Texas QSO Party
Call: NO5W
Operator(s): NO5W
Station: NO5W
Class: SO CW Mobile LP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 6
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80:
40: 17
20: 42
15:
10:
6:
2:
UHF:
----------------------------
Total: 59 0 0 Mults = 35 Total Score = 9,195
Club: NARS - Northwest Houston ARS
Comments:
The above score includes 3000 bonus points for activating 3 counties with five
or more QSOs.
Equipment: ICOM 706 MKIIG, 20/40 Hamsticks, Palm Paddle, Winkey
Logging: Ball point pen on Best Western Guest Towel
TQP2005 sure didn't turn out like I had planned when I finally got around to
developing my trip plans the Saturday before the event. That plan saw NO5W
sweeping in a big loop south through several counties that I had never put on
before, stopping for the evening in Fredericksburg, and continuing the loop
through Central Texas on Sunday for a triumphant crossing of the finish line in
Montgomery county with 32 counties and in excess of 1000 Qs in the log.
That will have to wait for next year. As you know Rita blew into southeast Texas
and changed all of those plans as well as priorities. Her original path had her
going right through all of those southern counties and most of the central ones.
Later as the path changed it looked like CAT 5 Rita was headed directly for
Houston and thoughts turned from TQP to survival. So I sent my driver north to
her sister's and I followed a day later. It was during these evacuations that
previous contesting ventures to K5NZ really paid off as knowledge of the back
roads up in Grimes county allowed us to avoid the monster traffic jams on IH45.
Saturday was wet and very windy and I just couldn't get excited about driving
around using gas with all the shortages being reported on TV. So I worked a few
stations from the driveway while listening to the various hurricane nets.
Sunday was another matter however as we had been given the go ahead to return
home and the gas was already a "sunk cost" so we set out around 9:00 am
wondering what sort of a situation we would find at the home QTH -- some visions
of trees in the roof, etc entered the imagination.
Following any catastrophe you always hear "this is only a game but its important
to play it in order to reestablish normalcy, important to play the game big or
small, etc". With that in mind I knew I had to try some TQP. What better way to
pass the time, return to normalcy, and to keep those visions from occupying my
mind. My driver was in the other car so it would require driving, hand sending
CW and logging, something I had never done. So I thought it best to start with
some S&P and fortunately I found WA3HAE, K4LTA, and several Texas stations to
work S&P. Right off the bat I realized I didn't have anything to log on since
use of the computer seemed out of the question while driving. Fortunately I
found a ball point and several Best Western Guest paper towels in the glove
compartment -- you know, the ones that say "use this towel to clean your shoes,
luggage, windshield, razor or just about anything" -- it didn't mention logging
TQP contacts but guess the writer wasn't a ham.
So with the towels on my leg and the paddle jammed in between the 706 remote and
the laptop I was all set to do some S&P and right away I made my shortest ever
TQP QSO of about 20 feet as I passed W3DYA parked on the side of the road in
Leon county with his mini-beam sticking out of the moon roof -- ain't ham radio
great! As luck would have it I had just listened to WA3HAE turn the frequency
over to Norm so I was already zero beat but first contact was established by
honking out a couple of HI HI on the horn and then QSYing into the RF region to
make the real QSO.
Plans were to continue looking for S&P contacts as I worked my way home but they
quickly dried up so I decided to try my hand at running a few knowing full well
that a pileup might be unleashed that would be difficult to handle given the
situation. Anyway in Grimes I dove in and sent out a few short CQs. A station or
two came back and I quickly scribbled hieroglypics in the Best Western logbook.
I'm pretty much a computer logging and sending type of op so it was taxing to
the short term memory to have to remember the call so I could reply and then
when it was all over remember the call to log so I apologize for those repeats I
had to request from time to time.
Grimes went well with 16 Qs followed by Montgomery with 22. What a fun way to
return to normalcy and what fun to turn up the final leg of the trip to discover
that all those visions had, indeed, been figments of my imagination.
Hope to CU in TQP06 with better atmospheric conditions. And when out and about
in your favorite QSO party remember to take a few Best Western towels along in
case you need them for logging. If not needed for that you can always use them
to "clean your shoes, luggage, razor or just about anything".
73 es tnx for the Qs
Chuck
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|