[3830] TxQP WB0TEV SO SSB Mobile LP

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                    Texas QSO Party

Call: WB0TEV
Operator(s): WB0TEV
Station: WB0TEV

Class: SO SSB Mobile LP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 16.5

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                   
   80:                   
   40:         256       
   20:         669       
   15:          27       
   10:           8       
    6:                   
    2:                   
  UHF:                   
----------------------------
Total:   0     960      0  Mults = 123  Total Score = 272,160

Club: North Texas Contest Club

Comments:

Wow what a ride!  Drove 750 miles across 35 counties in NE Texas. 

So would this be the year that WB0TEV finally finishes "in the money" and gets
a plaque for the shack wall, or will he get edged out yet again?  Stayed
tuned!

If you just can't bring yourself to slog thru the entirety of this ponderous
tome, then at least skip to the end and check out my recipe for "Broiled Ham -
Texas Roadkill Style"!  

In years past I've teamed with with Mark, KK5MR.  Typically I drive and operate
SSB while Mark makes the pencil lead fly doing the logging on paper.  Last year
I decided to get fancy. I'd sit in the passenger seat doing operating and
logging (using N1MM on a laptop computer vice pencil and paper) and would even
do a bit of CW, even though my telegraphy skills leave something to be desired,
while Mark would do all the driving.

I did have Mark make 1 QSO last year as I intended to enter as multi-op mobile.
 As it turned out, if I had thrown away all the CW contacts and that 1 QSO made
by KK5MR and entered as TX  Mobile Single OP SSB Only,  my score in 2011 would
have been tops in that category.  As it was, we ended up 3rd in the TX Mobile
Multi-op category instead.   Lesson learned: play to your strengths (my loud
mouth for SSB) rather than your weaknesses and choose your category wisely.

For 2012 I had put together a 35 county plan with 24 on Saturday and 11 more
Sunday.  As usual my route would take me past my old alma mater of LeTourneau
University in Longview where my two harmonics are now students.  I planned for
a 90 minute stop there to visit my son and daughter (a recently minted ham
herself - N5AGP)  and deliver care packages from the XYL.  Unlike the previous
year where I made a loop to the south after supper and stayed the night at a
Longview motel, I opted to swing back to my home in Hunt county and spend the
night in my own bed, ready to launch out again Sunday AM. 

I decided that this year I would enter the TX Mobile SO Phone Only category. 
This was further enforced when I learned that due to other commitments, KK5MR
would be sitting out the road trip this year.  That left me in quandry. 
Without my trusty logger, I'd be reduced to operating only while stopped and
there would be now way to cover all those counties in the time allotted. The
QSO count would doubtless suffer as well. 

However,  I'd heard of other mobile SSB ops using a tape recorder in such a
situation,  so they could operate on the move and transcribe the logs later.  

A few Christmas's ago, my XYL (the now completely inactive N5XVN) had given me
a neat little digital media player toy called a Sansa Clip.  (
http://www.sandisk.com/products/music-video-players/clip-plus/ ).  I recalled
that it had a digital voice recording capability so I decided to try it out and
see if it would fit the bill.  Its a tiny thing with a clip on the back, sort of
like an over-sized tie tack.  I found that it records .wav files in mono at 24
kbps and had 4 GB of memory.  Some quick math revealed that it should be able
to record a full days worth of activity and then some.  A test confirmed that
when fully charged up its battery would last in excess of 13 hours.  Some
experimentation showed that if I wore it clipped to my shirt it was too close
to my loud mouth and the audio from me ended up clipped (The Clip when clipped,
clipped!) while the audio from the rig speaker came out fine.  In the end I tied
an old sock around the inside rear view mirror and clipped the Sansa clip to it
with its microphone hole pointed downward towards the speaker on the FT-757
that sits atop the transmission hump in "the olde grey lady".

The "olde grey lady" is my 1986 Pontiac Parisienne with a Hustler fold-over
vertical bolted onto its right rear fender.  The vertical has one of those
triangular adapters so one can mount 3 separate resonators and stingers (which
I do for 20m, 15m and 10m) and then I hold the whole shebang down with a 40m
resonator and its stinger.  I pack an 80m resonator and stinger in the trunk,
but didn't use it at all this year. 

