[3830] FlQP NO5W SO Mobile + Driver CW - Revised
Chuck-NO5W
no5w at consolidated.net
Sun May 11 17:56:51 EDT 2008
Florida QSO Party
Call: NO5W
Operator(s): NO5W
Station: NO5W
Class: SO Mobile+DriverCW LP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40: 662
20: 911
15:
10:
--------------------
Total: 1573 0 CW Mults = 60 Ph Mults = 0 Total Score = 377,520
Club: NARS
Back in Houston now I'll try to repost this report that was truncated due to failure
of the poor internet connection where we were staying after the FQP.
Station Setup
Vehicle: 2002 Pathfinder
Radio: IC-7000
Antenna: HI-Q 4/80 with MFJ-1924 Controller
Power Supply: 75 AHr AGM battery with Super PowerGate
GPS: Garmin 18PC DLX
USB Interface Box: Navigator by US Interface
Logging Software: CQ/X version 1.7.4
Mapping Software: Streets & Trips
Comments -
Wow -- that was intense. My first outing as a mobile in the FQP was in
2007 where I had around 1100 Qs but fell considerably shy of my goal of
1500 Qs. So this year I was really pleased to exceed the 1500 Q goal and
to also increase my mult count from 40 to 60.
At dinner Sunday night on the beach at Seaside my driver, aka my wife
Keri, asked why the results in 2008 were so much improved. Of course my
first response was "more time in the chair thanks to your driving and the
fact that we stayed with it until the closing bell each day" -- as
opposed to shutting down two hours early in 2007. There were other
reasons including, it seemed to me, increased participation and somewhat
better conditions. Here are a few of the memorable moments, one of which
I'd like to forget.
Here Comes One
With so many mobiles on the road in FQP it's likely that, if you're
mobile also, you'll pass another mobile on the road. Keri is in charge
of mobile-spotting. In Taylor as we were headed west she announced "Here
Comes One". Looking up from the radio activity I spotted a pickup with a
heavily guyed antenna rising out of the bed approaching at about 65 mph
and commented, "that might be NF4A, I think he is scheduled to cover
Taylor also." Sure enough about 5 seconds after passing each other NF4A
responded to a CQ and we had a quick QSO about just passing each other.
That was fun.
Counties Everywhere -- Watch Where You Step
Last year I discovered it's fun to travel through Fanning Springs since
Dixie, Gilchrist, and Levy counties all come together there and you have
to be careful where you move or you might enter a new county. Coming up
from Levy in the south we entered Fanning Springs and crossed into
Gilchrist and found a convenient parking spot in the front parking lot
of a Shriner hall under a shade tree. I continued operating and signing
Gilchrist while Keri got out and enjoyed one of our fine QSO party ham
sandwiches. Suddenly she got back in the SUV and said that the antenna
was touching a tree branch and thought we should move forward (south) a
few feet, which she did. She then returned to her lunch only to get some
frantic waving of hands from me -- we had crossed the invisible
Levy-Gilchrist county line back into Levy and the software was
broadcasting "NEW LEV NEW LEV". Backing up a few feet corrected the
problem and I was back on the air in GIL.
Murphy Comes A-Calling
Everything went smooth and as planned for almost the entire trip until
we entered Gulf county. The preceding county (Franklin) had been one of
the longer ones so I was ready for some new activity and I still needed
about 50 Qs to reach the 1500 goal as we entered Gulf. After the first
announcement of the new county the pileup appeared to be huge. About
that time Murphy showed up, tapped me on the shoulder, and said "Hey
radio guy lets show the multitudes what a lid you are when trying to
send 35wpm CW from a paddle while managing a pileup". I'm not sure what
he did but I suspect he injected a little RFI into the WinKey interface
of the Navigator because all of a sudden I couldn't control the WinKey.
I could enter QSOs into the logger and send from the paddle but no
messages were reaching the WinKey. So I struggled and the pileup grew
larger and more restless until finally, possibly thinking it was a lost
cause, the pileup subsided and I decided to restart the WinKey
interface. Happily it came right back up, I was again in business, and
sooner or later the pileup returned. Of course I understand that
real-ops like K1TO eschew the use of a computer and handkey and paper
log the entire FQP -- that's awesome, but requires more work and skill
than this op can muster.
