North Carolina QSO Party
Call: N4CW/M
Operator(s): N4CW, W4TMO
Station: N4CW
Class: Cnty Exped LP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 7
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 0 0
40: 516 0
20: 55 0
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 571 0 Mults = 77 Total Score = 131,951
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
WOW! That was fun!!! Jim, W4TMO, and I left his house at 8 AM to arrive in
Greenville (Pitt County) to begin the QSO party at 10 AM. Jim had carefully
planned the route. Our only constraint was that we had to be home for dinner
between 5:30 and 6:00 PM -- we were five minutes late! Of all the counties we
had planned to activate, we had to miss two (Pender and Wayne) to make it home
on time. We did take time out for lunch, approximately one hour. "Pit stops"
along the way were quick!
Early on, Jim operated then decided to do all the driving; the CW pileups were
too hard for him to handle (we'll work on that!!!). He really did a great job
alerting me to county changes along our route and we never got lost!!! We used
the official NC DOT Highway Map and our trusty GPS along with Jim's plan for
the route.
40 meters was our primary band, but we did try 20 and I was disappointed in
the
number of contacts we were making...e.g. our rate wasn't as good as I had
expected, but in all fairness, it was a big surprise to work such a bunch of
DX!
Great fun!!! So we went back to 40 and stayed.
Rates were very slow the first hour and a half then started to pick up just
before lunch. After lunch, it was great fun handling the massive pileups and
the calling stations were on their best behavior...they would QRX for county
changes, wouldn't call out of turn, and respected the frequency...you can't ask
for more good clean fun! Max rate after analysis was 240, max 10-minute rate was
180, and best 1-hour rate was 135...a contester's dream! That's roughly an
82 per hour average for seven hours' operating. Not bad for 25 to 50 watts (I
ran 25 Watts for the first 3 hours to prolong (the external sealed AGM) battery
life. When I started the contest, the K3 indicated a voltage of 12.5 VDC (key
up). Key down it showed around 11.5 VDC. When we were finishing up,
supply voltage was down to 11.9 and 11.o respectively. I had a spare battery,
just in case I depleted the original. I never needed to replace it.
Antennas used: Outbacker "Outreach" for 40M and a "Hamstick" helical mobile
antenna on a bumper-type mount on the back of my 2001 Explorer (SUV).
We put on a lot of miles and "gassed-up" only once. What a day!
Many thanks to all the fine CW ops out there who worked me over and over
again!
73, Bert, N4CW
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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