[3830] OhQP W1NN Mobile LP

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                    Ohio QSO Party

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

Class: Mobile LP
QTH: 10 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   80:  172      0
   40:  176     83
   20:  118     29
   15:    2      1
   10:    2      2
--------------------
Total:  471    115  CW Mults = 65  Ph Mults = 48  Total Score = 119,441

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

This was another solo operation from a rental car.  My score was way down from
last year, but I guess that was true for many others too.  

It was a real challenge to even get on the road this year as I had just moved
into a new house in early August and all of my gear was packed up until two
days before the contest.  Then I had some serious trouble with my second
antenna mount giving an intermittant contact, causing the SWR to skyrocket.  I
didn't notice it at first and I just thought it was bad condx, but someone
finally mentioned that I was cutting in and out, which explained why I would
get no answers to my CQ's for long periods of time.  I also had a headache all
day, I guess from lack of sleep the previous couple of weeks, and as night
fell, the oncoming headlights really made it bad.  The RTTY on 40 didn't help
either.  Ordinarily, 80 is very productive but the band was up and down, with
good rates for a while followed by really bad rates.  I was not using the
defective mount so I don't think it was my equipment.  Recently I have been
using the large Hustler for 80 because it has a better bandwidth and seems to
be a little louder than the smaller Hustler resonator, but it is very top heavy
and needs guying to keep it from breaking off.  So I had to guy the thing to the
front bumper in the dark, and then (with one mount unusable) I was stuck on 80
until my last county when I took the Hustler down and put the 40 hamstick back
up.  I had planned to hit Wayne as my final county but I was so discouraged by
my poor rates and so tired that I altered my route and operated from my
driveway for the last 30 minutes.   

During the evening, I kept thinking that I should go to 75 but it was just too
much work to change resonators.  I found out later that K8MR had 66 contacts on
75, so I probably lost quite a few mults by not going to 75.  I've really got
some work to do before the next one.

My rates for the 12 hours:  46, 69, 58, 58, 50, 47, 68, 39, 23, 41, 47, 44. 
Those five final hours were just terrible.  Quite often I am able to get the
rate over 100 per hour during the last two hours, so things were pretty bad, at
least for me.  I'd like to see some other mobile rates for the last few hours to
see how I compared.   

It was good to see the growing numbers of mobiles participating this year.  
Competition is what drives scores higher and there is more every year. 
Congratulations to the K8BB team who came from out of state to take the plaque
with a very smooth operation.  KJ9C, another out-of-stater who also operates
solo, beat me on contacts so I've really got to watch him like a hawk from now
on.

Nice job by several out-of-state home stations.  N4PN nearly broke 400
contacts, KU8E and K8IR were both over 300, and quite a few were getting close
to 300.  I'm sure that it won't be long before some of these guys are pushing
the 500 contact mark.

Despite the problems, it was still a lot of fun.  The OQP remains one of my
favorite contests.  Thanks to everyone, both OH and non-OH, for all the
contacts.  See you next year.   

73,  Hal W1NN


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