[3830] MiQP K8MQP(@W8MJ) M/S HP

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                    Michigan QSO Party

Call: K8MQP
Operator(s): K8CC, KE8OC, W8MJ
Station: W8MJ

Class: M/S HP
QTH: LIVI
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   80:  100     94
   40:  203    253
   20:   40     80
   15:    0      1
   10:    0      0
--------------------
Total:  343    428  CW Mults = 97  Ph Mults = 109  Total Score = 229,484

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

EQUIPMENT:

80/25/15    FT-1000MP Field, AL-1200, 80 dipoles, Three-stack of TH7s
40          FT-1000MP Field, AL-2300, dipole, wire beam, 2L Telrex

After several years in the multi-multi category, the K8MQP team dropped back to
multi-single this year.  Several of the principals of the K8MQP effort are part
of the team that goes to St. Croix for WPX SSB, and we learned last year that
the short time between the two contests makes it hard to organize a competitive
Field Day style multi-multi for MiQP.  This year's effort literally fell into
place on the Monday evening before the contest with the decision to do a
multi-single from W8MJ's contest station in Livingston County.

We split Ken's regular SO2R setup into two stations on Saturday morning, and
added a logging computer brought in by K8CC for the second station.  After
networking the two logging computers, replacing a bad coax on the 80 dipole,
and pruning the length of the 40 dipole, everything was ready to go 30 minutes
before the start.  One rig was on 40M and the other rig did all of the other
bands.  The rigs were arranged so that the operators were shoulder-to-shoulder
and only one rig transmitted at a time to keep within the MiQP rules.

Our third op, Tim/KE8OC was only available for the beginning of the contest due
to a schedule conflict, so we let him start the contest on 7223 KHz.  The band
was quiet and the skip was good in-state and Tim made 202 QSOs and 73 mults in
2:46 without touching the VFO dial.  More importantly, lots of in-state
multipliers went into the log during this stretch.

Dave/K8CC followed this with a stint on 40 CW with rates that were excellent
initially but dropped off sooner than expected.  At 1954, Ken/W8MJ went to 20M,
first on CW then later on SSB.  Rates were initially decent, but not
spectacular.  We were pleased to have a lot of Europeans answer our CQs, even
with the beams aimed west.  20 SSB was more productive than it usually is from
Michigan, but again the rates tapered off sooner than expected and our last 20M
QSO was at 2147Z.

In recent years 80M/75M has been very productive for in-state QSOs, even during
the daylight hours.  Not so this year - activity on these bands in the early to
middle portions of the contest was pretty spare, but picked up late in the
contest.  This was likely because 40M stayed short enough for MI-to-MI QSOs,
even at night and many stations spent more time on that band.  We were working
Michigan stations (even mobiles) on 40M well into the final hour of the
contest.

Our goal for the contest was to break the MiQP Multi-Single record of 187K set
by K8EPV in 2009, and our claimed score of 229K accomplished that goal.  (We'll
see how well we survive logchecking :-) )  To be honest, we expected to make
more QSOs, although we did pretty well on multipliers.  Our claimed mult count
of 226 with one transmitter is only two less than the 228 we claimed with five
transmitters in 2010 from the same QTH.

No doubt our multiplier count was aided immensely by the excellent mobile
activity this year.  Our mobile QSO counts were:

K8MR/m    10
NE9U/m     9
K8IR/m     8
W1NN/m     6
W8CAR/m    5
NF8M/m     3

Congratulations to these fine mobile efforts!

Thanks for all of the QSOs and we hope everyone had a great time in MiQP 2012!

73,

Dave/K8CC
Tim/KE8OC
Ken/W8MJ


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