[3830] TxQP W0BH/M Multi-Op Mobile LP

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                    Texas QSO Party

Call: W0BH/M
Operator(s): W0BH AD0DX
Station: W0BH

Class: Multi-Op Mobile LP
QTH: KS
Operating Time (hrs): 17.7

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                   
   80:                   
   40:   210    37       
   20:  1004   399       
   15:   557    48       
   10:    15     0       
    6:                   
    2:                   
  UHF:                   
----------------------------
Total:  1785   484      0  Mults = 112  Total Score = 743,176

Club: 

Comments:

Saturday

This year, Ron/ad0dx and I were able to put in a full time Multi-Op low power
single radio effort after our shortened run last year. Ron needed to be back at
the Wichita KS airport by 7:00pm to catch a flight, so our planned route
reversed my normal route and ended up four hours from Wichita in Lipscomb, the
very far northeast panhandle county. The forecast was for rain and cooler
temps, so we were able to take my favorite but non-air-conditioned 91 Astro van
with the same equipment as last year. Both the equipment and the van ran great,
but as is usual with 18 hours of QSO party, interesting things happen.

The weekend forecast showed that most of the rain would be over in the Texas
Panhandle by TQP kickoff, but obviously that was not the case for the rest of
the state. As we headed out from our motel in Liberal KS, it was really foggy.
The fog lifted as we drove across the Oklahoma panhandle and closed in on
Texas. Because of our tight schedule, we planned to start about 15 miles into
Texas in Ochiltree county and we did. Sometimes it takes a few counties to
start the pileups, but this year they started right away .. a good sign. A
couple of counties in, we came around a corner and found the road full of hay
bales. Luckily, most of them were on the other side of the road or our party
might have stopped right there. The truck that dumped them was nowhere to be
seen.

Radio conditions were good and just kept getting better all weekend. We started
out on 40m, then found 20m wide open and even put some 15m contacts in the log
already the first hour. 15m just kept getting better and better. Texas stations
get mults from both Texas counties and DX, so it was a scramble to try to rotate
through all the bands looking for mults while working our faithful followers. We
were the only mobile on CW in all our counties so CW was our first priority, but
we tried to put out SSB as well from any solo counties.

I ran the first three counties, then Ron took over the rig and sent his first
CQ. Ron had terrific practice during the Kansas QSO Party, so he was as ready
as one can be for the pileups. We both had keys, so I could answer comments
directed to me or help him out while he relearned the NA logging software
keystrokes. With two sets of ears picking out calls, we got better at "on-deck"
operations as the weekend went along. Once, one of our keys stuck and started
sending continuous dits until we switched the rig to SSB. It turned out that
Ron's key had fallen to the floor while he was using the computer to send and
had turned on it's side.

Our luck with the weather held until Oldham county on the western side of the
panhandle when the sky cut loose for about half an hour. At one point, Ron was
getting dripped on as water found its way through the door seal .. something
that has never before happened in my van. We slowed way down and visibility was
really poor at times, but the signals kept pounding in. We drove out of it as we
headed eastbound on I-40 through Amarillo. The run at the Carson/Armstrong
county line made it all worthwhile!

Mid-afternoon found us in Parmer county on the western side of the panhandle.
My GPS software suggested a planned shortcut to detour around a town, but we
couldn't find the road because of a divided highway. I suggested an alternate
route which turned out to be wrong. The GPS quickly showed us how to get back
on course via some back roads, the first of which was muddy but passable, the
second which rapidly narrowed and looked like it could get seriously bad. As
Ron tried to turn around, we almost spent the rest of our QSO party right there
with the wheels spinning. They finally inched us backward just enough to
complete the turn and we escaped minus about thirty minutes.

I had a few timing stops built into our schedule which could be skipped if
necessary, so we used them up. We also made use of the great paved Texas
highway system and fast speed limits to get back some time, but that caused
another problem. Some starling sized birds flew up from the ditch and I heard a
bang as one of them hit one of my Hustler antennas while we were going full
speed. Since the SWR remained good on both the CW and SSB arrays, I didn't
worry about it at the time, but later when we tried 80m CW for the first time I
couldn't get the coil to tune. A quick stop showed the problem .. the bird had
taken off the stinger and broken the part with the set screws where the stinger
attached. I had lots of spare antenna coils and stingers, but not a second 80m
CW coil, so we were out of luck.

As Saturday turned dark, I was once again worried about getting stuck on a
sandy / dirt road in Motley county. We made only seven contacts before bailing
out and heading back into King county and pavement. By then, getting closer to
our overnight stop in Paducah was a great idea. I had found a hotel called the
Hunter's Lodge which looked interesting. The building was obviously repurposed.
when we asked about it, the girl at the front desk asked if we were
superstitious.  We said no, so she informed us that the building used to be a
mortuary which her family had converted into a 12 room hotel. It was actually
really nice with a cafe right next door, and I would stay there again!  We
ended the day with 1433 Qs in the log.

