Michigan QSO Party
Call: K8MR/M
Operator(s): K8MR, W8DRZ
Station: K8MR/M
Class: Mobile LP
QTH: 19 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 24 0
40: 535 159
20: 166 19
15: 22 7
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 747 185 CW Mults = 77 Ph Mults = 56 Total Score = 223,307
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
2003 Michigan QSO Party K8MR/m ( + W8DRZ, Designated Driver)
CW SSB
OTSE 26 2
ANTR 41 2
CHAR 45 3
EMME 32 5
CHEB 29 4
PRES 55 8
MTMO 46 10
ALPE 42 4
ALCO 34 20
OSCO 54 13
CRAW 34 9
ROSC 42 11
OGEM 38 27
IOSC 35 11
AREN 64 10
BAY 48 6
SAGI 28 5
GENE 34 28
LIVI 20 7
747 CW QSOS 185 SSB QSOS
37 CW Counties 25 SSB Counties
40 CW States/Prov 31 SSB States/Prov
932 QSOS 133 Multipliers 223,307 Claimed Score
It may have been spring in the south of Michigan, but the north was still
waiting for green to return. But after driving through fog for most of the
morning on the way to our starting point, we managed to find the good weather
day of the week, with temperatures in the 60s by afternoon. There were still
snow piles in parking lots in Gaylord, where we started the contest, and ice
piles along the shoreline in Petoskey. The good news was that we could operate
with the car windows open, even at dusk, and not a single bug was seen.
Conditions were pretty decent, though the skip on 20 meters was not as short as
in previous years, as the sunspot numbers continue their decline. There was not
much activity on 15, though we did work several Europeans in the first few
hours. 40 stayed short, but still had Europeans such as OK2PAY and 7S3A call in
with good signals.
Only two minor equipment problems: after switching antennas from the daytime
40/20 setup to the nighttime 80/40, we found that the 40 CW was just out of
range for the IC-746's tuner. But while finding a place to stop to lenghten the
HamStick, with the SWR pegged and the IC-746 showing about 5 watts out, we still
had a roaring pileup from Saginaw county. Also, after working OK at first, the
80 meter antenna decided to no longer tune in Saginaw county. After the contest
we found it to the top hat radial had bent down next to the antenna; bending it
up again fixed the problem.
The only navagitional error was getting onto I-75 south near Flint, instead of
staying on M-23 and taking it to I-96 to I-275 to I-75. Had problems getting
back onto M-23, wasting maybe 15 minutes in Genessee county. So we did not make
it to Oakland county by the end. We hope nobody missed Oakland because of
that.
W8DRZ's GPS toy revealed that we spent 8 hours moving, 4 hours parked, for 403
miles during the contest. So perhaps we could have done another 4 or 5 counties
had we been moving more, but since many of our counties were ones unlikely to
have any other activity, we wanted to do them well. The frequent breaks also
made things less strenuous for the Designated Driver. One stop allowed DRZ to
play on a tank parked in front of a VFW hall in St. Helens in Roscommon
county.
Amazingly we saw no deer, but did see several wild turkeys along I-75 in
Roscommon and Crawford counties.
All in all, a lot of fun. Thank to all who were active. Next road trip, the
Ohio Bicentennial QSO Party on Saturday, August 24.
73 - Jim K8MR
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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