[3830] PaQP K8MR Rover Single Op LP

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                    Pennsylvania QSO Party

Call: K8MR
Operator(s): K8MR
Station: K8MR

Class: Rover Single Op LP
QTH: 6 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 5.5

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  RTTY Qs  PSK31 Qs
---------------------------------------
  160:                             
   80:                             
   40:  173    324                 
   20:   37      2                 
   15:                             
   10:                             
    6:                             
    2:                             
---------------------------------------
Total:  210    326      0         0  Mults = 99  Total Score = 74,054

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

By County:

CTY   CW   SSB
COL   35    34
MTR   22    60
NUM   45    75
UNI   40    33
CLI   23    47
CRN   35    77

Operating time above does not include driving time.

I've done the PaQP every year since 2000 as a mobile, either as K8MR/M or
W3USA/M. This year, however, I helped my daughter moved into her new home in
Montclair, NJ, so I wasn't able to recruit a driver or otherwise spend the
weekend playing radio. However, I did arrange to do the drive home on Sunday,
and play around in the PaQP on the way.

Since I do not want to operate while I drive, a Rover operation was the choice.
To be able to quickly put up an antenna at my stops, I came up with the "33 Foot
HamStick" on 40 meters. Simply, this is a 33 foot piece of wire, attached to the
magmount that I normally use for mobile antennas. I used the 20 meter HamStick
to hold the 40 meter wire, so I had a two band antenna available.

I had hoped to also have 15 meters available, but ran into problems on
Saturday. I decided to test things on 40 from NJ, and had several easy CW qsos
when while working N3KR, he asked for a repeat, I noticed a very high SWR, and
signals were there but weaker. I never completed the qso, but discovered that
the ground connection in the mobile mount had given up the ghost from
corrosion. In addition the center conductor path was showing about 15 ohms of
resistance. The mount was not field repairable, so I swapped the other mount to
use for 40/20.

The 40 meter wire worked great. I could generate pileups and hold frequencies,
not something one does on 40 with a mobile antenna. It took maybe five minutes
to put up, and a couple minutes to take down. I had 40 meter SSB Last-10 qso
rates above 250/hour in several counties, and over 200 on CW for a while from
CRN.

I believe I worked 61 counties, missing ARM, CRN, GRE, UNI, WAR, and WYO. Out
of state activty/conditions were down, only 38 sections in including EPA/WPA.

I operated from rest areas on I-80 in COL, MTR, and CLI. NUM was at the Milton
State Park (in the middle of the Susquehanna River at Milton), in UNI up the
hill from exit 199 (a very out of the way road that had about as much horse
traffic as motor vehicles) and the Wykoff Run parking area in CRN. With mostly
clear weather the fall leaves were again a highlight of the PaQP.

As always, it was a fun weekend. With my daughter now living a hour from the
eastern side of PA (and me a hour away on the west), I will have new
possibilities for future years.

73  -  Jim  K8MR


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