Saturday AM rolled around and I awoke before dawn to the light rain that the
weather man said would be around all weekend and he was right.  I had about an
hours drive up to my start point which is a 3 county intersection on a narrow
county road.  Dawn had broken (as much as it could given the fully overcast
skies and light rain) and the olde grey lady and I  headed north with a cooler
of snacks and with the sounds of The Who's "Going Mobile" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxoO5yrabfc   and the Doobie Brothers "Rockin'
Down the Highway"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN9SSAuN7jY  running through
my head to get in the mood. 

I got to the start point in plenty of time, a spot just around the curve of a
narrow county road and parked it.  As I was tuning around the bands to get a
feel for propagation (and finding to my delight that 10m was open to Europe)
what should come bounding around the curve seemingly headed straight for my
front bumper but this HUMONGOUS semi-tractor trailer for a moving company.  It
was obvious that he needed and intended to take his half of the road in the
middle!   He blew on past me but this was no ordinary 18-wheeler.  It was a
tandem with a 2nd trailer in tow behind the first one (30-wheeler?)  and as
this train of diesel powered steel came roaring past the olde grey lady I could
see the gap between the side of the 2nd trailer and my driver's side rear view
mirror shinking fast!  The driver of the semi apparently saw that he was about
to slice me off even further into the ditch and I heard the screech of the air
brakes as I fired up the old grey lady, put her in gear and shot forward and
into the parking lot of the little country Baptist church at that corner.  

The semi motored on down the road and disappeared as quickly as it had appeared
and I got back on the county lines ready for the starting bell.

I figured I'd start out on 40m and give out those 3 counties (GRSN/COLN/FANN)
to my fellow Texas brethren whom I figured would be looking for early mults. 
After a fair bit of CQ'ing yielded a fairly meager response (maybe I should
have started on 20m instead), I went to search and pounce.  I didn't stay long
so as to be able to keep up with the fairly aggressive time table I had, so by
1411 I was rolling across Fannin county which I would pass thru 3 times as I
rolled east to catch Hunt, Lamar and Delta.  While sliding through the northern
edge of home county of  Hunt I had my one and only QSO with Bob W0BH as he was
rolling through Hansford county.  Bob does a great job with the Kansas QSO
party, of which I have also become a fan the last couple of years and he's
become a fixture in the TxQP running counties up the in panhandle. 

Heading east across the "2nd row" of the northern tier of counties I worked my
way across the NE part of the state, with brief incursions into the top row of
counties just long enough and far enough to put them on the air for 10-15
minutes (e.g. Red River) before dropping back down and continuing east.   As
usual the rule was 20 meters for rate and 40m for Texas mults.  I aimed to get
on 40m from each county I was in at least for a little while and fulfilled that
goal.   I was pleased to see that 40m was in MUCH better shape than in 2011 and
the Texas counties started coming in at a much better rate than the year
before.   

Despite concerns that I might have to cut corners and drop a county or two to
keep up with the scheduled time line, after the first few hours on the road
while rolling through the oil fields of northern Titus county (replete with
pump jacks and the unmistakable funk of hydrogen sulfide from that East Texas
sour crude)  I realized that I  was actually comfortably ahead of schedule. 
Thus, for the first time since becoming a TxQP regular a few years ago, I had
time to catch the corner of Bowie county and run it.   While in Bowie I was
lucky enough to run across WK5DX doing a 3-county intersection and so that
helped the mult count early.  

Along the way I worked a number of voices familiar to the contesting community.
 Of course there as the smooth southern drawl of Paul Newberry (Novembuh Fow-A
Papa Novembuh) and the clear crisp voice of Bruce Meier N1LN with his S9+40
signal from North Carolina.  

The county hunter types were also out in force enjoying the synergy that a
state QSO party the size of Texas offers with its 254 counties.  Many thanks to
those who helped fill my log. I'm always happy to give them a "new one" and
judging from the number of QSL requests and MARAC forms that have already hit
my mailbox it sounds like I did okay by them too. 