Sunday

Sunday dawned clear and blue .. a great day for a mobile to be out and about.
This time we stayed on schedule and the pace picked up from Saturday. Ron did
so well on CW, that he operated the entire time we were moving. I just worked a
two-county line stop, the four-county line stop, and SSB if we had time. Last
year we were at the same four-county line and were immediately visited by the
farmer who owned the land. This time his son appeared before I even got
started. They really kept a close eye on it or else we were the only excitement
that happened since last year! Ron explained what we were up to and they knew
all about ham operators, so all was well. It was a great run. Sorry about the
dupes. I normally can check which counties you all need and only give you
those, but this time I forgot and only checked for one.

A big surprise was to have DL3DXX call and suggest 10m. We tried and it worked,
so I went back there from time to time and picked up some more DX mults. Even
the coyotes celebrated by running in front of us .. two of them in about a
quarter of a mile.

The only traffic problem we had was a rollover accident blocking traffic in our
second to last county. I had planned to exit Texas about 15 minutes early as a
safety buffer in getting Ron to the airport, but we were stopped for about 15
minutes while Ron continued to work CW. Traffic finally started moving again
and we crossed into Oklahoma one minute after the end of the TQP. And yes, Ron
made his flight on time!

Stats

We operated 17.7 hours, 2270 Qs, 417 unique calls, 32 dupes, 1423 miles. 

US/VE Worked : 46
TX worked : 59 counties
DX worked : 17 countries

Rates (includes dupes)
-------------------------- 
Sat 1400 - 2000 : 121 / hr 
Sat 2000 - 0200 : 119 / hr
Sun 1400 - 0200 : 143 / hr

Total W0BH/m : 2270 Qs, 112 mults, 35,000 bonus = 743,176 points

County Breakdown (in visited order)

Saturday (524 miles during the QSO party)
01 OCHI 032 Ochiltree
02 HANS 062 Hansford
03 HUTC 067 Hutchinson
04 MOOR 050 Moore
05 SHMN 042 Sherman
06 DALM 028 Dallam
07 HART 068 Hartley
08 OLDH 058 Oldham
09 POTT 069 Potter
10 CARS 063 Carson
11 ARMS 063 Armstrong
12 RAND 078 Randall
13 DSMI 083 Deaf Smith
14 CAST 055 Castro
15 PARM 112 Parmer
16 BAIL 059 Bailey
17 LAMB 066 Lamb
18 SWIS 038 Swisher
19 HALE 034 Hale
20 FLOY 101 Floyd
21 BRIS 054 Briscoe
22 CROS 057 Crosby
23 DICK 045 Dickens
24 KING 019 King
25 COTT 014 Cottle
26 MOTL 007 Motley

Sunday (247 miles during the QSO party)
25 COTT 022 Cottle (again)
27 CHIL 093 Childress
28 HALL 121 Hall
29 DONL 078 Donley
30 COLW 051 Collingsworth
31 WHEE 101 Wheeler
32 HEMP 133 Hemphill
33 GRAY 062 Gray
34 ROBE 086 Roberts
35 LIPS 098 Lipscomb

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

52 NT2A
51 WA6KHK
49 N6MU
40 N4PN
39 DL3DXX
35 K3TW
33 ND3R
32 W1END W4UCZ
31 K5KG YV5OIE
28 VE3OM   
27 K5WAF
26 K4YT
25 N4UF
23 N1LN N4JF
22 W8CAG
21 KC3X N9AUG
20 KB4FS N8II OE5KE
19 DL3GA
18 AB7NK W4UT
17 AB7RW K5LH W4YWX
16 N3KR N3RJ N3UM N7XU NX5M OK2EC VE1RGB W1DWA W2AJW W8IQ
15 K4YFH N4JT W4ANT WB8WKQ
14 K8QWY KB8OMG KI0I N4CD NN6CH VE3KZ W0SK W4AU
13 AA6XV K2RP K4ORD W4IHI
12 KK4HEG W0PAN W7GVE W8POF WQ5L
11 DL6KVA K4XI K8JQ K9EN KN4Y N6ENO W0EAR WB0PYF
10 AB5ZA/7 AC5K AF5BV K0IO K4BAI K9AAA N4GG WB5BKL
09 3 ops
08 8 ops
07 13 ops
06 15 ops
05 17 ops
04 25 ops
03 29 ops
02 75 ops
01 156 ops
 
Texas mobiles worked (3): W5MJ/m W3DYA/m K5CM/m

W0BH Award Winners - First Place ---- Very Honorable Mention
---------------------------------------------------------------
Most overall Qs ---- NT2A/52 -------- WA6KHK/51 -- N6MU/49
Most CW Qs --------- NT2A/52 -------- N6MU/48 ---- DL3DXX/39 
Most PH Qs --------- WA6KHK/AB7NK/17- W2AJW/16 --- W0PAN/KK4HEG/12
Most counties ------ N6MU/NT2A/34 --- N4PN/31 ---- WA6KHK/29 


Afterwards

Thanks as always to Chuck/no5w for coordinating the event. Chuck and Alan/n5na
recently visited Kansas and operated multi-op mobile in the Kansas QSO Party.
We'd enjoy even more Texas mobiles next year! Thanks to NARS for sponsoring the
event and thank you all for once again making the TQP one of my favorite
operating events.

73, Bob/w0bh and Ron/ad0dx


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/