[3830] OkQP W0BH Mobile Assisted LP
webform at b41h.net
webform at b41h.net
Sat Mar 23 14:12:06 EDT 2013
Oklahoma QSO Party
Call: W0BH
Operator(s): W0BH K0WHY
Station: W0BH
Class: Mobile Assisted LP
QTH: 25 OK counties
Operating Time (hrs): 17.2
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80:
40: 217 52
20: 367 564
15: 58 33
10: 3 0
6:
------------------------
Total: 645 649 Mults = 68 Total Score = 224,344
Club:
Comments:
Score includes 4,500 bonus points for working K3TW KV8Q N6MU NT2A VE3KZ VE9AA
W0GXQ W2RR AND WA2VYA on 3 bands.
2013 Oklahoma QSO Party
This year, the OKQP fell on the last weekend of Spring Break at Hesston
College, so Lorna/k0why and I decided to catch it on the way home from a desert
trip to Phoenix. We bravely started out in our 281,000 mile '91 Astro van, and
we made it to Guymon OK when our alternator froze up at a stoplight on a Sunday
afternoon. Considering when and where it could have stopped :-), we were really
lucky. We got it going enough to jump the curb and park in a gas station right
next to a repair shop. The shop manager happened to be there, and promised us a
mechanic at 8:00am the next morning. After a night at the Super-8 across the
street, that's exactly what happened. We had a new alternator the next morning
by 9:30 and were on our way to Phoenix by 10. No more van stories for the rest
of the trip (but in case you want another one, check out my Minnesota QSO Party
3830 post from last month!
This year we drew Panhandle duty. Coming home from Phoenix, we drove 731 miles
on Friday to end up in Dalhart TX, a short 30 minute drive to the Oklahoma
border and Cimarron county. I don't like to start out in the Panhandle because
propagation is really poor the first several hours and the counties are huge,
but the driving worked out, so we were happy to help out. Because of all the
miles, I planned a short 25 county route (more counties would have added many
more miles). We were already tired of driving, so the decision was a good one
in all respects except score.
Saturday
After record-setting warmth in Phoenix, the strong, cold northeast wind on
Saturday morning was a shock to the system. Some road construction and fighting
the wind got us into Oklahoma 9 minutes late. We switched drivers, took a
picture of the OK state sign, and put out our first CQ on 7037. VE3KZ and N6MU
were there as they were all day, and we were off.
Well, sort of. After two hours, 2 counties, and only 77 Qs in the log (11 of
them Lorna's), it became obvious that this was going to be a different year.
Rates picked up a bit later, but 51 Qs/hr over the first 6 hours (compared to
119/hr last year) tells the story. A huge bright momemt was my first contact
with Jerry, K5YAA/m. Welcome back, my friend! What a surprise. I spent the
extra time listening for other mobiles and found Norm, W3DYA/m. Calls on 80m
didn't work out either. Lorna enjoys making contacts with her own call when
requested, so that kept us entertained, but the pileups I'm used to in the OKQP
were basically non-existent except for short periods at county lines. As
John/N6MU said a number of times, "strange conditions this year."
So we rolled along. It was cloudy and the computer screens were easy to see, it
was cool which is better than too warm, and there were only occasional light
sprinkles, so the few back roads we needed to take were in good shape. Lorna
got a few naps and lots of paper grading in at the long county line stops.
Although we were behind our schedule about 10-15 minutes most of the day, the
long stops made that a non-issue. It ended up being a really relaxing day, not
necessary a good thing for me, but great for Lorna! The DX contest made things
entertaining on occasion, too.
Heading to our last four-county line and less than 400 miles into the day,
Lorna mentioned that our fuel was running a bit low. That shouldn't have
happened with our 26 gallon tank and 23 mpg, but the wind had been a ferocious
head/crosswind most of the day, so we made a precautionary gas stop. Then
finally, some real action at the four-county line, the kind we all mobile for.
