Minnesota QSO Party
Call: W0YC/M
Operator(s): K8GU
Station: W0YC/M
Class: Mobile/Portable LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 9:15
Summary:
Band CW-RTTY Qs Ph Qs
-------------------------
160:
80:
40: 342
20: 374
15:
10:
6:
2:
-------------------------
Total: 716 0 Mults = 62 Total Score = 88,784
Club: UMN Gopher ARC
Comments:
Radio: Yaesu FT-840 w/ Inrad 500 Hz CW filter
Vehicle: 1999 Ford Escort sedan
Antennas: 40 meter hamstick on the roof, 20 meter hamstick on the trunk
Counties: (17) BR,CP,CV,HN,KD,LN,LP,LS,LY,MC,MK,NI,RV,RW,SI,ST,YM
Mobile contesting is an experience that cannot be explained. It's nice to
be sought-after, even if you're not quite sure how to handle the steady
stream of callers. Both Matt, N0YNT, and I were rookies at the game. Matt
agreed to drive me, and even operate if he wanted to. At several points I
offered to let him operate and he refused saying, "Ethan, it looks like
you're having too darned much fun; keep at it!"
We decided to borrow the callsign of the University of Minnesota Gopher
Amateur
Radio Club, of which we are both members. (Incidentally, we'd like to stake
a claim on the distinction of the youngest operating mobile team with an
average age of 24.) The name, "Goldy", is from our university mascot.
I've had good EU and JA runs from decent contest stations, but never have I
experienced anything like this. I had originally planned to work on a
pile-up trainer before the contest. This would have been beneficial. I
guess, more chair (or seat) time will improve my pile-up handling.
In different places, we often had S9 noise on 20 meters. I tried to work
everybody I could; but, I heard a lot of sub-ESP guys burried in the noise
that I couldn't pull-out.
In Renville county, we crossed the county line and I was peaking at rates of
150/hr and quickly milking the bands. So, we made the quick decision to
head north to Kandiyohi and Meeker counties since we had time. So, we ended
up with an extra 80 QSOs in high-rate mode and made two more counties
available.
Without the support and encouragement of the following people, this effort
would not have come together:
N8ET - Hamsticks and one of the mounts
K8MR - Helpful discussion about antenna placement
WR0DK - Posting routes on the web
Nate - my roommate, loaned us a laptop
Thanks for all the QSO's.
73,
--Ethan, K8GU/0
--Matt, N0YNT
Interesting observations:
Special thanks to the following six stations who accounted for 16% of our
QSOs:
N2CU (24), NY4N (20), W3BBO (18), N4PN (18), K8IR (18), WA3HAE (17)
Here are where most of our QSOs were made:
WI (70), PA (53), NY (43), FL (42), VA (41), ON (34), IL (31)
The three most common names were:
JIM (56), TOM (45), PAUL (42)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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