During my eastward trek it had rained off and on (mostly on) the whole time;
never a huge down pour, but always varying in intensity enough to keep me
fiddling with the wiper delay control.  After Bowie it was time for a mostly
southward trek down the NE side of the state weaving through the labyrinth of
counties laid out by various rivers and the whims of the politicians over the
decades.  Morris, Camp, Upshur, Marion and Cass all went by in rapid succession
before the relatively long 45 minute run down through Harrison county.

As I was about to exit Harrison and enter Panola county I worked a weak WE5PT
in Gregg county on 40m.   I didn't know it at the time but it was the freshly
minted callsign of for the recently resurrected ham club at my alma mater,
LeTourneau University in Longview where I would be making my supper stop.  I
worked them again after I crossed into Panola.  Clipping the NE corner of
Panola I had a pretty good run before turning NE heading through Rusk and into
Gregg arriving on the LeTourneau campus just before 2200Z as I worked N5DO/m in
Upton for another new county.  

My daughter April (N5AGP) caught site of me a few minutes later in the parking
lot of the college cafeteria as I was checking the oil level in the "olde grey
lady" as various students looked on in amusement at this old antenna festooned
vehicle.  I also downloaded the first big audio file from the Sansa Clip to a
laptop I'd brought along expressly for the purpose of data backup.   Just to be
on the safe side I also plugged the Sansa Clip into a cigarette lighter charger
to top off its battery while I topped off my tummy. 

Supper with with son and daughter and their classmates ensued, coupled with the
delivery of care packages from home (including cookies of course).  Had a great
visit with the harmonics, then son David headed off with some of his buddies to
a computer building party and April showed off her Electric Circuits homework. 
She's taking EE from the same prof who taught me 35 years ago, but I
digress....

The 90 minutes I'd allotted for supper and socializing was too soon gone and it
was time to hit the road again on the northwestward trek back towards Hunt
county and home for the night.  I was back on the air again at 2332 Z  on 20m
with a search and pounce QSO with K5KG in Florida who was another frequent
caller throughout the weekend.  

I had but 4 more new counties to activate (Smith, Wood, Van Zandt and Rains) a
roughly 100 mile drive  before the closing bell at 0200 Z,  which worked out
well given the lower QSO rates which would surely come as night fell. Just
before leaving Gregg and crossing into Smith I worked one of the other mobiles,
KK5W in Kimble county on 40m before finding CR5BWW in Portugal calling for Texas
on 14289 kHz.  After working him I wondered to myself what abbreviation to use
in the log for it since CT would also map to Connecticut.  (CT1 maybe?)  I'd
ponder the same question after working ON7TQ on 10m the next day and how to
disambiguate it (now there's a verb!) with ONtario.

Darkness fell while rolling down I-20 in Smith county and the rain picked up to
an intensity not seen during the daylight hours.  One of the windshield wipers
that had simply been going slap, slap, slap, had now developed an annoying
squeak, adding to the QRM/QRN/QSB cacophony emanating from the radio.  

My spirits were raised just after 0000Z when I was pleasantly surprised to hear
my friend,  former LeTourneau college room mate, and usual TxQP logger Mark
KK5MR pop out of the aether and work me on 40 meters giving me Hunt county in
the process.  Though I couldn't talk him into riding with me this year, he did
get on a bit from home late Saturday and some Sunday to help put Hunt county on
SSB while another friend of mine, Jon, WB5KSD helped put Hunt county on the air
in CW. 

Smith county gave way to Wood (with a refueling stop in Mineola) , followed by
a 1mile (and 1 QSO) stretch of Smith county again before US80 took me into Van
Zandt at the beginning of the final hour Saturday night.  The QSO rate the last
hour dropped as expected (only 35 Qs that last hour) and the bulk of the
available action shifted even more in favor of 40m.   With 35 minutes to go I
entered the last new county of the day, most appropriate named RAINs county
since it had pretty much rained all day along my route with a crescendo of
precipitation pouring down on the olde gray lady as she and I trucked on
towards Hunt county and home.  I worked N9NLP back to back on 20m as I crossed
from Rains to Hunt with about 13 minutes left.  0200 rolled around and by 0215
I was in the driveway at home.  I fed the olde grey lady a night cap of a quart
of 10W30, downloaded the 2nd of the days audio files, then unwound and assumed
horizontal polarization for the night.

