Ohio QSO Party
Call: W1NN/M
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: W1NN
Class: Mobile LP
QTH: OH
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 224 23
40: 217 52
20: 79 20
15:
10:
--------------------
Total: 520 95 CW Mults = 67 Ph Mults = 41 Total Score = 122,364
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
Comment (Very Long)
This was another operation using a rental car. My little manual transmission
Acura just doesnâ??t make it as a mobile vehicle.
I picked up the rental car at noon on Friday but didnâ??t get around to hooking
things up until after 5 PM. Iâ??ve done this enough times that it goes fairly
quickly. Itâ??s basically a matter of hooking up the power cable to the
battery, hooking up a good ground for the rig and mag mounts, hooking up the
keyer power to the cigarette lighter, putting the operating table (one I made
up especially for mobile work) in the passenger seat, and putting the mag
mounts on the roof and trunk. By 7 PM or so I had everything installed and got
a quick report from a South American on 20 to see that I was getting out.
The big challenge is to make sure that you take everything you might need,
because once youâ??re out in the boonies and discover that you forgot something
you need, youâ??re out of luck. I usually end up taking about three boxes of
â??just in caseâ?? stuff. â?? tools, extra coax, tape, parts, spare resonators,
batteries, paper towells, etc. The final 3.5 hours of this contest take place
after dark, so itâ??s important to take various kinds of flashlights so you can
see what youâ??re doing while operating and logging and in case you have to
change antennas or make repairs in the dark.
Over the past year, I have been thinking about a way to operate SO2R from the
car, so this time, at the last minute, I got the second rig and associated
wires and cables ready and put them in the car. I also made up a little wooden
shelf from three small pieces of plywood so that I could stack up the rigs on my
operating table. I decided that if I had time after arriving at my starting
location, I would try to hook up the second rig.
I woke up around 5:30 on Saturday and finished my preparations. The XYL fixed
up a cooler filled with food and water and I was on the road by about 8:20. My
planned starting point was at the four county corner of Henry, Wood, Putnam and
Hancock. This was a drive of around 120 miles from my QTH over mostly two-lane
roads. This spot was far from any towns and I was a little concerned that some
of the roads in that area would be dirt or gravel, but fortunately everything
was paved. I arrived just about 10:50. There was a small church with a nice
parking lot on the Wood county corner of the intersection so I made a mental
note to return to that spot when it was time to operate from Wood and went off
to find a place in Henry where I could start the contest.
This is where I often have real problems. A lot of rural Ohio roads have
culverts on both sides and it can be tough to find a decent place to pull off
the road. Ideally you want to be away from power lines, peopleâ??s houses, out
of the sun, and on a level surface. I drove 2-3 miles into Henry but couldnâ??t
find anything decent. I finally settled for a spot just off the road beside a
cornfield. It was away from power lines but it was at a fairly steep angle and
it put me right in the sunlight. It helped that there was almost no traffic in
that area.
At this point I had just about an hour before the contest started so I decided
to set up the second rig and give mobile SO2R a try. This involved hooking up
a second power cable to the battery and setting up my little wooden shelf. The
older rig, the Yaesu FT-757, went on the table, the u-shaped shelf around it,
and the ICOM 706 on top of the shelf. I could see right away that this was not
going to work very well. With the car at an angle, the shelf kept sliding
toward the passenger door. I tried to stabilize it with duct tape but it was
not holding very well. I really needed to nail the shelf to the table but this
would involve taking everything out of the car and nailing the shelf to the
table from the bottom, but there was not time. I managed to get everything
hooked up and working but it would not be safe to drive any distance like this,
so I decided that I would have to abandon this after the first three counties
(which involved almost no driving).
Hooking up the second rig ate up most of the time I had planned to use for
eating a sandwich and double-checking the tuning on several antennas, so at the
start of the contest I was trying to gulp down my sandwich and hoping that the
settings on the antennas from my last mobile outing were still okay. It was
hotter than blazes and I was sweating and my logsheet was sticking to my right
arm, so I was not very comfortable. Yes, I did say logsheet. I do not log or
send CW with a computer while mobiling, so I have to fool with pencils, paper,
clipboards, keyers, paddles, etc. I decided long ago that solo op mobiling and
computers were just not compatible. I use a memory keyer and I reprogram the CQ
message and the â??TUâ?? message when I enter each county, so I just need to
touch a button for everything but the other stationâ??s call and my exchange.
But I do have to write down QSO information on paper. The problems involved in
this are reading my own writing after the contest, making sure that I note band
and mode changes, and making sure that a completed logsheet does not go flying
out the window.
I wanted to operate without the air conditioner so I would not have to run the
engine all the time, but after the first two hours I abandoned this plan and
turned on the air conditioner. It was just too hot sitting there in the August
sun. Fortunately, the engine noise was minimal and comfort was restored.
Cloudy days are much easier for mobiling.
