Nebraska QSO Party
Call: W0BH/M
Operator(s): W0BH
Station: W0BH/M
Class: Mobile LP
QTH: 17 Nebraska counties
Operating Time (hrs): 9.8
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80: 2 0
40: 81 0
20: 314 191
15: 13 7
10:
6:
2:
----------------------------
Total: 410 198 0 Mults = 56 Total Score = 44,868
Club:
Comments:
Nebraska is a really beautiful state in which to travel (believe it or not), so
my goal over the past number of years has been to enventually visit each of the
counties during Nebraska QSO Party weekend. This year when I pulled out the
map, I noticed numerous wildlife areas in the southeastern part of the state,
so I planned a Nebraska QSO Party route for me and a Nebraska birding
expedition for XYL, Lorna, as an added incentive for driving. It worked!
Unusual (for me) this time, was not worrying about arrival times in counties
and also spending time outside the van enjoying the scenery. The plan was to
drive to different birding areas and let Lorna decide when to leave. I've
found out by trying that mobiles can't win plaques in Nebraska, so the
incentive for me is to attempt to break county records. That often coincided
with Lorna returning back to the van, at which point we moved on to another
county.
Since we weren't on a schedule, we didn't arrive late at Thayer county, we
arrived 30 minutes after the QSO Party started! I pulled over at the Nebraska
border, we switched drivers, and I fired up the equipment which had tested out
perfectly the night before. No keyer. The Logitech K-5 once again decided not
to to power up. After a number of tries and a quick 12V to the plug check, I
pulled out my spare Logitech K-3 keyer and was rewarded with a morse code OK,
so we were off. First in the log this year was KS5A, and more ops quickly
found me, even amidst the Florida QSO Party craziness.
Three quick Saturday stories. Both Lorna and I were really impressed with all
the little protected wildlife areas in each county. Sometimes they were around
lakes, other times protecting prairie, often not very big, always interesting.
A number of these areas were parks with camping. By the entrance to one of
these parks (we think it was Buchard Lake in Pawnee County but forgot to write
it down), was a herd of bison right next to the road. On a tree in front of
the bison was a sign which said, "We deliver buffalo burgers to your campsite."
Not on the hoof, I hope!
In far eastern Nebraska, up against the Missouri River, was Indian Cave State
Park. The sky had started to drizzle and the wind was up because of a nearby
thunderstorm as we wound our way down the canyons and gulleys towards the
river. As we drove, we dodged a number of small branches and twigs brought
down by the wind. At an overlook, we were stopped enjoying the view when a
huge branch crashed down in the forest only a short distance away. A quick
return to the prairie seemed safer, so we headed back up!
Out of the river bottoms, the roads were still slick with rain. Ever vigilant
for birds, Lorna spotted a wild turkey walking slowly and deliberately across
the road. As we sped closer, it was obvious that we either needed to slow down
or the turkey needed to speed up to avoid an unfortunate outcome for the
turkey. Lorna put on the brakes just as the turkey did, but it's feet slid out
from under it and it flipped over on it's back in the middle of the road! We did
miss the turkey, but couldn't stop laughing for quite some time, and I'm sure my
morse code suffered, too.
The NEQP goes all night and we were tired by the time we got back on I-80
heading towards York, so we decided to enjoy a nice supper and stay overnight
in York. Good decision. The next morning, we added four more counties to the
list and finally, at the Clay/Fillmore county line, the pileup I'd been waiting
for appeared. Great fun. It would have lasted longer, but we decided to try
for a few more counties, ending up almost back where we stared at the noon
close. After this trip, I've now covered the southern and central parts of the
state, so next year, we'll likely look northeast, north, or northwest.
Stats
We operated 9 hr 50 min, 608 Qs, 285 unique calls, 2 dupes, 765 miles.
States worked ---> 43 (missed AK DE IN KS ME ND NE)
Canadian worked -> 4 (NS QC ON MB)
DX worked -------> 9 (HI TI DL I LY ON SM SP UA)
NE worked -------> 0
--- CW PH -- TOT
----------------
80 002 000 = 002
40 081 000 = 081
20 314 191 = 505
15 013 007 = 020
----------------
-- 410 198 = 608 Qs and 56 unique mults
-- Final score: 44868
Counties (in visited order)
01 THAY 19
02 JEFF 62 *
03 GAGE 53 *
04 PAWN 32 *
05 RICH 28 *
06 NEMA 16
07 OTOE 29 *
08 JOHN 22
09 LNCS 33
10 SALI 21
11 SEWA 28
12 YORK 35 *
13 FILL 75 *
14 CLAY 82 *
15 ADMS 18
16 WEBS 30 *
17 NUCK 25 *
* broke county record (10)
Special thanks to the following ops for 5 or more contacts:
33: N6MU
18: K7HP KO1U
12: W9OO
11: N5NA
10: W8TM
09: NA5DX
08: N3HOO N3RJ NT5O VA2SG
06: K6WSC W2RR WA7ID
05: K8NYG K8QWY K9AAA LY9A N5XG W0OXJ W4NZ
W0BH Award ------- Winner --- Honorable Mention
-----------------------------------------------
Most overall Qs -> N6MU/33 -- K7HP/18 KO1U/18
Most CW Qs ------> N6MU/18 -- K7HP/14 W9OO/12
Most PH Qs ------> N6MU/15 -- KO1U/09 K7HP/04
Most counties ---> N6MU/14 -- K7HP/12 W9OO/11
It was fun putting Nebraska on again this year. Last year, Lorna forgot her
birding binoculars, but this year she could easily write a story, too, so we'll
declare the 2010 NEQP a success. Thanks to all who participated, and thanks to
the Florida ops who duped us in their logs so we could get more points in
ours.
73, Bob/w0bh and Lorna/k0why
PS
the Kansas QSO Party went really well last year and we're working on making it
even bigger this year. It's set for the last weekend in August with lots of
plaques, Kansas Konsumable awards, a youth category and 105 counties to keep
things interesting. Check out the web site at http://www.ksqsoparty.org/ and
put it on your calendar. It's already on ours!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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