Virginia QSO Party - 2019
Call: W4GO/M
Operator(s): W4GO
Station: W4GO/M
Class: SOAB/MixedMobile HP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80: 1247
40: 7 273
20: 24
15:
10:
6:
2:
UHF:
----------------------------
Total: 7 1544 0 Mults = 133 Total Score = 215,570
Club: Fauquier Amateur Radio Association
Comments:
What could be better than driving through the cities and countryside of Virginia
in fine, early Spring weather? Having 413 friends along for the ride! A sincere
thanks to all who put me in the log in this, my second consecutive year as an HF
mobile in the VA QSO Party. I was fortunate to have many chasers who are skilled
operators and have the persistence necessary to complete the contact despite
challenging RF conditions, principally utility line noise at my end.
It appears that participation in this contest is holding steady or growing. Not
only did I beat last year’s score, which is mostly a consequence of activating
more counties/cities (41 this year, versus 37 last year), I worked significantly
more unique call signs, 413, up from 322 last year. Quite a few call signs were
in recently issued prefix blocks or didn’t appear in my N1MM call history,
meaning I’ve not worked them in previous contests. A couple even mentioned
that they had just gotten their licenses. I hope they jump in again next year.
Many callers gave serial number 1 or 2 and said they weren’t really doing the
contest but just wanted to offer a signal report and say hello. This is always
appreciated. One such caller was KA9PGC, with whom I ended up having a nice
10-minute conversation mid-contest. Apologies to any folks who were waiting for
a QSO then – perhaps I should have paused the conversation every couple of
minutes to hand out points. KA9PGC was operating from home at the time, but was
explaining his equipment and experiences with motorcycle HF mobile. That’s
just not something you hear about every day, so I had to get the story from
him.
My top chaser this year was K3WJV in PA whom I worked 37 times, none of them
dupes, and who, if I may state the obvious, had a fantastic signal throughout.
Other chasers rounding out the top six were: W4ZAO, W8BT, W4VA, N4RP, and
WD4ASP, with 34, 32, 29, 24 and 24 QSOs, respectively. As last year, there were
12 stations who worked me 20 or more times. There were 102 stations who worked
me five or more times, up significantly from 75 last year. Some of the top
chasers had very strong signals; others were not strong at all, but very
persistent in trying to get through my pile-ups or noise floor.
One of the respects in which QSO party roving differs from fixed contesting is
that you develop an ability to identify familiar voices and call signs amid what
would normally be unintelligible pile-ups. Another interesting facet is
observing how the same stations’ signal strength varies throughout the day
according to changing ionospheric conditions. 80 m NVIS coverage definitely
shortened in radius and became higher-loss for three to four hours at mid-day,
but the band remained usable for working within about a 250 mi radius during
that period.
I made a few CW QSOs this year for the first time in this contest, mainly just
to try something different. Maybe a little more CW will be incorporated into
future outings.
A special nod to Chuck, NO5W, for his CQ/X mobile contesting software. I reached
out to Chuck with a bug report a couple of weeks before the contest, and he
promptly furnished a software patch. CQ/X’s GPS-informed features were quite
useful during the contest.
The following are the Virginia counties and independent cities (C&ICs) which
were activated, listed in chronological order: ACC, NHA, VBX, NFX, POX, CPX,
SUX, IOW, FRX, SHA, GVL, EMX, SUS, BRU, MEC, LUN, HAL, PIT, DAX, HRY, MVX, FRA,
BED, CAM, LYX, AMH, APP, CHA, PRE, BHM, CUM, NOT, AME, DIN, PBX, COX, CHE, RIX,
HCO, GOO, POW.
And now, the rest of the story, by the numbers:
215570 points for claimed score, including bonus points and bonus mults
1551 QSOs, not counting dupes
616 miles driven during contest hours
413 unique call signs worked
200 W PEP transmitter output
72 Virginia C&ICs worked
56 stations worked who gave me serial # 1
41 Virginia C&ICs activated
39 states worked, not counting VA
19 mobile-to-mobile QSOs, all HF
7 CW QSOs
2 Canadian provinces worked
0 DXCC entities worked, not counting US/Canada
0 electrical or mechanical failures
Thanks for the QSOs. 73.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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