of the state with a day one objective of 27 counties
but ultimately ended with only 24. Things were going swimmingly until in the
darkness of Palatka we missed a turn and ended up backtracking in the woods of
Flagler and Volusia for several hours. We tried to brighten up overnight in a
Holiday Inn Express but Deltona was a long way from the next day start south of
Osceola. Therefore the clockwise sweep of the southern half of the state was
compromised the next day as well and we activated 17 of the planned 21 counties.
Although we ended up spending more extended time in some counties than we
originally planned, we had decent rates, especially on Saturday night and Sunday
afternoon, so I?m doubtful that the score would have changed appreciably had we
achieved the overall county goals.
The two highlights of the trip occurred in the southern part of the state. One
was when we parked on the top of the levee overlooking Lake Okeechobee, shut the
car off and worked 15M. It was seldom quiet during the trip and this respite
was rare. The second was the trip into Monroe county and moving gators around
so that we could turn the vehicle around. Kinda neat for someone from Northern
Ontario.
Did I mention the last two hours were a gas?
Thanks again, Jim VE7ZO
County Summary:
Cty CW SSB Rate Q/hr
Saturday
PAS 13 156
HER 21 97
SUM 19 114
CIT 38 2 55
MAO 31 155
LEV 43 3 79
ALC 35 2 92
GIL 30 3 94
DIX 27 3 106
LAF 51 13 70
TAY 22 2 80
MAD 22 4 82
SUW 43 2 142
HAM 35 131
CLR 38 10 90
UNI 54 6 106
BAK 18 11 134
NAS 5 120
DUV 20 120
CLA 32 1 73
BRA 29 6 103
PUT 83 6 65
VOL 64 1 120
FLG 49 3 80
Sat Total 822 80
Sunday
ORA 11 94
OSC 29 9 58
BRE 17 9 60
IDR 19 16 131
STL 54 27 107
OKE 53 1 125
MRT 23 1 160
PAL 82 7 74
BRO 23 5 58
DAD 22 9 49
CLR 112 14 79
MON 65 11 76
LEE 93 3 107
HEN 40 200
GLA 75 180
CHA 51 153
DES 66 165
Sun Total 835 112
FQP Total 1661 192
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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