When that died down, the NA SSB Sprint started up and got me more Qs from the
line. I also surprised some ops who expected me to be at home in Kansas. Most
chuckled when I gave them four counties as a bonus!
At the line, we were noticed by cars as expected. Everyone knows about storm
spotters in Oklahoma and there are lots of vans with antennas running around at
times, so I was surprised when someone apparently called us in as
"suspicious activity." That resulted in two county sheriff cars
arriving (I wonder how they figured out which county to send :-) and sort of
boxed us in. No one got out of the cars for awhile, so I kept operating and
Lorna kept grading papers. Eventually (I assume after they ran our ham tag),
an officer appeared at the window. Lorna chatted with him while I kept running
SSB. His comment after we explained we were ham operators? "I know what
you're doing and I don't know why anyone called us about you." Lorna
explained a bit about the Oklahoma QSO Party, the officer wished us luck, and
both cruisers left.
Shortly after that, Lorna noticed that the low battery light was on in the van.
I use a battery booster, so the radio didn't care, but we started the van and
left it running. Sometime after that, I noticed that the car clock wasn't
working anymore and figured we might have blown a fuse. The cigarette lighter
plug I had the GPS computer on also wasn't working so the computer was running
on battery. We shut it down to check out later that evening. It was getting
dark anyway, so we headed towards Guthrie with 979 combined Qs in the log. At
the motel, I checked all the fuses but didn't find the problem, so I rewired
the GPS computer to use my accessories battery.
Sunday
After a good night's sleep, we woke to even cooler temperatures but less wind.
Unlike the day before, we crossed the border into our first county a few
minutes early. Once again N6MU and VE3KZ were there to greet us. John had spent
the evening before figuring out if another Sweep was possible (sweeps don't just
happen!), and he needed me in Grant county at the end of the party. Rates were
still slow, but driving wasn't this time. We stayed on the beautiful Turner
and Cimmaron Turnpikes and ran ahead of schedule most of the day.
A highlight for Lorna was the Payne/Pawnee line, within easy walking distance
of Lone Chimney Lake. She went bird-watching for awhile and came back with a
big smile. Of course a number of ops were also waiting for her to pick up the
mic when she got back. Payne county always seems to have less Qs for me because
of the unfortunate fact that PAW and PAY start out the same on morse code. As
ops keep checking back, I think they hear the PA and just assume I'm still in
the same county. Leaving that line behind, we headed out through Noble county
to get to the final three county line. Chatting with John, we found out he was
on schedule to complete his Sweep, needing only Grant county. That's where we
were headed.
There were a number of ways to get to the final three-county line. Part of my
planning involves which counties to go through and which counties/modes to work
or not work (yet) to minimize confusion at the lines and avoid lots of DUPES. We
chose to head north on I-35. I was working CW when I noticed that my logging
computer was showing a low battery light and the display had dimmed. I quickly
checked the plug and it had come out. Plugging it back in worked at first, but
then the computer kept alternating between power and no power. I thought perhaps
the plug was loose, but I knew the computer would soon shut down. To be safe, I
backed up again and swapped computers. That worked. It's great to be running
DOS with such short boot times!
Lorna had been watching me work with the computers, so we both missed our
planned freeway exit. Rather than turn around, we just rerouted from the next
exit, getting into Kay county early. After some long sand roads, fortunately
dry, we bumped along the final "path" to the three county line. I was
on SSB and took a list to avoid a huge pileup, of course putting John at the
top. Then the CME (coronal mass ejection) took him out! Arriving at the line, I
called and called and no N6MU. As I continued down the list, I couldn't hear a
number of ops I'd heard well only minutes before from less than a mile away.
Slowly the band came back and I had my second really fun run. John finally put
in an appearance, got his Sweep, and of course congratulations from us all.
John has done it two years in a row now. When you consider he lives in the city
of Los Angeles, he doesn't have a beam, and he doesn't use spotting networks,
you start to understand how amazing he really is!
