[3830] LaQP KU5B Rover LP

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                    Louisiana QSO Party

Call: KU5B
Operator(s): KU5B, W5JSJ
Station: KU5B

Class: Rover LP
QTH: Various
Operating Time (hrs): 10

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  CW Mults  Ph Mults
----------------------------------------
  160:                              
   80:    8              5          
   40:  474     2       46         2
   20:  388             37          
   15:   30              7          
   10:                              
    6:                              
    2:                              
----------------------------------------
Total:  900     2       95         2  Total Score = 351,038

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Vehicle: 2007 Suzuki SX4
Laptop: Dell Inspiron 6000 running CQ/X 1.7.9
Rig: Yaesu FT-100D
Antenna: Little Tarheel II hatch mounted

Thanks again to my dad, W5JSJ, for driving me around. Miraculously we made it
through all the planned parishes in just over 10 hours. He never missed a turn
and made sure we found a good place to stop in the smaller parishes.

During the drive over to LA we had a rock hit the windshield before we even got
to Beaumont, TX and my dad spent a good 30 minutes on the phone with the
insurance people trying to find a place to get the chip fixed. Fortunately, we
found a place in Lafayette where we stayed Friday evening and by 8:30 Saturday
morning it was repaired. I couldn't help but think this could be an omen.
Thankfully we really had no major problems.

We got to Lafayette around 5pm on Friday and relaxed a bit until going to Don's
Seafood and Steakhouse in downtown Lafayette for some good dining. We spent the
rest of the evening watching a bit of TV and getting some sleep. Saturday
morning we had breakfast at the hotel and went to the glass repair shop. We got
to the Lafayette-St.Martin line 10 minutes before the start and I finally got
CQ/X and the rest of the programs to play happily together with 5 minutes to
spare. Chuck, NO5W, called me on 40 soon thereafter and was quite loud. I never
heard Chuck the rest of the day.

40 was amazingly quiet the whole day and I could hear N5NA and W3DYA pretty
well most of the day. In fact, I had 9 Q's with N5NA and 5 with W3DYA. 20
seemed to be open as usual but didn't seem really stellar. 15 was open to both
the East and West coasts for a good part of the day but I really never heard
anything in between the two coasts. Most of my 15 Q's are with N6MU and AB7RW
with KV8Q calling in when he had prop.

Thanks to everyone for getting on and making this a lot of fun. The continual
following really makes for a good time.

The parishes I covered were all pretty small so that made for some quick pileup
management and lots of fumbling around trying to switch bands efficiently. Going
from Jefferson to St. Tammany parish required going over the Lake Pontchartrain
Causeway. The 30-something mile long bridge over salt water made the bands the
most quiet they'd ever be the whole day and brought the signals WAY up
especially on 40.

I had only a couple of minor problems this time. A bit of RF getting into the
WinKey USB on 15m made the keyer throw out garbage every now and then. I lost
the ability to key in a couple of parishes which I found out to be because of
my foot hitting the cable in just the right way and making it not work. I moved
it out of the way during a stop and it never happened again. The last problem
was with the Tarheel Controller. The antenna would move but the counter would
not change or it would change rapidly. Quick band changes turned into a minute
or two of tweaking the antenna. Otherwise, it seems my RF problem on 80 has
gone away! I'm glad I never tried SSB because when I got on for the sprint
after running Cameron, the only two people I worked (KA9FOX and N5DO) told me I
had RF problems in my audio. I'm guessing that's probably a grounding issue
which I'll try to resolve by next year.

Here are some of my top callers: KV8Q(48), N6MU(38), NT2A(32), W4SIG and
K5WAF(29), K9EN(26), W0GXQ, AB7TW, and N5XG(25), W5ESE and NT5O(20), N4PN and
NW6S(19), KC3X and K8QWY(18), N5QLZ(17), K8NYG and K4YT(16), K4AMC, WA2VYA, and
K0LG(15), K7TM(13), K2HVN(12), K7INA, W9OP, and N4JT(11), K0PC, N9QS, W2CVW,
W4UCZ, and K7ZYV(10).

Also thanks to the DX who followed me around: DL3DXX(16), LY5A(9), G3WPF(5),
DL3IAC, SP5SA, and HA8IB(2).

Great job by the other rovers for putting on a great show.

Chuck, NO5W, and I will be running the MSQP in a couple of weeks in his
Pathfinder so give us a listen!

73,
Colin KU5B and Stacy, W5JSJ


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