Sunday I was off a little before 1300 Z to head for my starting point in
Rockwall county just east of the Dallas county line. I parked in a big graveled
area off the service road that I assume is used as a turn round spot for big
rigs.   At least here if another semi showed up with intentions of violating
the structural integrity of the olde grey lady I'd have plenty of time to
maneuver. 

I fired up the Sansa clip, tuned in to WWV to get a time hack and started a
good 20m run when the opening bell sounded at 1400 Z.  I then switched to a 40m
for some search and pounce. 

I'd just signed with WD5DDH in Ellis county (who I would work from several
counties) when I looked up to see a Rockwall county sheriff's officer standing
by my window.  While on a traffic stop someone had called to his attention this
grey Pontiac with a person slumped over it in (I had had my head bowed down
close to the speaker at times) and thought I should be looked in on.  

The officer realized immediately that I was just a ham playing with his radio
(the WBØTEV license plates and antennas are a pretty good clue).  I told about
the Texas QSO Party and after taking my license back to his squad car to run me
through the system to make sure I wasn't some loose nut I got back on the radio
and answered a CQ from K5MV in Liberty county and told him what happened.   I
think he just about fell out of his chair laughing!   The sheriff's deputy was
back in no time, wished me safe journeys and I was on my way.  

Whilst motoring down I-30, I-635 and I-45 through Dallas county, I got my 4th
QSO with my main competition KK5LO/m from Atascosa county and swung up to 10m
to work ON7TQ in Belgium and CX5CBA in Montevideo who answered my CQ. 

Ellis county soon followed along with visits from repeat customers NX5M who
would end up working me in 21 counties , K5LLA who was in my log 9 times and
the seemingly omnipresent KC0VFO who would go on to work me 16 times from
Colorado.  Later in the day he would joke that he and I had worked each other
so much, he was afraid someone would accuse him of having me as his "captive
rover".  Jeff, N8II from WV also chimed in during the pass thru Ellis, one of
the 8 counties we QSO'ed in.  W5NAC in Nacogdoches also showed up for the 9th
time. In the end he'd work me from 13 counties and his generosity would prove
key later in the contest.

Ellis gave way to Navarro, the county I thought I'd never get out of.  My route
took me through long stretches of Navarro both on my initial southbound trek
Sunday AM and then again on the way back north in the afternoon.  That did
however, give me a chance to try out some other bands and get some good runs
going.  

After zipping across Hill county I parked on the Hill/McLennan county line and
had a fairly good run on 20m giving out "2-fers"  before sliding down the east
edge of McLennan county and inching my way down a little gravel county road
that was more ruts than road to get into Falls county for a stop and operate
mission.  While slowly bouncing down the road I flipped over to 10 meters and
put E73M, a couple DL's and S52NR into the log for a 2nd time. (I had worked
him the day before on 10m when I was in Franklin county).

A brief but good run on 20m ensued from Falls followed by an appearance on 40m.
 On the way back out  I stopped at the Falls/McLennan county line briefly where
I picked up Cooke county thanks to KF5HHL and worked K5MV in Liberty again.  
After the escape from "washboard drive" it was just a quick right turn into
Limestone county and not just better roads, but also, I noticed, better
weather.  While a fairly stout wind had picked up, I suddenly realized it had
stopped raining (at least for a while) and the sky was flirting with letting a
bit of sun poke through. 

While the route through Limestone was fairly long (almost 45 minutes), my route
across the NW corner of Freestone county was only 4 miles long, so I stopped for
a while at the Freestone/Limestone line for a few minutes before cruising
through Freestone and then another pass thru Navarro.  

