[3830] WiQP WI9WI/M SO Mobile LP

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Wed Mar 18 13:47:29 PDT 2009


                    Wisconsin QSO Party

Call: WI9WI/M
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: WI9WI/M

Class: SO Mobile LP
QTH: WI
Operating Time (hrs): 7

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
  160:    0     0
   80:   41     0
   40:  270     0
   20:   22     0
   15:    0     0
   10:    0     0
    6:    0     0
    2:    0     0
  UHF:    0     0
--------------------
Total:  333     0  Mults = 51  Total Score = 53,449.0

Club: 

Comments:

After last year's debacle in the WIQP when I had major antenna problems and made
less than 100 QSOs I spent quite a bit of time tuning my Bugcatcher antenna the
2 days before the QSO party. I got very good tuning on 20 and 40, and though
the lowest resonant point I could get on 80 was about 3780, it tuned fine on CW
with the tuner.

My goal was to operate from 5 more counties that I hadn't operated from in the
past 15 years of mobile operation in the WIQP. My ultimate goal is to operate
from every WI county.

I left our cabin on Barker Lake in Sawyer Co about 2 hours before the start and
drove  over Cty B through Hayward to 77. About 5 miles east of Minong I went
north on Cty G about 5 miles to the WSB/DOU line. Just inside DOU is a snowplow
turnaround where I parked and set up. I had about an hour, so I retuned the
antenna, getting an SWR of 1.2:1 at 7070. For some reason it wouldn't tune on
20 where it had before, so I set up the Hustler antenna on a magnet roof mount
for 20. Conditions were good, in fact excellent on 40, and after 50 minutes I
left DOU with 53 QSOs in the log and drove the 1 mile back south to a boat
landing in WSB. In spite of tuning well on 80 earlier, the BugCatcher now
exhibited a high SWR even with the tuner. I made only 1 QSO on 80 from DOU and
WSB.

I spent 43 minutes in WSB and made 64 QSOs, 62 on 40. By now it was time to
make the long drive south to BAR. Take down, driving the 64 miles including
getting gas and set up took an hour and 42 minutes. I stow the radio gear and
take the antennas off when driving more than a mile or 2. I drove back to 77,
through Minong to 53, down 53 and 63 south of Cumberland to 48, west on 48,
north on E and then about a mile east to Polk-Barron County Line Road. I set up
in BAR and made 59 QSOs in 59 min. I made 4 on 80, but something wasn't right.
The SWR was high and signals weak. I then drove the 100 ft to the other side of
the road and ran POL for 48 mins. While running on 40, signals suddenly became
weak, and the SWR high. After thinking for a minute, I changed the coax to the
antenna, and voila all was well. After a bit I went to 80, and now with the new
coax the antenna tuned as it had before the start of the contest, so I made 23
QSOs there for a total of 72 in POL before driving 8 miles up to BUR. I haven't
checked out the coax yet but there's obviously a bad connector. I finished up
the last hour in BUR, making 87 QSOs in about 54 minutes.

I did bring a mike, but made no phone QSOs. I only worked 8 WI counties, DAN,
FOR, MRN, MRQ, MIL, TRE, WAS, and WAU. I heard very few mobiles and only worked
a couple. I did work Steve N9CK (DAN) in 4 counties. I probably should have
spent a few minutes on 75 phone to pick up some more Counties. I worked 43 S/P
including WI.

Of the 7 hours of the WIQP, 2 hrs and 36 min were spent driving, adjusting gear
for travel, and troubleshooting. It's a lot, but I'm SOND, and I don't feel
comfortable driving, operating, and logging at the same time. That meant I
actually operated only 4 hrs and 24 min.

After finishing in BUR I stowed everything and set out for the cabin. Just east
of Stone Lake on 70 a deer ran out of the tree line and into the side of my
Subaru Legacy wagon. First deer I've hit (or hit me) in almost 20 years. I
stopped and reviewed the damage. Smashed right front quarter panel, smashed
passenger side of the windshield, smashed rear door. Amazingly the front door
appeared undamaged. The front was untouched, and inspection under the hood
revealed no damage. Killed the deer. Got back to the cabin about 0250Z. Total
driving for the day was an even 200 miles. Early the next morning I started
back to Madison, and about 5 miles south of Ojibwa on 27 the engine overheated
and blew coolant all over. I figured a hose had gone, or the water pump crapped
out. After a bit of a comedy of errors involving a number of calls to AAA I
finally got a tow to Ladysmith. There it turned out to be a stuck thermostat,
no blown hose or anything serious, and totally unrelated to the deer accident.
Five hours after getting sidelined I was back on the road and arrived home
about 10 hours after leaving the cabin.

This turned out to be an expensive trip. I'm sure the deer damage is several
$1K. The upside is the weather was great. Like others I operated with open
door/windows a great deal. Also conditions were very good, and activity was the
best I've ever heard it in the 25 years I've operated the WIQP. I also put 5 new
counties under my belt, and now have covered the whole northern tier of the
state as well as a number of south central counties. I'll be on from somewhere
new next year.

Congratulations to all the great scores out there, particularly the other
mobiles and some great out of state scores. And thanks to the WARAC and the
organizers of this contest.  

73 and thanks for all the QSOs

Jim
WI9WI/M


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