[3830] MoQP W0BH/M Rover LP

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                    Missouri QSO Party

Call: W0BH/M
Operator(s): W0BH
Station: W0BH/M

Class: Rover LP
QTH: 25 MO counties
Operating Time (hrs): 15.3

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
  160:            
   80:   97      0
   40:  367     27
   20:  219    184
   15:            
   10:            
--------------------
Total:  683    211  Mults = 64  Total Score = 100,928

Club: 

Comments:

After the 2010 Missouri QSO Party : Exit 86

An early spring blizzard kept us away from the Oklahoma QSO Party, so Lorna and
I were really ready to head out for our first travel adventure of 2010.  Lorna
likes bird-watching as much as I like contesting, so we decided to combine
hobbies.  Lorna found four birding hotspots in southern Missouri and I planned
a route which put us near three of them overnight and one of them enroute in a
rare county.

The equipment configuration in the Astro van hasn't changed since the Kansas
QSO Party. From the 706 with Logikey K-4 keyer, MFJ travel paddle and MFJ Voice
Keyer, I’m using three Hustler vertical sets on triple mag-mounts:
20CW/40CW/15, 20SSB/40SSB/10 and 80CW. Two Dell laptops run NA with keying, rig
control, and DeLorme GPS and Street Atlas software. The only "equipment" problem
we had this trip was before we even started. The rear door of the van locked us
out for awhile, so we attached a wire to the locking mechanism to be able to
manually lock and unlock the door.

Saturday

After staying in a nice Bed and Breakfast in Nevada MO, we headed out to
Lorna's first birding area in Vernon county.  Lorna could probably write a
whole page on that experience, but let's just say she enjoyed it!  With an hour
to go before the 1:00pm start time, we headed over to the second birding area
which conveniently had a county line running through it.  When we got there, we
found a very nice campground on the lake with at least one campsite exactly on
the county line according to my GPS! Something to keep in mind for another
year.  Lorna birded while I had time to install and tweak the antennas and set
up the radio.  At 1:00pm, I put out my first CQ and found NN9K and K4AMC for my
first four Qs.

Saturday went by very smoothly.  Band conditions were good on both 20m and 40m,
and there was definately more activity on than in previous years.  The weather
was "perfect" (especially compared to Oklahoma a few weeks ago) and the
roadsides were just starting to turn green.  Missouri roads in the Ozarks
aren't straight like Kansas roads, so as the day continued, we got further and
further behind schedule.  Since the QSO party ran until midnight, that really
wasn't a problem from a county standpoint, but we ended up skipping one birding
area to reclaim an hour of time.  We rolled into Poplar Bluff in Butler county
about 10:00pm.  I tried a few more Qs from the motel parking lot before pulling
the plug on a successful first day.

Sunday

Sunday found us heading home after another nice birding expedition to Lake
Wappapello State Park.  N6MU managed to work me in every county on Saturday and
he was back on to try and continue the streak.  Lots of others were back as well
which is a big reason this is so much fun. Howell was the only county I went
through twice, once on Saturday and again on Sunday.  As I went into the county
after Howell, K0HNC informed me that the abbreviation for Howell was HWL, not
HOW which I'd been sending.  Sure enough, it was.  I'll put HWL in my log for
Howell since that's where I was. I did not go through Howard county (the real
HOW) on either day.

With a half hour to go, I had just crossed into Lawrence county and started off
on 20m SSB.  N7UR was there as he was many other times this weekend, but this
time an earthquake was, too, and he said he felt it in Nevada.  N6MU reported
the same from California.  That made the last 30 minutes even more exciting as
we rushed to get into one last county before the closing bell.  We made Newton
county with seven minutes to spare and made a few more Qs before time ran out.
John, N6MU, found us there, too, which made him a perfect 100% on my 25
counties. That's a great habit, John!

