[3830] FlQP NN4TO/M(@K8NZ/M) M/SCW LP

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                    Florida QSO Party

Call: NN4TO/M
Operator(s): K1TO, K8NZ
Station: K8NZ/M

Class: M/SCW LP
QTH: 50 counties
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   40:   709     
   20:  2041     
   15:     0     
   10:     0     
--------------------
Total:  2750    0  CW Mults = 71  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score = 781,000

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

NN4TO honors Vic, N4TO who loved mobiling in the FQP and passed away last
August.  


Station:
20 & 40 Meter Hamsticks on top of K8NZ's Honda Odyssey passenger van
ICOM IC-746 @ 100W
Many comparative reports put us about equal with the other mobiles, while one
W7 placed us down in the 3rd tier of mobile signals.  


2749 QSOs:
All hand logged (only one incoherent, sleep deprived log entry) and sent with a
paddle (except for a generic CQ message in the rig's keyer).  

Highlight was the last hour of each day - 212 QSOs on Sat. and 186 QSOs on
Sun.
Activity seemed up from last year, despite the out-of-staters having more FL
stations to work than ever.  After we crossed many county lines, we would CQ
and hear nothing but crickets.  At other times, we had a few followers that
would call right away.  Perhaps folks are following each of the mobiles based
on their posted route plans and stalking the ones that are approaching needed
counties.  

The outpouring of activity from Ontario is tremendous.  We worked over 300,
about 11% of our total QSOs.  
We also thank the many worldwide FOC members who worked us with the special
callsign.  
We loved having DX call us in most counties.  

40 Meters was a bigger part of the total than expected, making at least one QSO
on 40M in 29 of our 50 counties.  There was a dedicated group of W4s poised all
day long on 40 to pounce on any new station that appeared there.  We appreciate
their support of the FQP, in spite of them having little or no 20M action.  

We stuck within the mobile window the whole time.  Several times, we had fixed
stations in Florida plop down on top of us, but eventually they all went away. 
It is hard to chase away a station who cannot hear you on 20M and is louder than
you are!  


71 Mults:  
Missed ME, ND, SD and AK
This meant that the other 46 states were active.  We appreciated the activity
from the harder states, many of which we worked multiple times.
Worked VE1-2-3-4-6-7
DX: CT CU CX DL F G HK HP I KP4 LU LZ OK PA SM SP YV ZP 9A
We were real encouraged by the DX activity, despite the complete absence of
sunspots.  

Just before the Sunday AM start, the loudest station on 20 was from Finland and
we also heard needed mults HB9 and OZ.  But once the bell rang, we chose not to
hunt mults and never did work any of those countries.  


Route:
The original plan was to duplicate the 51 county route that N4KM and K1TO took
last year, but an announced major highway construction delay in Tampa caused us
to eliminate PIN from the plans.  We feared the worst, with dozens of new road 
projects under way, but thankfully, none were active during our weekend tour. 


We missed one turn in CIT Saturday that sent us flying due west towards the
Gulf instead of northbound.  As a consequence, we whittled away at the
30-minute backlog for the rest of the day.  In the last hour, with many
counties to cover, we miscalc'd our reduced stop times and almost missed NAS
altogether, arriving literally within the last minute and only managing 3 QSOs
there.  

As mentioned in several other posts, an excellent gathering was arranged
Saturday night just south of Jacksonville.  Team NN4TO met up with Team K4KG
(K5KG, VE7ZO), Team W4AN (K4BAI, KU8E) and NO5W.  W5WMU couldn't attend due to
a mechanical difficulty on Sat, but it was great fun to compare notes on Day
One and look fwd to Day Two and beyond.  How many other events do you know of
where the competitors meet for a beer at the halfway point, without losing any
ground?!

Perhaps the worst thing about the trip was the frequent power line noise.  With
many signals right near the ambient noise level to begin with, any man-made junk
was especially unwelcome.  

Amazingly, no love bug swarms were encountered this year.  It was 9 more days
until I ran into any at all.  

If you read this far, you must actually have some interest in the FQP.  Please
answer the FQP survey so that we can get your input on various issues and
questions.  
http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/cq-contest/2009-April/085134.html

Thanks again to everyone who worked us!

73, Dan, K1TO on behalf of Ron, K8NZ

-------------------------------
Unduped QSOs by hour:
16	135
17	128
18	127
19	135
20	115
21	 87
22	110
23	111
0	187
1	212
	
12	118
13	131
14	138
15	156
16	157
17	115
18	166
19	131
20	150
21	186


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