[3830] TxQP N5DO SO Mobile LP

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                    Texas QSO Party

Call: N5DO
Operator(s): N5DO
Station: N5DO

Class: SO Mobile LP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 17

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                   
   80:   19              
   40:  120     75       
   20:  698     40       
   15:   66      1       
   10:                   
    6:                   
    2:                   
  UHF:                   
----------------------------
Total:  903    116      0  Mults = 99  Total Score = 314,159

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Thanks to James, K5FD, for driving about 1142 miles while I operated -- and for
keeping the vehicle going.

Last year was my first time to operate a contest mobile, so I thought I could
certainly improve this year.  But this was a different year -- I had about 50
more QSOs this year than last, but aboout 50 less multipliers.  That was due
mostly to the lack of 40M this year.  Last year I had 715 QSOs on 40M, this
year only 195.  I picked up a lot of Texas counties for mults on 40 last year.

The other big difference was that I had a hard time hearing this year.  Same
antenna, same rig, but everything seemed much noisier.  Sunday conditions
seemed so bad on 40 and 20 that I assumed some sort of solar event had
occurred.  I went up to 15, and everyone I heard was very loud, but there were
not a whole of people up there.

James (K5FD) and I had talked about improvements we could make to our physical
set-up for a long time since last year's contest, but we waited until Wednesday
night before the contest to start making them. It took two very late nights (or
early mornings).  We made some improvements, but were definitely tired when we
started. 

One major improvement was the use of NO5Ws CQ/X program.  Last year I used TR
Log, and had to open a different log for each county.  Because I waited until
late to download CQ/X, I wasn't able to use a GPS, but CQ/X works super as a
stand alone program.  I loaded my county crossings file into CQ/X and with one
keystroke I could change counties on the program.  Next year I plan to have the
GPS going so I can save the one keystroke.
  
We got a late start Friday night and drove east 260 miles to Eagle Pass
(Maverick County), spent a short night in a motel, and started back to home,
zig-zagging our way back to the west.  We spent Saturday night in our own beds
in Alpine, then did a western swing on Sunday.

The major excitement came on Saturday when we left Val Verde County and went
into Edwards County miles from any community.  Suddenly James lost all power
functions on his diesel pickup -- steering, brakes, etc.  We stopped and found
that the idler pulley had failed and the serpentine belt was destroyed. 
Luckily (I feel it was luck, James says that it is just good prudent sense to
travel with some spare parts), James had spares.  With me holding the tools and
James doing all the work, the pulley and belt were replaced in a little over an
hour and we were back on the road.

All-in-all it was fun time again, and we are already talking about what we can
do better next time.


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