Mississippi QSO Party
Call: NO5W
Operator(s): NO5W
Station: NO5W
Class: Mobile LP
QTH: LA
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80:
40: 189
20: 326
15: 2
10:
6:
2:
UHF:
----------------------------
Total: 517 0 0 Mults = 46 Total Score = 23,782
Club: Delta DX Assn.
Comments:
Setup: K3/100, Hi-Q 4/80 antenna, MFJ-1924 controller, Palm Paddle, Dell D600
XP, wireless external keyboard/mouse, USB Interface by US Interface(Navigator),
Garmin GPS-18PC receiver, CQ/X ver 1.8.0.1, 2002 Pathfinder, and a box of 70
soft Kleenex.
You may recall seeing on the nightly news early last week that the CDC has
determined that this season's flu vaccine was effective in only 9% of the over
65 group. Being five years into that population group and having been diligent
this season in getting the shot, the news item caught my eye and I thought,
"well I must have made it into the 9%, there's something to be said for
diligence". Later in the week on Friday evening before the MSQP I found out
that I hadn't made the 9%.
But I was loathe to cancel my announced trip so Saturday morning about 7:30am I
left New Orleans for a 95 mile run on I-10/I-55 up to the starting point near
Osyka, just inside the MS state line, knowing that the total 400 miles was
going to make for a long day and hoping that the MSQP radio traffic would
justify my commitment. You can do the math and note that I was on a tight
schedule to reach the starting point, but it was all interstate so I figured I
could make good time. Well right off the bat my schedule encountered a problem
with a multi-vehicle accident on I-10 on the way out of New Orleans --
fortunately I wasn't in that pileup but did have to wait for it to clear. That
delay plus a bio stop put me at the starting point about 40 minutes late.
Finally reaching Osyka I was pleasantly surprised when the first CQ on 40m
quickly put K4BAI in the log followed almost immediately by K1DW and then the
masses descended and followed me to 20m. NO5W/M was open for bizness and would
remain that way for the entire day. It was going to be a fun trip. No more
thoughts of 400 miles, just one stop at a time.
This was my first mobile contesting operation without a driver and I had
planned to make Qs only when stopped so I had used Google Maps Street View to
map out planned stopping points in each county and had included a couple of
county line operations where it looked like I could safely straddle the line
and give out two counties back-to-back. Here's how it went.
Stop Mins Qs HourlyRate
PIKE 24 45 112
AMITE 26 57 132
WILINSON 24 47 118
ADAMS-FRANKLIN 33 112 204
JEFFERSON 18 43 143
LINCOLN 31 69 134
WALTHALL 20 48 144
MARION 18 48 160
LAMAR-FORREST 12 48 240
--------------------------------------------------
Averages/stop 23 57 154
Hours Op Time 206 517 151
The LAM-FOR stop turned out to be on a road with essentially no shoulders. It
was a small road with minimal traffic to only a few houses so I stopped in the
middle of the road and elected to make that a quick stop and only worked 40m.
As it turned out only one vehicle passed by while I was there.
The ADA-FRA stop was not in Googles's Street View but it was definitely the
most interesting. Usually I avoid roads where "Google fears to tread" but I
could see from Streets & Trips that the county line was only about 200 yards
off of US84 down Old Hwy 84 so even though the old highway had seen some better
days and the foliage was pretty overgrow I ventured in. There was no county line
marker as such but there was an abandoned two-story cinder block "juke joint"
with big letters "THE LINE" on the front. According to the Mississippi Brew
Blogger site ADA is wet and FRA is dry so in its heyday this must have been
where Franklin County folks would come to get their adult beverages. Next to
the joint was an old double-wide with a fairly new (less than 15 yrs old) truck
parked outside but no sign of life. I was hoping there wasn't any and
fortunately none showed. Easing the Pathfinder around facing East and watching
the counties change on the CQ/X GPS panel I could see that with a small move
forward I was in FRA and a small move back I was in ADA so indeed "THE LINE"
was where the joint said it was. It was time to CQ. You can see from the above
table that the county line operation produced some good rate during the 33
minutes I was there. It went very well with everyone tuned into the process
and only two stations failed to stay around to receive their second Q. I said
goodbye to the joint and headed on back out to the new US84 and daylight, bound
for JEF.
All the hardware and software worked well. I was particularly pleased with the
county line operation which I had never actually used except in testing when it
was developed several years ago. And the addition of the external wireless
keyboard/mouse on a lapdesk was a good choice as I could type directly into the
keyboard in my lap while giving an occasional glance to the laptop monitor in
the passenger seat, making for a very comfortable operating position in the
driver's seat. I also added a little wireless remote relay that I got off of
ebay for about $10.00. It allowed me to turn on the K3, which is in the rear of
the Pathfinder, from the driver's seat without having to get out of the vehicle.
This came in handy at stops and once when I needed to cycle power on the radio.
Actually there are four relays on the board so I'm looking around for roles for
the other three. How they can sell these things for $10.00 is beyond me.
I had two other stops planned at the end of the route but the schedule delay
put those stops after dark and I had indicated I would only do them in the
daylight. Everyone took me at my word because when I got to the PEA and HAN
stops about 0100Z a few CQs on 40m and 20m netted only a handful of callers. I
decided to pack it in for the 50 mile trip back into New Orleans. I was toast
but all in all it was a great trip. MSQP 2013 was well attended, especially
from the outside. Maybe next year some more mobiles will hit the road in order
to fill out the counties.
Thanks to the following frequent callers who accounted for 50% of my QSOs:
K8MFO(20), KC3X(15), K0PC(15), KN4Y(14), NT2A(14), W7GKF(11), W0GXQ(11),
WA6KHK(11), K4BAI(11), KQ3F(11), WB2ABD(11), W8WVU(10), W5QP(10), N9QS(10),
K0HNC(10), NT5O(10), WA2VYA(9), N8II(9), K1TKL(9), W9MSE(9), K5GE(9), W9AEM(9),
K7TM/M(8), and K4YT(8).
I hope to be out and about again in April for the FQP and possibly the GQP.
Stay tuned to http://www.no5w.com for details.
73/Chuck/NO5W
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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