Florida QSO Party
Call: W4AN/M
Operator(s): KU8E, N8VW
Station: W4AN/M
Class: SO MobileMixed LP
QTH: Florida
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40: 716 37
20: 781 84
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 1497 121 CW Mults = 45 Ph Mults = 21 Total Score = 411,180
Club: South East Contest Club
Comments:
Multi-op Mixed Mobile (class not listed above)
It was fun to operate mobile in the FQP again after a two year
absence. The W4AN/m setup was the following:
Icom 756PRO
40 meters -Hustler RM20 with DX Engineering Hot Rodz capacitance hat
(Six 24 inch rods)
20 meters -Hustler RM15 with DX Engineering Hot Rodz capacitance hat
(Four 6 inch rods)
These were on the 4.5 foot MO-2 mast which was mounted on trunk.
20/15/10 meters - Hustler MO-4 (22 inch) Mast with VP-1 triband adapter - Had
RM20S, RM15 and RM-10 resonators. On trunk lip mount of my Toyota Avalon.
Also had K4BAI's Alinco DX-70 as a backup radio. Also had his MFJ tuner to
tune the 40 meter antenna to SSB. The 20 meter antenna with the Hot-Rodz
had a SWR below 2:1 from CW all the way to about 14.300.
Saturday
========
We left my QTH around 8:30 AM and drove to Dothan, AL. Had lunch there
before the contest started at noon. We started the FQP at the Florida
welcome station just south of Madrid, AL (at the AL/FL border) First county
was
Jackson county. At the start it was apparent the propagation from N FLA was not
very good to anywhere. We had many unanswered CQ's. At that time we decided to
alter our planned route and head south towards the Gulf coast. Headed toward
the St George Island area. We drove across the causeway over to the island so I
could show Pat where N4PN's house was. It was interesting that the signals
peaked when we were on the causeway (over the salt water) and when on the
island. The condx were much better this far south. 20 meters died very early -
around 2230Z or so and did mostly 40 meters after that. We headed east on US 98
from St George toward Perry. From Perry south on US 19 towards Fanning Springs.
Went over to I-75 and ended day one in Kissimmee, FL. We ended day one driving
around 600 miles (414 of those in Florida) 800 somethig QSO's in the log and
about 14 counties at the end of day 1.
Sunday
======
After a good nights rest at the Best Western in Kissimmee we started out at
8:00 AM sharp. Took US 192 over to the Florida Turnpike and headed southeast
toward Ft Pierce. First hour only 40 meters was open. We were working W6 and
W7's on 40 almost a couple hours after our sunrise. 20 meters finally opened
around 9:00 AM. We spent the morning hours switching between 20 and 40.
After about noon we were mostly on 20 meters where the conditions were much
better than they were on Saturday.
We had decided before hand that since there were so many mobiles on and most
of them would cover all the counties that we would not rush to get from county
to county. Driving north from Ft Pierce we spent a lot of time on Florida A1A.
I think being close to the sea water might of enhanced our signal. We stayed on
A1A from Ft Pierce to Coca Beach. We bypassed Daytona Beach and headed back over
to I-95 and then back over to A1A around Ormand Beach. Stayed on A1A all the way
to St Augustine. We then cut back over to I-95 towards Jacksonville and then
west on I-10. We ended the FQP in Baker county. Day 2 yielded about 800
somthing more QSO's and about 12 counties.
Hopefully Pat, N8VW had fun in his first FQP from Florida. We got to see some
places in Fla that we had never been to before. The conditions were not very
good by FQP standards but still we had a good time. Thanks everyone for all the
QSO's.
Some Statistics:
About 1250 miles driving during the weekend. (about 900 miles of that in
Florida)
5 tanks of gas - It was around $3.00/gallon in most of Fla. I can't imagine
what you guys in those big SUV / Pickup trucks spent for gas !!!
Other Mobiles spotted : We had KK4TA drive by us in Levy county. I think we
were on Alt 27 at the time.
Hope to be back (with K4BAI !!!) next year....
73, Jeff KU8E
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