During this 2nd pass thru Navarro I decided to give 15m some attention.  I
managed to get a brief run going there working stuff on the far east and west
coasts along with a DL and NP2X from the Virgin Islands for another DX mult. 

After that 2nd pass thru Navarro, I had but 2 more counties to do, Henderson
and Kaufman.  My route caught just the extreme NW corner of Henderson, so I
stayed on the NAVA/HEND line for a few minutes then rolled thru Henderson to
the Kaufman county line.  My plan had been to then just motor on up thru
Kaufmann since it would take me an hour to traverse the county from south to
north before getting back to Hunt county and home, and there was 1 hour left in
the contest.

But it dawned on me that since these were the last counties and I really hadn't
been in Henderson that long that I perhaps should just park there and do a
county line run for most of the last hour even if it meant getting home later.
It would prove to be a most fortunate decision.

After working N5DO from a 5th county on 40m I QSY'ed to 20 and after some S&P
found a relatively clear spot and got a run going with 51 minutes left in the
contest. After not quite 15 minutes I felt the need to try and pick up some
more Texas counties and also give out Henderson and Kaufman to others in the
state so at 1924Z I dropped down to 40 again.   W5NAC was CQing and after
working me for the 12th and 13th time, another station called in asking to work
me and the op at W5NAC (the Nacogdoches Amateur Radio Club Station) graciously
agreed, and then agreed again for another caller, and another, and yet another.
  I asked how long I could occupy his run freq and then in true ham spirit he
said "Hey, not a problem, mobiles come first, you go ahead".  Bless you sir! 
And with 30 minutes left in the contest 7231 kHz was mine and it was off to the
races!

In those closing minutes the QSOs came fast and furious with a number of new
Texas counties coming in.  About 40 QSOs piled up in the space of 20 minutes. 
With about 15 minutes to go before the end,  the pileup petered out and I
decided to roll off the county line and start reducing the time and mileage
between me and home.  I went back to 20 but only scared up one QSO there before
going back to 40.  The last QSO made, fittingly enough, was a 5th county QSO
with what I believe to be my main competitor for this years Mobile Single OP
Phone Only title, Walter, KK5LO at 1955 Z.  I couldn't scare up anything in the
last 5 minutes and was tired and a bit fried at that point anyway.   The olde
grey lady and I headed up TX 34 towards home and the daunting task of replaying
16.5 hours of audio to transcribe a log.  

The week after the contest just about every spare moment was spent playing back
the audio files and composing the log.   So would I come out on top?

I figured my main competition would come from Walter Hock, KK5LO.  I've not had
the pleasure of meeting him, but he's one of the pillars of the modern Texas QSO
Party.  As a member of the Northwest Amateur Radio Society TxQP committee, the
sponsoring organization behind the Texas QSO Party, he's been the acknowledged
rules guru for some time.  He posted his score on 3830 the following Monday and
I knew immediately there was serious competition.  While I thought I had a shot
at exceeding his 795 Q's I figured coming up with something higher than his 119
multipliers was a long shot.  I'd put a few more counties on the air, but this
was some stiff competition.

By Friday night Oct 5,  I'd managed to get all of Saturday's run transcribed. 
A shade over 600 Qs had taken shape in the log but with the amount of mults I
guesstimated I'd wind up with I figured I'd need close to 1000 total QSOs if
not more, to make up the scoring deficit.   Saturday, Oct 6 rolled around and I
multiplexed between working a bit of the California QSO Party and transcribing
Sunday's data.  The further along I went the more optimistic things began to
look.  Late Saturday afternoon as I closed in on transcribing the final couple
of hours from Sunday's excursion the picture became clearer.  Unless I fared
very poorly in the log checking process, or some other dark horse came out of
the blue, all the planning, scheming, driving, time and effort had paid off.  
Not only did I come close to the 1000 QSO mark but the number of multipliers
came to 123.  

The last hour of the contest was a key one, as it turns out.  In that last hour
I had the highest number of QSOs in any hour (85) and added 8 new Texas
counties.  

