Minnesota QSO Party
Call: W0BH
Operator(s): W0BH AD0DX
Station: W0BH
Class: Mobile Single Xmtr LP
QTH: 21 MN counties
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band CW-RTTY Qs Ph Qs
-------------------------
160:
80: 42 0
40: 249 7
20: 431 303
15:
10:
6:
2:
UHF:
-------------------------
Total: 728 312 Mults = 72 Total Score = 149,760
Club:
Comments:
Friday
I'm on leave from Hesston College this semester and the weather forecast in
Minnesota seemed to be cooperating, so Ron/AD0DX and I decided to team up for a
run in the MNQP. I've always enjoyed chasing the intrepid mobiles through
Minnesota from home, so we were looking forward to being on the other end of
the pileups. Since most of the mobiles in the MNQP run APRS, Ron spent his time
waiting for me to drive from Hesston to Kansas City by putting together an APRS
setup. We spent an hour at his house, then started off to Minnesota about
4:30pm (only 4 hours late!). My XYL, Lorna enjoyed tracking us on the way up.
Great roads all the way, but we arrived around midnight, and it was COLD
filling the gas tank and putting the antennas on before it was time to rest up
for Saturday.
Saturday
Saturday morning was a brisk 9 degrees when we fired up the Astro van, now
281,000 miles young. At the last minute, I did a quick tire check and found our
left rear tire at 15 pounds, so we lost 10 minutes to the schedule filling up
the tire before we got on the road. As you can see below, our first hour was
slow, but we had high hopes and the signals seemed to be strong. When Ron took
over the radio and I started to drive, I noticed that the van didn't seem to
have the power it had on the way down. Max speed was about 65 (downhill), and
it got worse as we continued along.
Our proposed 24 county run started in Rock county, the most southwestern
county, then continued north not quite half way up Minnesota before turning
east then back south to (try to) finish where we started. Roads were in
excellent shape and the weather was cloudy with occasional sun, perfect for
reading the logging and GPS computers as we drove along. While we got good
rates when we crossed into a new county, it seemed like rates were down from
what I would have expected. Ops would call us and then not respond when we
called back, and it happened many more times than I what I'm used to. Finally,
N8II gave me a clue. He said my 20m antenna seemed to be "loose" and my signal
would lose 20db or more almost instantly. I was really puzzled because the SWR
was normal and power output on the meter was max. I use a triple Hustler array
for CW with 20/40/15 on one mast, and nothing bad seemed to be happening on 40,
so perhaps my coil wire in the 20m resonator was opening from time to time. I
had another coil along, but I kept seeing the good SWR and we kept making
contacts, so we continued. Probably a bad decision.
There was lots more snow on the ground as we headed through Otter Tail county
and turned southeast on I-94. The van still wouldn't run much over 60 mph, but
it wasn't running rough and there were no strange noises, so we continued. Off
the freeway and heading south once again, the van continued to slow .. 55, 50,
45. By now we were picking up snow showers, then snow, then freezing drizzle.
Hello, Minnesota! When the van dropped to 40 and then 35, I remember thinking,
"It's only two miles to the next county, let's at least see if we can make
that." We did, and on to a gas station.
Best guess was that we had a fuel system issue. We'd filled up with 89 octane
gas before we started, so perhaps we got some bad gas. The fuel tank was now
down over half, so we filled up with premium and now could go 50. That was fast
enough anyway because of the road conditions! We were three counties behind on
the schedule and losing ground on Qs by staying in counties too long, but at
least we were heading in the right direction. When the QSO party ended, the
wind also came up, so we decided to stay in Minnesota one more night before
heading home in the morning. The van got up to 60 the next day while we ran the
gas tank almost dry. We filled up with premium once again and we were back to
normal cruise for the drive home. I made it back to Hesston in time to see the
lights go out at the SuperBowl!
Stats
We operated 10 hours, 1040 Qs, 295 unique calls, 8 dupes, 1683 total miles from
Kansas.
US/VE Worked : 50 states/provinces
MN worked : 22 counties
DX worked : 3 countries
Hourly Rates (includes dupes)
--------------------------
1400 : 52
1500 : 97
1600 : 121
1700 : 86
1800 : 120
1900 : 161
2000 : 115
2100 : 109
2200 : 90
2300 : 96
--------------------------
All : 100.4
Total W0BH/m : 1040 Qs, 72 mults = 149,760 points
County Breakdown (in visited order)
Saturday (457 miles during the QSO party)
01 ROC 20 Rock
02 PIP 28 Pipestone
03 LIN 27 Lincoln
04 LYO 72 Lyon
05 YEL 46 Yellow Medicine
06 LAC 43 Lac Qui Parle
07 CHP 38 Chippewa
08 SWI 30 Swift
09 STV 55 Stevens
10 BIG 44 Big Stone
11 TRA 62 Traverse
12 WIL 58 Wilkin
13 OTT 28 Otter Tail
14 GRA 62 Grant
15 DOU 79 Douglas
16 TOD 33 Todd
17 STR 74 Stearns
18 KND 80 Kandiyohi
19 REN 45 Renville
20 RDW 70 Redwood
21 COT 46 Cottonwood
Special thanks to the following ops for 10 or (way) more contacts:
30 : WA3HAE
28 : N6MU
27 : N8II
21 : NY4N WB2ABD
19 : NT2A W0BV
18 : K1ZZI N2CU
17 : N2WN
16 : KB9S W8WVU
14 : N4CD
12 : K0HNC K8MR VE3KP
11 : W7GKF WA2VYA
10 : AC0CU W1KDA W4UT W9MSE
Minnesota mobiles worked (3): KE0G/m N0PI/m N0EO/m (but couldn't finish the
Q).
W0BH Award Winners - First Place ---- Very Honorable Mention
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Most overall Qs ---- WA3HAE/30------- N6MU/28 ----------- N8II/27
Most CW Qs --------- N8II/20 -------- W0BV/19 ----------- WA3HAE/18
Most PH Qs --------- WA3HAE/N6MU/12 - W1KDA/AC0CU/10 ---- WB0TEV/8
Most counties ------ WA3HAE/20 ------ NY4N/NT2A/N6MU/17 - W0BV/N8II/16
Afterwards
The Minnesota gang, in particular Pat/K0PC and John/W0ZQ were a great help in
encouraging us to come and in helping us set up for this run. Perhaps if we'd
had lutefish for breakfast as they suggested, our problems would have all gone
away! The web site, including the maps and mobiles pages, was also a terrific
resource. Thanks as well to the MWA for sponsoring the event.
Finally, I would like to invite the Minnesota mobiles to come down to Kansas
for the Kansas QSO Party the last weekend in August. I can confidently promise
no snow! You'll have to compete with W0ZQ/John (he's won CW-Only twice), but
there are four other mobile plaques to win as well!
Ron and I really enjoyed our run, even with all the minor mishaps. Thanks,
Minnesota, and thanks to all for the Qs!
73, Bob/w0bh and Ron/ad0dx
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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