Iowa QSO Party
Call: W0BH
Operator(s): W0BH AD0DX
Station: W0BH
Class: Multi-Op Mobile LP
QTH: 22 Iowa counties
Operating Time (hrs): 8.9
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 132 10
20: 341 140
15: 58 30
10: 22 13
6:
2:
222:
432:
------------------------
Total: 553 193 Mults = 56 Total Score = 72,744
Club:
Comments:
It was Fall Break weekend at Hesston College which just happened to coincide
with the Iowa QSO Party .. too convenient to pass up! Ron/AD0DX had just gotten
his mobile contesting feet wet with me in the Texas QSO Party a few weekends
before, so he jumped at another chance to work those county line pileups. We
quickly put together a 22 county route covering the southwest corner of the
state. Iowa was heavily hit by flooding a few months ago, so checking road
closures was really important. One Interstate was still closed for a stretch,
but we found a route that worked.
The Iowa border appeared just a few minutes late and then we were off.
Conditions were good all day on 40/20, and 15/10 opened up nicely in the
afternoon which gave us some other band options. After a few counties, we had a
nice group waiting for us at lines. John/N6MU quickly figured out that we
weren't too busy to QSY, so we started moving around the bands. Practice makes
perfect, and we certainly got practice! In a number of counties we could make 6
Qs in just over a minute, switching between CW and SSB on 20/15/10. I was hoping
the rest of the gang would catch on, too .. maybe next time, because it was
really fun.
As John's and our Q total climbed, we both noticed that if 10 meters held out,
we might have a change to break a hundred Qs. That would be a personal best for
John, and my previous personal record was 97 over 18 hours with N8II in the 2009
KSQP. We decided to go for it.
All the equipment problems this time happened before the IAQP started. On the
way up, I like to run counties for the county hunters as a way of testing out
the setup in the van. I still hadn't made it out of Kansas when my GPS computer
suddenly went dark. This time a fuse had blown because my car radio and overhead
lights were also off. I normally take GPS computer power off the car battery,
but I rerouted it to the logging computer battery and finished out the run to
Ron's house in Kansas City. He had the right fuse so I didn't even have to
break into my supply, and we had navigation restored. I took a power splitter
off line, and no further problems developed the rest of the weekend.
We had too much fun at county lines, and so found ourselves wondering if we
could still make our last county. With 5 miles to go and 8 minutes left, we
were cutting it pretty close. Ron was driving. I heard him say something, then
the van suddenly decelerated and reversed course. Ron had blown by our last
turn, but the GPS caught it. I'd already done the same thing a few counties
back, so I knew how he felt. Back on track, we arrived in Wayne county with two
minutes left. John had found me on 15 a few minutes previously. He knew when and
where, so we quickly put 5 Qs in the log with 30 seconds to spare. 10m was
going out so we didn't try 10SSB, which left "plenty" of time to work K8QWy,
who did a nice job of finding us in other counties as well. When the dust
settled, 112 Qs and all of our 22 counties were in John's log (and ours, too).
Great job, John! And I'll also say great job, Ron. You know you're getting it
when you can work a CW pileup from a four county line!
Stats
We operated 8.9 hours, 754 Qs, 159 unique calls, 9 dupes
US/VE Worked : 39
TX worked : 17 counties
DX worked : 10 countries (LY DL XE F YV SP SM G OK LU)
Rates
-------------------
1400-1700 : 91 Qs/hr
1700-2000 : 74 Qs/hr
2000-2300 : 84 Qs/hr
Total W0BH/m : 746 Qs, 56 mults = 72,744 points
County Breakdown (in visited order)
Saturday (398 miles in Iowa)
01 FRE 26 Fremont
02 PAG 19 Page
03 MIL 36 Mills
04 MTG 27 Montgomery
05 POT 19 Pottawattamie
06 SHE 54 Shelby
07 CRF 43 Crawford
08 AUD 67 Audubon
09 CAR 35 Carroll
10 CAS 41 Cass
11 ADR 55 Adair
12 GUT 38 Guthrie
13 DAL 24 Dallas
14 MAD 36 Madison
15 UNI 40 Union
16 ADM 18 Adams
17 TAY 35 Taylor
18 RIN 54 Ringgold
19 DEC 30 Decatur
20 CLR 27 Clarke
21 LUC 16 Lucas
22 WAY 06 Wayne
Special thanks to the following ops for 5 or (way) more contacts:
112 N6MU
24 KO1U
21 W4UCZ
19 LY5A N4CD W4IHI
17 WA6KHK
16 KC7YE W3DYA
15 K8QWY
14 K0HNC NT5O
11 KI0I W0EAR
10 DL3IAC K0MPH NN9K
09 W4YDY
08 AA5JG KV1E N4AAT ND3R W1END W9MSE WA2VYA
07 K2HT K4YFH NF0N W0GXQ WI0WA
06 K1TKL K4YT N5HMH
05 N3XL N7VS W7KQZ WA9LT WU3H YV5OIE
Iowa mobiles worked (5): K0PC/m NU0Q/m W0ZQ/m AC0HB/m N9YP/m
W0BH Award Winners - First Place ----- Very Honorable Mention
--------------------------------------------------------------
Most overall Qs ---- N6MU/112 ------- KO1U/24 ------ W4UCZ/21
Most CW Qs --------- N6MU/59 -------- KO1U/24 ------ W4UCZ/21
Most PH Qs --------- N6MU/53 -------- N5HMH/6 ------ WA6KHK/4
Most counties ------ N6MU/22 -------- W4UCZ/21 ----- W4IHI/19
Ron's Comments
Iowa is very beautiful this time of year with lots of farmers out harvesting
their crops. The bands cooperated as did the weather, and we had a great run.
Thanks again to Bob for showing me the ins and outs of mobile contesting ..
there is really a lot to learn. Running my first four-county line was a lot of
fun.
At one point we passed 4 or 5 state troopers within a one mile stretch of road.
That always makes you nervous, even when you aren't speeding! We also had a
farmer stop and ask us if we were ok or needed any help. It's nice to be out in
the country where people are extra friendly.
I'm looking forward to the Kansas QSO party in 2012 so that I can apply all the
things that I've learned riding along with Bob. Thanks to everyone for all the
Qs. Hope to work you again next year or in the next QSO Party.
Afterwards
The round trip total from Kansas was 1057 miles. Thanks to the Ottumwa ARC for
sponsoring the event and responding to my emails for pre-party information. And
a special invite to all the Iowa and visiting Minnesota mobiles to come join us
here in Kansas for the 2012 Kansas QSO Party the last full weekend in August.
73, Bob/w0bh and Ron/ad0dx
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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