[3830] LaQP NO5W Rover LP

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                    Louisiana QSO Party

Call: NO5W
Operator(s): NO5W, K1DW(DRIVER)
Station: NO5W

Class: Rover LP
QTH: LA
Operating Time (hrs): 11

Summary:
 Band  CW-Dig Qs  Ph Qs  CW-Dig Mults  Ph Mults
------------------------------------------------
  160:      0                  0            
   80:      0                  0            
   40:    238                 29            
   20:    514                 37            
   15:     90                 13            
   10:      1                  0            
    6:      0                  0            
    2:      0                  0            
------------------------------------------------
Total:    843       0         80           0  Total Score = 271,010

Club: Delta DX Assn.

Comments:

Mobile Setup: 2002 Pathfinder, K3/100, HI-Q 4/80, MFJ 1924 Controller, Palm
Paddle, CQ/X 1.8.1, Garmin GPS PC-18. 

Perhaps the reason for low LAQP activity from Louisiana stations is the fact
that the event takes place on the same weekend as the CQWW WPX RTTY contest
and, maybe more importantly, in the middle of Mardi Gras season when radio
takes a backseat to parades and parties, and CQ's are replaced by "throw me
something mister". 

Fortunately four mobiles (W3DYA, N5NA, NO5W, and K5ZZR) broke away from both of
those activities to create their own version of "laissez les bon temps rouler"
and in the process created enough noise and excitement to make the LAQP fun for
both themselves and many stations outside of LA. A Mardi Gras float load of
thanks to the other mobiles and to all the out of state stations who spent a
good part of their Saturday chasing the mobiles around the state. Top
responders in the NO5W log, contributing more than half of the QSOs were:
N6MU(42), NT2A(41), W0GXQ(34), W9MSE(32), WB2ABD(32), K8MFO(31), WA6KHK(31),
KC3X(31), NU0Q(26), K4YT(25), W7GKF(21), K5WAF(20), K0HNC(18), DL3DXX(17), 
KC7YE(17), and W8WVU(16). Needless to say that without your participation it
would hardly have been worth the 400+ mile trip that K1DW and I made, not to
mention the trips made by the other mobiles. Your participation also resulted
in a personal LAQP best for this operator.

Shortly after moving to New Orleans I had the opportunity to do some multi-ops
as W5RU(@KN5O) and during one of our breaks Dallas-K1DW expressed interest in
doing a mobile operation in the LAQP. The plan was for me to stay at K1DW's QTH
near Folsom about 60 miles north of my New Orleans location on Friday evening,
and from there the two of us would head out on our route. Living in Uptown New
Orleans, where many of the parades start about half a block from the house,
required that I make an early getaway to avoid getting caught in the congestion
and street closures surrounding the Friday evening parades. So I left the house
early and arrived at K1DW about 6pm just in time for Dallas, Lynda, and I to
join Ted-KN5O and Lorraine for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. A bottle of
wine and some pasta finished off with king cake bread pudding and we were well
on our way to a fine weekend. Many thanks to Dallas, Lynda, Ted, and Lorraine
for the hospitality and especially to Lynda for putting up with our two-hour
delay returning for dinner Saturday evening. Also a big thank you to K1DW for
driving what turned out to be a fairly aggressive route. 

Everything went according to plan Saturday morning as we left Folsom around
8:15am heading back to the New Orleans area to activate St. Tammany, Orleans,
St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson and St. Charles before noon. No parade
delays were encountered and the number of callers was an indication that our
400+ miles would include very few unanswered CQs. Our most active parishes
were: Pointe Coupee(48), West Baton Rouge(47), East Baton Rouge(45),
Orleans(44), St. Bernard(44), Plaquemines(44), and Iberville(42). 

At most every instance the first CQ following the crossover from one parish to
the next brought the thundering herd back en masse with the parishes with best
initial ten-minute rates being: Terrebonne(174), St. John the Baptist(168),
Iberia(156), Ascension(156), and West Baton Rouge(150).

Saturday afternoon and evening were a little problematic for staying on
schedule as we encountered some delays due to roadway resurfacing, a few missed
turns, and one road that we traveled down for about five miles only to find it
closed with no way to bail out except to backtrack. The other delays were good
news delays: the greater than anticipated activity required making quite a few
longer than scheduled stops in some of the shorter parishes in order to not
leave any Qs on the table. 
    
With one other mobile on the road we could have activated all 64 parishes but
as it was we fell three short -- maybe next year. If you're interested in where
we were when we worked you and what the scenery looked like check out our Logs
On A Map on the web site www.no5w.com. Also keep an eye on the website for
announcements of future road trips, hopefully to include FQP, KSQP, TXQP and
perhaps several others. 

73

Chuck-NO5W
Dallas-K1DW


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