Georgia QSO Party
Call: N4N
Operator(s): W5JR WK4U
Station: W5JR
Class: Rover Multi-OpMixed LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160: 0 0
80: 388 26
40: 776 62
20: 186 17
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
6: 0 0
------------------------
Total: 1350 105 CW-Dig Mults = 47 Ph Mults = 24 Total Score = 199,155
Club:
Comments:
Wow, another GQP in the bag. Great weather this year. Great outing with the
crew. Putting a multi-station, 57 county rover-in-motion effort on the air is
not for the faint of heart. The last two year's outings didn't have any
hardware failures. This year, not so lucky. One of the (previously working
fine) logging computers decided it didn't want to play nice with the radio and
logger software just before the Saturday start. Decided to remove / re-install
related software, while the other station dove in. Sunday morning, one of the
station power supplies chose to not work, despite being used all day Saturday.
A 45 minute start delay while station power is reconfigured versus dropping
down to 1 station. Later in the day, that station went to 80m and RFI crashed
the mobile LAN. Usually not an issue for most rovers, but we use Flex 6000
series radios. Laptop to radio connection is through the router (doesn't have
to be and future outings won't be), so both stations impacted. Rewired laptop
to radio for station operating on 75/80m, removing the networking of the
laptops. Another hour delay playing MacGuyver on the side of the road. The
Sunday county route was already aggressive, so no surprise we didn't get to the
last 9 counties. Despite GA having 159 counties, many take more than 30 minutes
to drive across, shredding the need to spend only 18 minutes or less per
county. The route is solid, but no margin for error, hi hi.
A wonderful integration this year was the ability to self spot directly from
the logger as we changed counties. Even though last year had the use of 4G
access via the router, this year we were able to exploit this capability and
not rely on stations we worked to spot us or the driver pulling over and spot
us. This also allowed us to keep tabs on GA spots to look for possible 15m
openings. We tried several times on 15, but zilch. We also monitored 50.135
(plus 50.125) and called CQ numerous times on the permanently installed
IC-7000. We've never heard a peep on 6m over the last 3 years. Seems like there
were fewer stations participating this year. Missed hearing several regulars.
A hearty "THANK YOU" goes out to stations K1RO (65, 53/12 mixed),
DL3DXX (48 CW), K9CT (39 CW) and W8TM (31 CW) for providing huge numbers of
Q's. Didn't have anyone "Clean Sweep" us this year, but RO and DXX
came close.
Tim and I missed having Max, N5ZZ, join us this year. However, Mark, KK4VQJ did
an excellent job of chauffeuring us around on the ~1000 mile journey. And
enjoyed handing out the "N" to spell out N-F-A-R-L in recognition of
NFARL's 40th anniversary this year. Yes, we are already planning for next year.
GQP roving is in our blood. Sitting in moving, cramped quarters for 10 hours
each day with a desk on your lap, trying to type callsigns correctly into a
computer or sending CW with the paddles while the vehicle jostles, is so much
fun. If the bands were better, maybe we could expand to 3 stations? I need a
bigger truck!
73
For N4N, 2017 GQP Rover
Tim, WK4U, 40 & 75/80, Mike W5JR, 20 & 40, Mark, KK4VQJ, driver.
Flex 6500
Flex 6300
Pair of Flex Control knobs
Pair of Dunstar 600 bandpass filters
Pair of USB-8 band decoders for filters
Hi-Q 580-RT (40 & 75/80)
Little Tarheel (15, 20 & 40)
Pair of laptops
Pair of Begali paddles
Pair of 12v power supplies (one died, didn't take a spare)
Pair of UPS's
Honda EU200i generator
4G enabled router
Garmin LMT-50 with route for driver
Ematic Windows 10 tablet running MS Streets & Trips w/route for Ops
Bluetooth enabled GPS for tablet
1 Well traveled, 2002 GMC Yukon, with 4 non-Flex radios installed for daily
use
Requisite Costco animal cookies - QSO fuel
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