Wisconsin QSO Party - 2021
Call: WI9WI
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: WI9WI
Class: SO Mobile LP
QTH: Up North
Operating Time (hrs): 7
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160: 0 0
80: 164 0
40: 225 0
20: 118 0
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
6: 0 0
2: 0 0
UHF: 0 0
------------------------
Total: 507 0 Mults = 61 Total Score = 95,281.0
Club: Four Lakes ARC
Comments:
After finally completing my long term (it took almost 30 years) project to
operate the WIQP solo (no driver) single-op mobile from every Wisconsin county
last year, I decided to go to our cabin in Sawyer County for the weekend and put
on a few of the less active counties. I drove up Saturday and operated the NA
RTTY Sprint from the cabin. Sunday morning I got on the road to BAY. I don't
operate while moving, having never mastered the art of operating, driving and
logging at the same time. For me, at least, it is too dangerous. So I find a
good spot and operate from the back seat of the car. I had a slight problem
right off the bat, and lost a few minutes tracking down an RFI problem with my
computer. I always carry ferrite along, and an FT-31 core around a suspect cable
cured the problem for he duration. Twenty was hot right off the bat, though
activity waned as time went on. Forty was great all day, and eighty was the go
to band the last couple of hours. There was an endless supply of stations to
work. I only worked a few DX, OM2VL 3 times, including a late QSO on 80, and a
single very loud JA on 20. The only other mobile station I worked was NE9U once.
Before the contest I spent time making some adjustments to my antennas, making
them easier to tune. I also tracked down a couple of noise sources, one large
and one small. This was time well spent with basically no noise problems this
year. The biggest new thing I did this year was to use a Bioenno 40 A LiPo
battery as my primary power source. For years I had used RV AGM abtteries, but
if you don't keep them charged constantly they go bad quickly. I have had at
least 3 of them crap out during the WIQP necessitating me to switch everything
over to the car's electrical system on the fly. I prefer not to run the engine
while operating since it does generate some low level noise. The new battery
worked perfectly without the need for a "battery booster". The LiPo
battery is pricey, but it will last longer than several RV batteries. Actual
operating time was a tad short of 5 hours. The other 2 hours were spent driving
between counties and fixing the RFI problem and a small antenna problem on 80
meters. I had to change my route on the fly because of thaw and muddy conditions
on some of the unpaved forest service and county roads, though I didn't really
lose any time over this. After ASH I ended driving back to the cabin to get a
warmer coat because the temperature on Sunday was about 20 degrees less than
Saturday and I was underdressed. But that was on the way anyway.
Gear: K-3, Texas Bugcatcher for 40/80, Hamstick for 20.
Thanks for all the Qs and see you all next year from somewhere.
73
Jim WI9WI/m
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