[3830] TxQP K5NA/M Multi-Op Mobile LP

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                    Texas QSO Party

Call: K5NA/M
Operator(s): K5NA,K5DU,KI5DR,W5ZL
Station: K5NA/M

Class: Multi-Op Mobile LP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                   
   80:                   
   40:     8   583       
   20:  1327    48       
   15:   545     0       
   10:                   
    6:                   
    2:           8       
  UHF:                   
----------------------------
Total:  1880   639      0  Mults = 175  Total Score = 1,251,150

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Last Year Scott (KI5DR) and I went out in his van as a TXM MO with me doing CW
and him doing SSB, driving, and computer logging all at the same time. Now that
is a scary thing to consider as we wandered over the West Texas roads in 2003.
This year we wanted to improve our setup and make it less scary.

Our team was initiated in 2003 as the "Driving Burrito Brothers". The name seems
appropriate in more ways than one as you will find out. To improve our scoring
in 2004, we decided that we needed more burritos.

First we added Susan (K5DU) as our designated driver and VHF/UHF operator. Then
we started looking for a third operator so we could cover 15M 20M and 40M
effectively. We couldn't find a third opertor until Gary (W5ZL) became available
about 4 weeks before the TQP was to happen. This was a lucky break for us as
Gary is an excellent operator as well as an outstanding planner/organizer.

I worked hard to get superior grounding installed in Susan's Tahoe and I think
that was main key to our success. We did a dry run about a week before the TQP
and everything was looking pretty good.

As the 15M operator,I had the good fortune to be seated in the front passenger
seat with a great view of the Texas scenery for the 18 hours of the TQP. Texas
is a beautiful and diverse state. Last year I wasn't as relaxed as I could have
been, though the scenery was just as beautiful as this year's. This year I got
the full enjoyment of some terrific Texas territory. Susan did a great job of
driving us while I ran pileups and eyeballed the Texas landscapes unfolding
before me. Radio contesting just doesn't get better than that.

Meanwhile Scott (KI5DR) was in the second row of seats milking 40M for all it
was worth. 40M SSB is a tough band because you have to S/P and run and be on
your toes to catch all the multipliers as they become available. Scott is
terrific at doing this. But Sunday morning before we got started, he snagged a
bad Breakfast Burrito in Kingsville and he felt terrible for the rest of the
day.

Gary (W5ZL) was in the third row of seats with his radio and headphones on
operating in pileup-heaven on 20M. He pumped out the 20M QSOs and gave us the
big QSO numbers that we needed to build a great score. "There is no meters like
20 meters" I have always heard.

Susan's driving kept us on track and ahead of schedule. We managed to touch a
couple of extra counties thanks to her.

Please read on and see additional comments from each of the operators.

73, Richard - K5NA


(de K5DU)
Had a great time: beautiful scenery, good roads, busy passengers, no backseat
drivers. I drove 1,100 miles and averaged 1 QSO per 157 miles. 

(de KI5DR)
McBotulism stinks. :-)
 
Had an awesome time with the Gurus of contesting - K5NA/K5DU/W5ZL.  Conditions
were fair on Saturday but seemed to improve greatly once we arrived at the Gulf
Coast.  I received several compliments on excellent signal from my IC-706MkIIg
as we drove across the Salty Marshlands of the Left Coast.
 
Grounding and Bandpass filters made ALL the difference!  All the computers
worked, all the antennas worked, and we had no radio failures either.  South
Texas is really beautiful this time of year, and while we anticipated getting
trouble from Tropical Storm Ivan, nothing ever materialized during our route.
 
The contest was constantly exciting with all of the Rovers going across the
state.  We kept up our pace to cover 35+ counties and Susan K5DU kept us on
time.
 
There was some decent competition between the rovers, yet we still continued to
share frequencies amongst the group so EVERYONE got a chance to work the Rovers.
 K5T and K5P were two special event callsigns, and they quickly realized have a
call that sounds similar is not always the best - some confusion occurred
between K5T and K5P, and I think some of their contacts were mis-logged.  I'm
sure next year they'll choose something that does not sound the same!
 
Thanks to all the nice, loud home stations for pulling us out of the weeds. 
Special note of gratitude to K5YAA in Oklahoma, who somehow ALWAYS found me
wherever I went! (Just HOW does he do it, anyway??)
 
See Y'all again next year!
 
73,
Scott


(de W5ZL)
The View from the Back Seat

I just don’t know how a body can have more fun with his clothes on in ham
radio!

As the newest Driving Burrito Brother I had the good fortune of being the 20
meter station op. With Richard K5NA doing all the heavy lifting – power,
grounding, bandpass filters, and antennas and antenna switching – I was tasked
to do the pre-contest route planning and then took the most comfortable seat in
the car, from which I watched Susan reel off the miles and counties while I
knocked off 1,300 plus Q’s with my 756 Pro II. Twenty was, in Richard’s words,
“the money band” for this contest, and deservedly or not, it was mine for the
weekend. Compared to Richard’s having to slog it out on a mostly dead 15 meter
band, and the stealth Scott had to exercise in his (mostly S&P) 40 phone
operation, I had it easy on 20 CW. “Here I am. Come to papa!” And they did.

So what’s so much fun about sitting in the back of an SUV for 18 hours tethered
like an astronaut by cables and power connectors crisscrossing your lap and
chest? Well first off, this is one gorgeous state, and though I’m a native
Texan, I had never been to some of the areas we traversed. Secondly, for two
brief days in September TQP lets us mere mortals be rare DX every half hour or
so as we hit a new county and become fresh meat. Talk about a cheap thrill!

Running three 100 watt computer-assisted contest stations simultaneously in a
single vehicle without clobbering each other is a tremendous challenge and some
inter-station interference is inevitable in the best of installations. We
weren’t totally immune in the BurritoMobile, but it was for me mostly quite
manageable on 20. Regrettably, I know there were times when stations were
calling me and I simply couldn’t make them out through the fuzz. Several times
both Saturday and Sunday I was getting really bashed by a swishy noise right on
my frequency that eliminated all but the strongest stations. Hard to describe,
but the intruding noise had the sound of a dying washing machine gooshing back
and forth across MY frequency seemingly in response to my transmissions (I was
QSK). I assumed that this was some internally generated moving birdie from any
of a multitude of onboard sources. Monday night after the contest while telling
our respective TQP war stories at the CTDXCC meeting I learned that EVERYBODY
was hearing this garbage, and had I just QSY’d up three or four I’d have
probably escaped most of it. In the inimitable words of Homer Simpson, DOH!!!

Thanks to Richard, Susan and Scott for inducting me into the Burrito
Brotherhood, and especially to all those stations who seemed to instantly appear
to welcome me at almost every new county line. Some that come to mind are KN4Y,
WA3HAE, AB7RW, K1TN, K2UR, K4BAI, K4MUT, K5YAA, KS5A, N1QY, N4JF, N6MU, VA7LC,
NW6S, W3BBO, and W8TM, to name a few. And very special thanks to DL3GA, SP4JWR,
LY3BA and RK2FWA, with whom we enjoyed sharing a little piece of our state from
afar. 

Gary


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