The numbers:
960 QSOs, exclusive of 8 dupes.
67 Texas Counties, 42 States, 4 VE Provinces, 10 DX for a total of 123
35 counties activated at 1000 points each.
Worked both N5DO and KK5LO in 5 of their counties for 500 points x 2
16.5 hours of operating time.
739 miles on the odometer.

A big thanks to NARS and especially to NO5W who works tirelessly throughout the
year to promote the TxQP and administer a truly Texas sized effort.  Was
concerned that for a while it looked like he might not even be able to
participate this year for lack of a driver, but Dan, N5TM teamed up with Chuck
at the last minute and they turned in a great score as usual.

And now as promised, WBØTEV's recipe for Broiled Ham - Texas Roadkill Style
:-)

***********************************************************************
Recipe for Broiled Ham - Texas RoadKill Style

Ingredients:
One 1958 model amateur radio operator with 1976 vintage ham license
One 1986 model Pontiac Parisienne automobile (the olde grey lady)
One 1985 model Yaesu FT-757
One 2008 model Sansa Clip Digital Media device used as a digital sound
recorder
One Hustler fold-over vertical with coils for 40/20/15/10m 
40 gallons 87 octane gasoline (regrettably containing up to 10% ethanol)
One quart each of 10W30 motor oil and Dexron III transmission fluid (the olde
grey lady is getting a tad incontinent in her old age).

Note: This recipe can only be properly prepared during the Texas QSO Party on
the last full weekend of September.
 
Install radio over transmission hump in front seat next to driver.  Pad bottom
with foam and secure with seat belt run thru radio's bottom bail.  Attach
antenna with all coils to right rear fender.   Tie an old sock to the inside
rear view mirror arm and clip Digital Voice Recorder to it with microphone hole
pointing down towards radio speaker.

Fill gas tank.  Insert ham operator in drivers seat at 1245Z Saturday AM and
drive to 3 county intersection start point.  Activate DVR prior to 1400Z.   
Beginning at 1400 Z commence RF transmissions.   Over the next 12 hours drive
into, out of, over and through 24 counties in NE Texas whilst making QSOs on
various amateur bands with emphasis on 40 and 20m.  For optimum results allow
ham operator to stop and drain excess fluid no more than twice during this
period, which may be combined with a gasoline refueling if desired.  

Tenderize ham's ears by continuously basting them with a solution comprised of
more or less equal parts QRM, QRN, & QSB.  Garnish with raindrops, squeaky
windshield wipers,  road noise and occasional doses of slightly off-frequency
SSB.  

Plan route so as to arrive at ham's home QTH shortly after 0200Z.   Upon
arrival at home remove ham from oven (er, uh, automobile) and allow to rest
over night.  This helps improve tenderness and flavor.  By now the rump portion
of the ham should have started to become tender with the brain somewhat, but not
yet completely, mushed.  

The next morning check and replenish marinades (oil and transmission fluid) as
necessary and drive to Sunday AM start point arriving no later than 1345Z.  
Repeat Saturday's cooking scheme except cook for only 6 hours while traversing
11 additional counties.  Allow no more than one "whizzle stop" to ensure ham
does not dry out.    For a final flourish,  finish most of the last hour on a
county line over an hour away from home.      Upon arrival at ham's home QTH
Sunday afternoon, remove ham from oven (uh, I mean automobile) and download >2
GB of audio data to archival storage.     

Serve the now thoroughly broiled ham with refreshing libations.  Excess fluids
may now be drained without limit.  When properly prepared per this recipe the
ham's rump will be tender while the brain which was merely a soft mush Saturday
night should be thoroughly fried by late Sunday afternoon.

Replays of the recordings collecting with the Sansa Clip to generate the log
will provide enough leftovers to last through the first week of October (not
unlike the post Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches which one comes to loathe by
early December) although these leftovers need to be consumed by Halloween as
they officially spoil after Oct 31, the log submission deadline for the Texas
QSO Party.  

-From the recipe box of Victor Paul - WBØTEV

and don't say you don't get your money's worth reading WBØTEV's writeups!


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