Pennsylvania QSO Party
Call: W3USA/M
Operator(s): W1NN, K8MR
Station: W3USA/M
Class: Mobile LP
QTH: 30 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 22
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160:
80: 434 85
40: 548 212
20: 188 50
15:
10:
6: 2
2:
--------------------
Total: 1169 347 Mults = 124 Total Score = 302,770.0
Club: North Coast Contesters
Comments:
Includes 15000 mobile bonus points and 400 K3YTL bonus points.
Breakdown by county (in order of operation; in some we left and later returned
to the same county):
CW SSB
ARM 15 14
INN 41 14
CMB 36 4
SOM 29 10
BED 22 35
FUL 43 33
HUN 33 6
FRA 39 1
CUM 35 3
YOR 55 0
DAU 46 0
PER 37 0
JUN 18 0
SNY 56 0
UNI 61 4
NUM 58 15
MTR 60 16
LYC 35 8
CLI 24 10
CEN 26 38
CLE 39 14
CRN 32 26
ELK 53 15
JEF 61 40
CLA 39 0
FOR 24 0
VEN 48 8
WAR 24 23
CRA 47 13
MER 30 0
Missed: ARM, CLI, CRN, NUM (All of which we operated from!)
WTX, SBAR, PAC, AK, EWA, ID, MT, NV, UT, ND, SD, PR, VI, All of Canada
except QC and ON.
Hal, W1NN, and I had often talked about sometime combining efforts for a big
time Pennslyvania QSO Party effort. But we never got especially serious about
joining forces.
Then several weeks ago my long time mobile contesting partner W8DRZ had to back
out of our planned PAQP effort. After considering my options, I got in touch
with W1NN and soon we were planning the 2005 effort.
We used my contest station on wheels, a 1996 Ford Windstar (now up to 120K
miles), with an IC-746 and two mag mounts holding a HamStick for 40 meters and a
Hustler 3 resonator mount for the other bands. (80/20/15 at this part of the
solar cycle.) It also loaded up on six for our two qsos there.
We operated in 90 minute shifts, and divided the last hour on Saturday night.
Although we are both used to operating full time, we survived a 50% duty
cycle.
On the drive to our starting point in Armstrong county we could tell that the
bands were not in good condition. One of our backup plans for this is 75
meters, where we found K8RYU/CLI just before the contest, and put him in the log
for the first qso, followed by N3LL/FOR, before going back to fight it out on
40.
We slugged it out for the next rest of the afternoon, including a productive
return to 75 from Breezewood in BED at 2000z. At 2230 in HUN we switched to the
80cw resonator, with good success. We tried going back to 75ssb around 2330z
from HUN and FRA, but by then the qrm levels had built up to such that we were
not able to work many people.
40 CW after dark was nearly useless with long skip, low activity, and RTTY
contest QRM. Is there ever a weekend without a RTTY contest to screw up 40
meters? But 80cw was great, as we worked a total of 434 qsos Saturday
evening.
We started Sunday in NUM, heading to MTR and then back west. By late morning
conditions on 40 had become pretty decent, including 101 qsos in 49 minutes from
JEF between 1836-1925z. If only we had similar conditions on Saturday!
It was fun following the out-of-state horse race between my two good friends
W8MJ and N4PN.
We only ever heard one mobile, I believe W3ILG, but he must have driven into a
valley because he faded before we could complete the qso. We did work K8RYU/R
several times for needed counties.
We seem to have covered many of the same counties as the KB3CO/M team, but it
sounds like we had an easier time because by the time we got to the Susquehanna
River the rain had basically stopped. Earlier on Saturday we had lots of light
rain, fog, and drizzle, but never any rain heavy enough to slow down our
driving.
Since this year was the earliest possible date for the contest, the leaves were
barely changing colors except at the highest elevations. And there we usually
were in the fog. Next year the PaQP is 6 days later on the calendar, so it
should be better for fall color watching.
It's too early to guess what we may be doing in 2006, but we definitely had a
good time touring PA in 2005.
73 - Jim K8MR
2005 Team (W3)USA
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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