[3830] FlQP KI2G M/SMixed HP

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                    Florida QSO Party

Call: KI2G
Operator(s): KI2G WF3C
Station: KI2G

Class: M/SMixed HP
QTH: ORA
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   40:  194     46
   20:  275    365
   15:   57     14
   10:    0      0
--------------------
Total:  526    425  CW Mults = 73  Ph Mults = 69  Total Score = 209,734

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

Major tnx to KI2G for hosting our M/S from his well-appointed shack in South
Orlando. We both had a great time with the contest. Activity and rates were
high, which is all I look for in any contest. The bands seemed in good shape
from ORA; I was pleasantly surprised to work N4PN in GA during my short
excursion to 15m CW.

The week before the contest, Bob's 2-element quad suffered some storm damage to
the 20m reflector. The driven element was still intact, but the mangled
reflector made for a bad match. We could match it with the rig's internal tuner
but would be barefoot (and radiating who knows how much of the 150w input).
Repair would be impractical, as Bob is legally blind. Fortunately, Bob
discovered that his 80m full-wave vertical matched very well on 20m phone, and
acceptably on 20m cw, so that was our only 20m antenna this weekend. 

I had not done this much phone operation with no DVK in quite some time, and
had forgotten how tiring HP phone operation can be in a contest like FQP. It
seemed that for every strong signal that was quick to work there were three
very weak signals that took at least 60 seconds to complete and confirm the
exchange. That's an artifact, I'm sure, of running high power and the "anyone,
anywhere" CQ message. With no DVK, it didn't take too many unanswered CQs for
me to look longingly at the keyer, and I was often thankful of the lack of
band-change limits for multi-op stations. 

Despite failing at Bob's secondary goal for the contest, working GILchrist
County for his USA-CA award, we had a great time. Tnx to the mobiles,
especially K4BAI operating W4AN/m for giving us a schedule ahead of time and
committing to try 40m for a few minutes in GIL in hopes of completing the QSO.
Apparently 9(!) mobiles were not quite enough to guarantee a single GIL-ORA
contact.

Equipment:

FT-1000MP MkV + Alpha 99 @ 1kw

N1MM ver. 8.0 (which made me alternatively nervous, then happy when I read
about the problems with the latest version crashing trying to log /# or /M)

15m: 2-element quad @ 35'
20m: full-wave vertical (repurposed 80m vertical)
40m: quarter-wave vertical


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