Ohio QSO Party
Call: K8MR
Operator(s): K8MR AC8E
Station: K8MR
Class: Rover LP
QTH: 22 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 222 39
40: 207 42
20: 86 6
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 515 87 CW Mults = 71 Ph Mults = 49 Total Score = 133,800
Club:
Comments:
By County:
CW SSB
TUSC 21 4
CARR 19 16
GUER 25 0
HARR 33 8
BELM 14 0
MONR 36 6
NOBL 35 4
MUSK 14 0
MORG 18 12
PERR 26 4
HOCK 31 5
VINT 18 0
PICK 30 6
ROSS 15 1
FRAN 23 7
DELA 19 3
MORR 21 0
RICH 14 5
ASHL 21 2
WAYN 28 1
MEDI 25 0
TOTL 515 87
CTY 36 31
SPDX 35 18
After several good experiences last fall as a Rover in the PA and NY QSO
parties I decided to give it a try in Ohio. While as a mobile one can rack up a
big number of QSOs by repeatedly working the regulars on CW from many counties,
one misses the great portion of those participating in the contest who operate
primarily or exclusively on SSB. As a rover, with some operation on SSB with a
real antenna, these people can benefit from my travels to lots of rare
counties. And rover vs. mobiles makes things a lot easier on a full time driver
with the frequent breaks from the road.
Or at least they could had propagation cooperated this weekend. Other than a
few brief periods early, there was absolutely no in-state propagation on 40. In
those few periods I did get a better than usual number of counties and new
callsigns in the log. But otherwise even with the real antenna, 40 SSB yielded
just a relative handful of out of state stations.
My fixed antenna worked out very well. I call it the 33 foot hamstick - 33 feet
of vertical wire fed against the body of the Honda minivan. This time, rather
than relying on trees for support as I had done last fall, I used a 33 foot
DK9SQ fiberglass mast, supported by a tripod made of pairs of 4 foot aluminum
army surplus mast. This gave a support point at six feet, which was quite
stable, at least in the relatively calm weather we had. Setup time was about
five minutes, teardown a bit less. Had the bands cooperated, the three S-unit
improvement in signal over the mobile antenna would have returned the setup
time in about five minutes. Checks before the contest also indicated a very
substantial improvement on 15 meters, though 15 was useless on Saturday and
generally is not very active anyway.
We stopped to operate in six counties. We had planned to stop in another six,
but with the bad propagation on 40 we could work just as many stations on CW
with the mobile antenna, i.e. not many. As it was, my time estimate with the
extra counties would have put us way behind our goal (successful)of getting
back to AC8E's QTH by not much after midnight.
So it was quite a disappointment after the incredible experience in Michigan
earlier in the year when I was able to make nearly 1500 QSOs as a mobile in the
same time. But in any event, a trip around Ohio for the OhQP is always a good
way to experience the waning days of summer.
Thanks to all who participated!
73 - Jim K8MR
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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