Florida QSO Party
Call: NO5W
Operator(s): NO5W
Station: NO5W
Class: SO Mobile+DriverCW LP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40: 351
20: 790
15:
10:
--------------------
Total: 1141 0 CW Mults = 41 Ph Mults = 0 Total Score = 187,124
Club:
Comments:
Radio: IC-7000 x 2
Antenna: HI-Q 4/80 with MFJ 1924 controller
Software: CQ/X de NO5W ver. 1.7
Serial Keyer: WinKey by K1EL
GPS: Garmin GPS 18PC
We're on our way back to Houston now with a stop near New Orleans to take care
of some business. The trip odometer is reading about 2500 miles and will be
around 2800 by the time we get back to Houston. About 900 of those miles were
spent having an absolute blast in this year's FQP.
Originally we were going to start the FQP in Pensacola (ESC) and end up with a
vacation in south Florida on Sanibel Island (LEE) but the requirement to be in
New Orleans on Monday following the FQP forced us to rethink the plan and
either cancel the trip or put the vacation on the front end and work the FQP as
we headed back. After a few seconds thought we decided on the latter. One
advantage to this approach was that we were able to scope out part of the FQP
trip on the way down and to test out the software on some of the coastal
counties. But easily the biggest advantage to being in the Fort Myers area
prior to the FQP was the opportunity to have dinner with K5KG, VE7ZO, K8NZ, and
K1TO about midway between Sarasota and Fort Myers on Friday evening before the
FQP. Thanks guys for taking time out to get together. It was a real treat
discussing mobile contesting over dinner with some real pros.
Conditions seemed to be pretty poor the entire weekend and our numbers were
about 400 shy of our goal of making at least 1500 Qs. Saturday started off
poorly in Collier near Immolokee near the intersection of Highways 82 and 29
with some of the worst line noise I've ever heard. After searching around
unsuccessfully for a relatively noise-free spot and with only a few Qs in the
log we decided to head on out. Things picked up as we headed north with
Charlotte (CHA) being one of our best counties. On I-75 on the northside of
Tampa in Hernando we got delayed about an hour by a traffic jam due to an
accident and about the same time the radio cratered. So we sat in traffic with
a dead radio until we could reach an exit and find a good spot to put in the
spare. With the second radio we decided to turn the output down to 50 watts in
order to improve our chances for remaining on the air until the end of the
contest.
With the exception of Union, Bradford, and Gadsden we covered all of the
advertised counties missing the first two due to driver fatigue late Saturday
and the latter due to my failure to include a brief detour into Gadsden in
Sunday's driving instructions. The following counties were activated with
indicated number of QSOs: Charlotte(54), Columbia(49), Levy(46), Gulf(44),
Hendry(42), Sarasota(40), Pinellas(39), Manatee(39), Alachua(38), Franklin(38),
Calhoun(38), DeSoto(36), Lee(35), Citrus(34), Santa Rosa(33), Hillsborough(32),
Taylor(30), Bay(30), Escambia(29), Gilchrist(29), Liberty(29), Okaloosa(27),
Jackson(27), Suwannee(27), Walton(26), Madison(25), Leon(25), Hamilton(24),
Jefferson(24), Sumter(24), Holmes(22), Pasco(21), Washington(19),
Lafayette(18), Hernando(17), Wakulla(17), Marion(12), Collier(8), Dixie(8).
Best initial ten minute hourly rates were in Charlotte(186), Pinellas(162),
DeSoto(162), Columbia(156), Bay(150), Calhoun(150), and Gulf(150).
Thanks to the following stations for tracking us during most of the weekend and
contributing more than half the Qs: N2CU(34), K5YAA(31), K9LJN(30), K8IR(29),
W8MJ(27), N2NC(25), NS9I(24), VA3DX(23), K4CZ(22), K3TW(20), K3WW(19),
W9RE(19),
K2SX(18), K6LA(18), W7SE(18), K9NW(17), WA2VYA(16), K4LTA(16), K2TA(15),
VE3KP(15), VE1OP(15), VA3DF(15), VE1RGB(14), WA3HAE(13), W8WVU(12), N2CQ(12),
W0NTA(11), K4XU(11), N5PO(10), N8NA(10), CU2JT(10), N6MA(10)
None of this would have been possible without the excellent driving of Keri, my
wife and driver, who did her usual excellent job of keeping us moving in the
right direction on one of the most aggressive routes we've attempted in about
four years of working QSO parties. Just imagine getting behind the wheel at
noon on Saturday and wrapping up Saturday night around 8 pm after about 450
miles. Then getting back behind the wheel at 8 am and staying there until 6 pm
Sunday evening after another 450 miles. I think that's pretty awesome.
Finally thanks to the organizers of FQP for putting on a really fine party. And
thanks also to the other mobiles who create the excitement that makes the FQP
the fun event that it is. We hope to do it again in future years.
73/Chuck/NO5W
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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