Some County Statistics -
For those who like numbers here's some county stats in the order in
which the counties were covered:
Session 1
Cty TimeInCty 40M Qs 20M Qs TotalQs TenMinRate AvgRate
ESC 00:42:40 12 50 62 72 87
SAN 00:22:33 3 29 32 108 85
OKA 00:21:42 7 17 24 72 66
WAL 00:41:02 0 39 39 102 57
HOL 00:13:33 0 28 28 102 124
WAG 00:14:46 0 30 30 72 122
JAC 00:17:32 1 15 16 84 55
BAY* 01:13:29 20 64 84 102 69
CAH 00:27:05 21 9 30 102 66
LIB 00:29:27 13 20 33 108 67
GAD 00:23:39 6 31 37 138 94
LEO 00:20:42 13 23 36 84 104
JEF* 00:23:50 18 19 37 114 93
MAD 00:27:32 16 17 33 96 72
SUW 00:31:44 8 33 41 144 78
HAM 00:16:29 4 25 29 150 106
CLM 00:26:40 8 19 27 60 61
UNI 00:20:19 21 5 26 108 77
BRA 00:24:50 37 7 44 102 106
CLA 00:06:37 21 0 21 60 190
DUV 00:58:03 76 0 76 54 79
BAK 00:15:26 34 0 34 144 132
NAS 00:22:06 59 0 59 162 160
STJ* 00:49:26 66 0 66 192 80
Session 2
Cty TimeInCty 40M Qs 20M Qs TotalQs TenMinRate AvgRate
PUT 01:17:01 12 60 72 186 56
FLG 00:17:22 40 0 40 174 138
ALC 00:17:45 10 10 20 78 68
MAO 00:36:21 10 26 36 54 59
SUM 00:38:09 7 28 35 132 55
HER 00:30:55 13 36 49 54 95
CIT 00:30:18 13 29 42 168 83
LEV 00:47:03 10 45 55 60 70
GIL 00:20:04 2 24 26 96 78
DIX 00:28:11 7 37 44 144 94
TAY 01:01:36 14 60 74 72 72
WAK 00:31:54 17 25 42 144 79
FRA 00:48:49 24 59 83 162 102
GUL 00:24:04 0 49 49 156 122
TimeInCty = hh:mm:ss accumulated time in county
TenMinRate = hourly rate during first ten minutes after entering county
Dupes have not been removed from this data
*Includes operating time in both sessions.
As you can see there was a good bit of excitement at most of the county changes,
STJ and PUT in particular were fun at their start.
Session 1 had the best route in terms of time in each county. Session 2
was more of a struggle in counties like Putnam, and Taylor which seemed
as if they would never end. Although Putnam had an exciting start we
were slowed down somewhat by construction areas eventually resulting in
a mediocre average rate. We also lost some momentum in Marion and Sumter.
We covered a bunch (38) of counties in this outing missing only one
(Lafayette) of the scheduled counties due to the gate on the road we had
chosen being locked -- I guess in the future we need to make sure we've
chosen public roads! Meeting this schedule would not have been possible
without the excellent driving of my partner, Keri, who keeps us moving
down the green line in more ways than one. The route and total road time
was the most demanding we have attempted. On Saturday night we arrived
in San Augustine worn out and just managed to grab dinner before closing
time -- I wasn't a very popular guy at that point since we hadn't eaten
a real meal since breakfast. Tension was pretty high so I thought it
best to revise our Sunday route to eliminate a couple of the most
out-of-the-way counties and shorten the trip. When I announced my
revised plan on Sunday morning as we pulled out of San Augustine, she
would have none of that and we went back to the original plan -- now
that's a trooper.
Thanks to all the stations that followed us around the entire weekend.
Without the time you spent in the chair our time in the chair (as well
as our gas money -- $3.72 at one fillup) would have been non-productive
and much less fun. Here are some of the frequent callers who contributed
half of our Qs and the number of Qs with each (possibly including some
dupes): VE3KZ(43), K9LJN(38), W8MJ(38), K3WW(31), K8MFO(29), VE3UTT(28),
WA3HAE(28), K5UV(27), K4LTA(25), VA3DX(24), CT1ILT(24), VE3DZ(23),
AA4NC(21), K9QVB(21), N9FC(20), N8II(20), K7SV(19), K3TW(19), W4NZ(17),
N5PO(17),K5WO(17), W4PM(17), W1UE(16), NM2L(16), AA3B(16), W1UJ(15),
WB8JUI(15), WI8A(15), KG5U(14), KT4LF(14), N9CK(14), WB2ABD(14),
W1ZT(13), WB9CIF(13), N3DXX(13), K4BSK(12), N3RJ(12), N2BJ(12),
VE3GSI(12), N8NA(12), K8IJ(12).
The VE3's were really out in force and all with good signals - thanks.
Thanks also to the other Florida stations, mobile and fixed, whose
participation and enthusiasm for the FQP help to make it a great party.
And thanks to all the fixed stations for observing the mobile window as
there were only a few occasions in which I felt QRMed by an in-state
fixed station.
Finally thanks to the FQP for running an outstanding party and always
making us feel welcome.
73 es hope to see you at Dayton,
Chuck/NO5W
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