[3830] OhQP K8MR Rover LP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    Ohio QSO Party

Call: K8MR
Operator(s): K8MR AC8E
Station: K8MR

Class: Rover LP
QTH: 22 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   80:  222     39
   40:  207     42
   20:   86      6
   15:    0      0
   10:    0      0
--------------------
Total:  515     87  CW Mults = 71  Ph Mults = 49  Total Score = 133,800

Club: 

Comments:

By County:
       CW   SSB
TUSC   21    4
CARR   19   16
GUER   25    0
HARR   33    8
BELM   14    0
MONR   36    6
NOBL   35    4
MUSK   14    0
MORG   18   12
PERR   26    4
HOCK   31    5
VINT   18    0
PICK   30    6
ROSS   15    1
FRAN   23    7
DELA   19    3
MORR   21    0
RICH   14    5
ASHL   21    2
WAYN   28    1
MEDI   25    0

TOTL  515   87

CTY    36   31
SPDX   35   18

After several good experiences last fall as a Rover in the PA and NY QSO
parties I decided to give it a try in Ohio. While as a mobile one can rack up a
big number of QSOs by repeatedly working the regulars on CW from many counties,
one misses the great portion of those participating in the contest who operate
primarily or exclusively on SSB. As a rover, with some operation on SSB with a
real antenna, these people can benefit from my travels to lots of rare
counties. And rover vs. mobiles makes things a lot easier on a full time driver
with the frequent breaks from the road.

Or at least they could had propagation cooperated this weekend. Other than a
few brief periods early, there was absolutely no in-state propagation on 40. In
those few periods I did get a better than usual number of counties and new
callsigns in the log. But otherwise even with the real antenna, 40 SSB yielded
just a relative handful of out of state stations.

My fixed antenna worked out very well. I call it the 33 foot hamstick - 33 feet
of vertical wire fed against the body of the Honda minivan. This time, rather
than relying on trees for support as I had done last fall, I used a 33 foot
DK9SQ fiberglass mast, supported by a tripod made of pairs of 4 foot aluminum
army surplus mast. This gave a support point at six feet, which was quite
stable, at least in the relatively calm weather we had. Setup time was about
five minutes, teardown a bit less. Had the bands cooperated, the three S-unit
improvement in signal over the mobile antenna would have returned the setup
time in about five minutes. Checks before the contest also indicated a very
substantial improvement on 15 meters, though 15 was useless on Saturday and
generally is not very active anyway.

We stopped to operate in six counties. We had planned to stop in another six,
but with the bad propagation on 40 we could work just as many stations on CW
with the mobile antenna, i.e. not many. As it was, my time estimate with the
extra counties would have put us way behind our goal (successful)of getting
back to AC8E's QTH by not much after midnight.

So it was quite a disappointment after the incredible experience in Michigan
earlier in the year when I was able to make nearly 1500 QSOs as a mobile in the
same time. But in any event, a trip around Ohio for the OhQP is always a good
way to experience the waning days of summer.

Thanks to all who participated!


73 -  Jim   K8MR


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