Right after the party, I found Jerry, K5YAA/m on 80m CW.  He was one county
north heading west towards Joplin on I-44.  I asked him what highway marker and
he sent back 16. A few minutes later he sent back 14 which put him about 15
minutes ahead of us, so we decided to meet for supper.  Jerry stopped to get
gas and we put him in charge of looking for a place to eat.  When he came back
on, he suggested Cheddars.  While looking at the map, I asked him for the exit
and he sent 86, the number of a highway I saw on the map heading south from
I-44 in southwest Joplin.  Since I was expecting a lower exit number, I asked
again and once again heard 86, so 86 it was.  Lorna found Exit 6 for highway 86
and turned right as instructed by Jerry.  A mile later, still no Cheddars (keep
in mind, both Lorna and I are really hungry by now!).  Jerry was off the air
getting a table, so I called him on his cell and found out he'd been sending
8B, not 86!  I teach an air traffic control class at Hesston College, and we
call that "hearback" error .. you hear what you expect to hear.  I saw 86 and
thought I heard 86.  The GPS quickly rerouted us and we arrived even more
hungry a few minutes later!  We pulled in behind his kilowatt mobile van and
trailer combo which were easily recognizable even without a huge coating of ice
and snow. As Jerry so kindly put it in his post, the best QSO of the party was
indeed our lunch together.

Stats

We operated 15.3 hours, 916 combined Qs, 244 unique calls, 8 dupes. Lorna ended
up with 22 contacts in her log. If you need her in yours while we're travelling
along, just ask!

States not worked : HI ND SD VT WY 
Canadian mults worked : BC ON
MO worked : BUC BTR CRL CAS COL CRA GEN JAC LAF LIN LIV MAR PET PHE SAL STL
SLC
DX worked : DL LY HA OE CU HP

QSO Breakdown

          Bob  Bob Lorna      Bob: 894 Qs 64 mults = 100,928
	   CW  SSB   SSB
80	   97    -     -
40	  367   27     2
20        219  184    20
Total     683  211    22

County Breakdown (in visited order)

Saturday - 514 Qs
1  VRN   24   Vernon
2  SCL   54   St Clair
3  CED   31   Cedar
4  HIC   48   Hickory
5  CAM   26   Camden
6  DAL   68   Dallas
7  POL   34   Polk
8  WEB   35   Webster
9  WRT   23   Wright
10 DGL   15   Douglas
11 TEX   16   Texas
12 HWL        Howell (not HOW)
13 SHA   37   Shannon
14 CAR   46   Carter
15 REY   36   Reynolds
16 BTR   21   Butler


Sunday - 380 Qs
17 RIP   29   Ripley
18 ORE   43   Oregon
   HWL   71   Howell (not HOW)
19 OZA   40   Ozark
20 TAN   45   Taney
21 CHR   37   Christian
22 STN   36   Stone
23 BAR   49   Barry
24 LAW   19   Lawrence
25 NWT   11   Newton

Special thanks to the following ops for 10 or (way) more contacts:

51 N6MU
20 AF9T
18 K0HNC N4CD
17 K5CM W1DWA
16 N8NA NT5O
15 K9EN WA7ID
14 N5NA
13 AD5WI DL3DXX N7UR NN8L NO5W W1END
12 K5LH KI2G NW6S W0KSD
11 NS2X NU0Q W3DYA
10 K2XE KU5B N4PN W7OM

Missouri mobiles worked: K5YAA/m K0RU/m

W0BH Award Winners

                 First Place      Very Honorable Mention
Most overall Qs:   N6MU/51          AF9T/20    N4CD/18
Most CW Qs:        N6MU/28          AF9T/20    N4CD/17
Most PH Qs:        N6MU/23          N7UR/13    W1KDA/9
Most counties:     N6MU/25          AF9T/19    N4CD/17

Lorna and I drove a total of 1166 miles round trip from Kansas. The birding /
QSO party combination worked really well and we'll likely try it again next
year in a different part of the state. I also want to congratulate several of
you for last county in Missouri .. happy to help out.  I forgot to write down
calls, so rather than get them wrong, I'll just wait to hear from you.  Thanks
to the BEARS for sponsoring the event, and many thanks to all of you for the
Qs!
                                                               
73, Bob/w0bh and Lorna/k0why


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