[3830] FlQP W1NN SO MobileCW LP

Tue Apr 25 13:26:51 EDT 2006

                    Florida QSO Party

Call: W1NN
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: W1NN

Class: SO MobileCW LP
QTH: 22 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   40:   306     
   20:  1675     
   15:           
   10:           
--------------------
Total:  1981    0  CW Mults = 59  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score = 467,516

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

This is approximate and no dupes have been removed.

This was a suitcase mobile operation from a rental car with me doing all of the
operating and driving.  I flew in on Thursday and returned to Ohio on Monday.   

These mobile operations are incredibly intense (at least for me) and there are
always several things that you need to be doing at the same time. I think I left
the car once on Saturday and not at all the whole day on Sunday.  I had plenty
of food with me but I found very little time to eat.    

Overall I can't complain too much because things worked out pretty well.  The
equipment worked well and the car was amazingly quiet, so I didn't have to make
any repairs or adjustments after the start of the contest.  I was hoping to beat
last year's QSO total but fell short by about 90 contacts.  Condx at the start
this year seemed poorer than last year and Day One's QSO total (970) was 96
contacts behind last year.  I hit 12 counties on Day One versus 10 on Day Two. 
You would expect this to result in a better Q total for Day One but in fact it
did not since I managed more contacts on Day Two (1,011).  

I took wrong turns on two occassions on Saturday and spent too much time in two
counties - first in HAR where I spent 63 minutes and later in HIL where I spent
75 minutes.  The later mistake was very costly because I only had 18 minutes to
spend in my last county Saturday night.  If things had gone according to plan, I
would have reached one more county Saturday night and probably would have had an
extra 75 or so contacts for the day.

The same thing happened on Sunday.  I had intended to reach PAL for the last
30-40 minutes, but I spent too much time somewhere and got behind schedule and
just made it to MRT with 16 minutes left.  That was a really stupid mistake
because the final two hours are the most important of the entire contest.  They
have the best pileups so ideally you should hit four counties in the last two
hours of this event and make at least 300-350 contacts then.  Now I understand
the problem associated with Central Florida route planning:  Brevard county. 
It's about a million miles from north to south and I never should have taken it
on.  I spent 1:30 there, killing the rate for the last 30 minutes.  Live and
learn.

Keeping the rate up is the name of the game.  Here's a breakdown of QSO rates by
hour:

Day One

1600-1659  100
1700-1759   92
1800-1859  102
1900-1959  103
2000-2059   95
2100-2159   71  (wrong turn in HAR and stayed too long)
2200-2259  128 
2300-2359  107       
0000-0059   71  (wrong turn in Hillsborough County)
0100-0159  102

1200-1259   92
1300-1359   81
1300-1459   96
1500-1559  101
1600-1659  117
1700-1759  114
1800-1859   52  (Brevard County fiasco)
1900-1959  106
2000-2059  148
2100-2159  119

As Dan mentioned, mults this year were down.  I had 10 less than I had on CW
last year, six fewer DX mults and four fewer NA mults.  Poor condx to the west
may be the main reason for the US mult decline.  But EU sigs were very strong on
Sunday afternoon so I don't know why so few were calling in.  It was especially
nice to work J31JP, CU2JT, HK1AR and 5B4 on the DX side, and all those VE1s and
VE3s to the north.  I must have worked at least 6-7 different VE1 calls.  I
didn't know there were that many hams up there!

I use an old AEA CK-2 memory keyer for calling CQ and reenter the message
everytime I change counties.  Everything else is sent by hand.  By Sunday
morning my arm and hand were really hurting and my sending began to get a little
spastic.  I seemed to have an especially bad time sending those VE callsigns.
All contacts were logged on paper, which probably added to my hand problems.  I
have not figured a way to use a computer for a solo mobile effort, but if anyone
has any ideas, I'm all ears.    

Mobiling in the FQP is just as much if not more fun than operating a contest
from a DX location.  And a lot easier and cheaper.  I know that AD8J, W5WMU and
I all came from out of state to operate, and I think K5KG's partner also flew in
from VE7 land.  In past years, N6MU came in from CA and of course the 
KU8E/K4BAI team came in from Ga a couple of times.  There are probably others I
am forgetting.  Do yourself a favor and get down to FL at least once in your
life and operate this contest as a mobile.  It will be one of the best ham
experiences you will ever have.

Thanks to all of you who followed us mobiles around this year.  Without you
there is no FQP.

73,

Hal W1NN

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