Michigan QSO Party
Call: K8CC
Operator(s): K8CC, W8MJ
Station: K8CC
Class: Mobile LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 33 0
40: 581 214
20: 151 9
15: 0 1
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 765 224 CW Mults = 71 Ph Mults = 64 Total Score = 236,790
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
County Breakdowns:
cty CW PH cty CW PH
JACK 31 15 EATO 37 12
INGH 28 8 CALH 27 12
SHIA 26 8 KZOO 42 21
CLIN 32 7 VANB 26 21
GRAT 32 12 BERR 50 18
MCLM 37 6 CASS 39 2
IONI 30 13 STJO 46 9
KENT 30 11 BRAN 42 6
OTTA 39 0 HILL 50 5
ALLE 31 22 LENA 35 5
BARR 38 11 MONR 17 0
I had a very busy week leading up to MiQP, so did not start getting the station
set up in the Jeep until Friday (fortunately a day off from work). The tuner in
the IC-756 used in all the previous trips seemed to only want to *maximize* the
SWR on the antennas, so a new IC-746Pro (which had never made a QSO) was
substituted and did a fine job. All the other antennas, computers and other
gear was carryover from previous years and worked FB. Many thanks to Jim/K8MR
for the 12V deep-cycle batteries (from a commercial UPS) which ran the logging
laptop free of power supply hash and QRN.
>From the start, it appeared that activity was way up from previous years,
particularly during the daytime. Without the QRN from the laptop, 40M was
pretty quiet most of the time and we felt we were hearing very well. 20M seemed
to be in good shape, and a number of western mults were worked early on SSB, but
despite good sigs later (KU8E/4 said we were S9+30dB!) we could not raise anyone
on SSB. While heading to our starting point prior to 16Z, Ken worked a few
stations out west on 15M SSB with good reports. However, once the contest
started we only worked one station on that band-mode. Nothing at all was heard
on 10M. We tried to hit the recommended activity times, but its really hard for
a mobile who only spends a short time in each county and there are other more
productive band-modes.
Operationally, everything worked fine. For the first time, we were able to make
our 600+ mile route with only one gas stop. Our only problem occurred just
after entering Berrien County, at the intersection of I-94 west to US-31 south
we got off track not once, not twice, but three times. In fairness to Ken (who
was driving/navigating at the time) that intersection is not marked clearly, and
the USA Street Atlas map for some reason was not marked well either. The detour
cost us almost a half hour, so that we only had 7 minutes in MONR county at the
end instead of 21 minutes. Still, 17 QSOs in those last 7 minutes is not bad at
all.
In all our previous four MiQP trips, we've never had encounters with the law,
while this time we had two. At 1603Z (three minutes into the contest) we get
caught in a speed trap just north of Napoleon, MI. The cop said he had me at 40
in a 25 zone, but he neglected to notice I was on the brakes since the speed had
just dropped from 50. In any case, after checking my license he let me go with
a verbal warning. Time lost, five minutes start to finish.
The second encounter occured on I-94 near the western border of VANB county.
Ken had pulled over to let me finish working the pileup when a State Police car
pulls up behind us. (I think it's illegal to stop on limited access highways in
MI.) He demanded to know what we were doing, so I explained we were hams, and
this was the "Michigan Contest" and gave a quick "civilian" explanation. He
seemed satisfied with this, and after checking Ken's license he let us go.
Whew!
Anyways, we're very pleased with our results. We had more QSOs on CW alone this
time than we had overall last year. We tried to push SSB when we could to hand
out the mult and to maximize our chances for SSB mults for ourselves, but it's
hard for the mobiles to be heard on SSB. And, it's very frustrating to get run
off your frequency by a non-MI station calling "CQ MI"!
Thanks to everyone for the QSOs.
73,
Dave/K8CC
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