When the pileups on both SSB and CW died down, I backed up the logging
computer, worked one more station, and the computer crashed. I'd been noticing
that my computer CW was sounding a bit strange, with dits or dahs dropping and
keying speeding up or slowing down at odd times. With only 15 minutes to go, it
was occasional enough that I kept going, but the computer crash I couldn't
ignore. The low battery light was back on the new computer and I finally
realized that my accessories battery which ran the logging computer, keyer, and
also the GPS computer today, was exhausted. I got out and rerouted once again to
run everything off the van battery. As long as we didn't shut off the engine, we
should last another 15 minutes and we did. Never a dull moment in mobile
contesting! If I hadn't put in the extra battery extension cable from my home
shack, we would have been done early. You can't ever have enough
"spares." But we finished, then headed 30 miles to my dad's house
(also in Grant county) for a post-OKQP visit.
Stats
We operated 17.2 hours, 1466 combined Qs, 299 unique calls, 20 dupes. Lorna
ended up with 143 contacts in her log. In 2012, we had 1902 combined Qs.
States not worked : DE HI ME NE OR RI SD WY
Canadian mults worked : AB BC MB NB ON SK
OK worked : 9 counties : CHO CLE COM MCL MCU MUS OKL PAY TUL
DX worked : 12 countries : CM YV DL EA F HA OE OK PA SP YU CN
Six-hour Rates (W0BH only)
block ----- 2013 - 2012
-----------------------
1300-1900 51/hr 119/hr
1900-0200 97/hr 104/hr
1300-1900 71/hr 082/hr
County breakdown (in visited order)
Saturday (407 miles)
01 CIM 23 Cimarron
02 TEX 54 Texas
03 BEA 55 Beaver
04 HRP 51 Harper
05 ELL 39 Ellis
06 WDW 42 Woodward
07 MAJ 83 Major
08 ALF 36 Alfalfa
09 WOO 36 Woods
10 BLA 65 Blaine
11 DEW 29 Dewey
12 KIN 108 Kingfisher
13 CAN 94 Canadian
14 LOG 81 Logan
15 OKL 81 Oklahoma
Sunday (208 miles)
16 LIN 21 Lincoln
17 CRE 30 Creek
18 TUL 27 Tulsa
19 OSA 25 Osage
20 PAW 43 Pawnee
21 PAY 27 Payne
22 NOB 41 Noble
23 KAY 67 Kay
24 GAR 68 Garfield
25 GNT 68 Grant
Special thanks to the following ops for 10 or (way) more contacts!
69: N6MU
51: VE3KZ WA2VYA
48: NT2A
36: K3TW
31: VE5KS
29: VE7CV
20: W0GXQ
18: N0UY
17: N1NN N5XG
16: K0HNC KN4Y KV8Q
14: K4YT N4UF W8KNO
13: N9WKW
12: K5DC W8CAG
10: K8MR N4CD W2RR
OK Mobiles worked: K5YAA/m (3), W3DYA/m (3)
Consistently loudest signal: WA2VYA
W0BH Award Winners
----------------- First Place - Very Honorable Mention --------------
Most overall Qs - N6MU/69 ----- VE3KZ/WA2VYA/51 ---- NT2A/48
Most CW Qs ------ N6MU/35 ----- VE3KZ/WA2VYA/31 ---- NT2A/27
Most PH Qs ------ N6MU/34 ----- NT2A/21 ------------ VE3KZ/WA2VYA/20
Most counties --- N6MU/25 ----- NT2A/24 ------------ VE3KZ/23
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Connie (K5CM) and Pam (N5KW) for coordinating one of my favorite
mobile events and to the OKDXA as sponsor. Also, congratulations to Connie and
Pam on a great run. I wish I could have worked all of the mobiles and Oklahoma
base stations who helped put all 77 counties out there for N6MU to collect, but
it's enough to have just been part of it. We'll be back next year!
The Kansas QSO Party is scheduled for the last weekend in August. With 105
counties, we need all the help we can get. If you're a mobile, consider
yourself invited. And we hope all of you who read this will come join the fun!
73, Bob/w0bh and Lorna/k0why
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