I began the contest with the 40 hamstick on the top mag mount and the 20
hamstick on the trunk mag mount, with one hooked up to the first rig and one to
the second rig. I found out right away that there was too much interference to
listen on one rig while sending on the other, so a large part of the reason for
using two rigs was lost. Maybe someday with bandpass filters? So this mess of
wires and junk on my operating table was basically just giving me an ability to
make instant QSYs. And I had only one memory keyer so I had to send manually
with one of the rigs. This proved to be very tiring and I found that I was
favoring the band with the memory keyer. The extra paddle and microphone for
the second rig took up a great deal of space on my table and I had to switch
paddles each time I changed bands. Worst of all, I found that I had no room
for my antenna tuner, an essential tool for QSYing back and forth between 40 CW
and 40 phone. After messing with this setup for an hour or two, I finally
decided to tear it down and go back to a standard one rig operation. SO2R
mobile might be feasible, but itâ??s going to take a little more planning and
preparation than I had given it. But it was a useful exercise and I have a
better idea now what needs to be done. Maybe someday....
I had planned a route that would take me through 12 counties, ending in my home
county of Medina. Since I operate by myself, my basic strategy is to minimize
the driving and try maximize my score by building a big multiplier, which
basically means spending a lot of time on phone. I allocate more time in the
counties at the beginning of my route for this purpose. The OQP does not have
a â??solo mobileâ?? category, so I have little hope of winning against the
two-man teams, but I enjoy trying and sometimes I do pretty well. Strategy also
depends on the sunspot cycle. When you canâ??t work the in-state mults on 40,
you have to spend a lot of time on 75 and 80. The rate almost always drops
sharply when working phone, and you just have to hope that the extra mults are
going to offset the lower rate. 80 CW is usually very productive during the
last three hours of the contest when the mobiles can usually be heard pretty
well and the fixed stations are thirsty for new stations to work, so I try to
have a route that takes me into at least four counties during the last two
hours with little driving.
Conditions seemed fairly decent this year, certainly better than in recent
years, although still far from ideal. 40 was long and I worked few counties
there, but there always seemed to be plenty of out of state stations to work.
20 was also productive but for some reason I didnâ??t spend as much time there
as I usually do. The WX in Ohio was perfect (but too much bright sun) and
there were no thunderstorms in the area, so that was a break. There was a
steady S7 QRN on 80 during the afternoon and evening, but I think it improved
later at night.
I thought activity was also very good this year and a lot of out-of-state ops
seemed to operate the whole contest and many were producing very good scores.
I hope some of them managed to get an Ohio county sweep. Especially noteworthy
were K4BAI and N4PN, both of whom I worked from 11 counties. They seemed to
have a pipeline into Ohio on all three bands and took advantage of it. There
were another 15-20 stations that I worked in at least 8-10 counties. Iâ??m
glad that theyâ??re finding enough activity to keep them interested throughout
the day. I should also mention the good DX activity. I had 10 different
European calls in my log. Most noteworthy was OK2EC, whom I worked two or
three times on 40, the last contact at almost 0300 zulu! Finally, a word of
thanks to KL8DX, who was very loud later in the afternoon and gave me AK on
both modes.
I worked very few mobiles, as usual. One Q with K8MR, 2-3 with W8AV, and maybe
3 with Jeff, W9MSE, who apparently drove right past me on Route 224 when I was
parked at the side of the road. Jeff is a mobile addict and has participated
in a great many mobile contests. Judging from the 3830 comments, he must have
had a very good CW total. I heard K8RYU on 75 phone but he was not CQing so I
never worked him.
Unfortunately, there are always a lot of mults available that I never work
because I am too weak to get through their pileups. There were several fixed
stations in needed counties but it seemed like there were always 3-4 other
stations calling them. Unless an op is especially listening for weak mobiles,
they're not likely to pick me up until nobody else is calling. So I pretty
much don't even bother to call these stations unless no one else is calling.
That's life as a weak mobile. Calling CQ is much more productive, but it's
mostly the out of staters who call.
Spending 14-15 hours sitting in a car can be tough on the rear end, and there
are many frustrations such as getting lost, missing a turn, no county line
markers, not being able to find a good place to operate, coping with a
misbehaving antenna, low hanging branches, headlight glare, sun glare, needing
to find a bathroom, sunburn, rain, bugs, thirst, hunger, changing antennas,
etc. etc. etc. But it is extremely challenging and I have not found a more
fun radio activity in my 50 years as a ham. If you havenâ??t tried it, you
donâ??t know what youâ??re missing.
73, Hal W1NN
Counties, (QSOS), (minutes in county), bands and modes operated
HENR (87) (121), 7 CW, 7 SSB, 14 CW, 14 SSB
WOOD (92) (90), 80 CW, 80 SSB, 14 CW, 7 CW
PUTN (77) (93) 80 CW, 80 SSB, 7 CW, 20 CW, 20 SSB
HANC (55) (70) 40 CW, 40 SSB, 20 CW
SENE (26) (23) 40 CW
WYAN (26) (42) 80 CW, 40 CW
CRAW (53) (75) 80 CW, 80 SSB, 40 CW
RICH (45) (42) 80 CW, 80 SSB, 40 CW
HURO (49) (35) 80 CW, 40 CW
ASHL (39) (24) 80 CW, 40 CW
LORA (33) (22) 80 CW
MEDI (32) (21) 80 CW
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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