[3830] OkQP WB0TEV/M Mobile Single Op LP
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Sun Mar 30 18:38:43 EDT 2014
Oklahoma QSO Party
Call: WB0TEV/M
Operator(s): WB0TEV
Station: WB0TEV
Class: Mobile Single Op LP
QTH: OK 21 cntys
Operating Time (hrs): 12.0
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80: 8
40: 124
20: 409
15: 73
10: 1
6:
------------------------
Total: 0 615 Mults = 54 Total Score = 76,920
Club: DFW Contest Group
Comments:
==============THE GEAR======================
Platform: The "Old Grey Lady", WB0TEV's antenna festooned 1986
Pontiac Parisienne
Rig: Yaesu FT-757
Antenna: Hustler vertical on right rear fender with 3-way mount for 20/15/10m
coils/whips held down by 40m coil/whip for instant quad band coverage,
replacable with 75m coil/whip.
Audio/Video Logging: 4GB Sansa Clip (Audio only), VC-100 DashCamera (Video
& Audio)
NavAids: Garmin Nuvi52 with micro SD card with county line overlays.
APRS: Deluo model 248A GPS puck rcvr to OT1 Opentracker TNC (on loan from
KK5MR) to Kenwood VHF rig on 144.390 MHz.
***************** THE STATS ************************
MULTS:
WAS except for ME, MA, CT, DE, SD, MT, AK, HI
VEs worked: MB, ON, SK
OK CTYS worked: CRAig, MUSkogee & OKLahoma only
DX Worked: DL, EA, I, LY, OM, S5, YV
54 Total Mults
OK COUNTIES ACTIVATED: McCUrtain, PUShmataha, CHOctaw, BRYan JOHnston,
MARshall, CARter, LOVe, JEFferson, STEphens, MURray, GaRVin,
McCLain, POTtawatomie, SEMinole, PONtotoc, COAl, HUGhes, PITtsburg, LATimer,
ATOka. (21) Had also targeted CLEveland and LEFlore but had to drop these due
to time constraints.
BONUS POINTS (>5 Low Band QSOs in a County ) :
Managed to get the 500 point bonus for 5 or more lowband (80m/40m) QSOs in each
county except for McCurtain, Marshall, Love, Jefferson, Stephens, and Murray.
(15 x 500 = 7500 points) Missed it by one QSO in MCU, MAR & LOV :-(
BONUS POINTS (multiband QSO's with same station)
Stations worked on 3 Bands (500 points for each):
KK4HEG (40/20/15) from North Carolina
N4PN (40/20/15) from Georgia
K0DEQ (80/40/20) from Missouri
KJ4LTA (80/40/20) from Alabama
Stations worked on 4 bands (1000 points):
KC3X (80/40/20/15) from North Carolina
MOST FREQUENTLY WORKED STATIONS (at least 10 QSOs):
18 QSOs: N4PN
16 QSOs: KJ4LTA
15 QSOs: K0DEQ, OM2VL
14 QSOs: KI0Y
13 QSOs: N6MU
12 QSOs: KC3X
11 QSOs: VE5XU
10 QSOs: KK5MR, N9QS, W0ZQ, WB8WKQ, YV5OIE, NW0M
MOST FREQUENTLY WORKED MULTS (>= 25 QSOs):
MO (43), IL (37), NC (34), CA(32), GA (31), FL (30), TX (26), AL & MN (25)
SCORE: 624 raw QSOs - 9 dupes = 615 net QSOs all SSB
615 QSOs x 2 pts/QSO x 54 mults = 66420
Low Band County activation: 15 x 500 = 7500
Multiband Bonus Points (4 @ 3 bands) = 2000
(1 @ 4 bands) = 3000
Total claimed Score = 76920
*************************************************************
************************* THE STORY ***********************
Having taken first place in the Mobile Single OP SSB Only category in the Texas
QSO Party for the last couple of years I thought perhaps it was time to
"take my show on the road" and see what I could do north of the Red
River.
I raised the subject with "The Olde Grey Lady" as I affectionately
call my antenna festooned 1986 Pontiac Parisienne and as near as I could tell
from her rumblings she seemed to assent to such and so planning began.
After exchanging some emails with Connie K5CM to get some rules clarifications,
planning and preparation began in earnest. After poring over an Oklahoma state
highway map, Google maps and Google Earth, an ambitious 23 county route emerged
for a Saturday only effort.
In order to cover anything close to those 23 counties in 12 hours I'd have to
remain almost constantly in motion with only a couple 10 minute pit stops along
the way especially as I had hoped to park on a county line and operate 75m in
the last few minutes Saturday evening.
With one hand on the wheel and the other clutching the microphone one can drive
and operate SSB while in motion, but logging in real-time as a solo op is quite
another matter. A means of recording is required, to enable post contest log
transcription. It almost like doing the contest twice.
For the last couple of Texas QSO party runs I've used a niftly little device
called a Sansa Clip. Measuring about 1"x 2" and with a clip on its
back side for attachment to shirt pocket, in addition to its usual function as
an mp3 music player, it also has a built in voice recording function. When
fully charged it will last in excess of 12 hours and with 4 GB of memory, it
has enough storage space for a 12 hour run as well.
Desiring further redundancy for logging, and wanting a toy that would record
video as well, I recently picked up a cheap discontinued model DashCam on
clearance from on an online dealer. The VC-100 dash cam will record several
hours of video and audio via an external microphone that came with it. I
wasn't sure how many hours of video the dashcam would record on its 8GB Compact
Flash card (an almost obsolete memory medium) before it started overwriting the
oldest data, but I figured I could rely on the Sansa clip for the early part of
the contest that might get written over. Moreover, I brought a laptop and CF to
USB adapter that I planned to use to copy over the file video files from the
DashCam to the laptop at my first pit stop. Another advantage to the dash cam
is that a date time stamp can be displayed on playback.
I lashed the DashCam atop my inside rearview mirror with some rubber bands so
that it would look out the window and down the road. I tied an old sock to the
rear view mirror mount and clipped the dash cam mic and the Sansa Clip to the
bottom of the sock as it hung a foot or so above the speaker atop the Yaesu
FT-757 sitting over the transmission hump.
Other paraphernalia included a newly purchased Garmin GPS. I bought a micro SD
card, and loaded it with some county line data I found on line. Using Garmin's
BaseCamp software I loaded up the various county line crossings I had targeted
to keep me on course and help me see how close I was to the next county line.
(Of course a plan old map, which I also had, would suffice too.)
One final bit of extra gear courtesy of my good friend Mark KK5MR was a small
APRS gadget that interfaced with my Kenwood VHF/UHF rig to spit out my position
on 144.390 so folks could follow me on the internet at aprs.fi. As I suspected
however, APRS digipeater coverage seems to be all but non-existent in SE
Oklahoma. About the only time my position got digipeated was a couple of
bursts that got picked off from a digi on Mt. Magazine in western Arkansas.
A day or two prior to the contest I fired off some emails to known State QSO
party aficionados and county hunters as well as the DFW Contest group reflector
to plug the OKQP in general and my efforts in particular. I heard back from
several including QSO party stalwarts OM2VL and N6MU. Rich, N0HJZ whom I worked
many many times when he was mobile in the Minnesota QSO party in February
forwarded my email on to the Minnesota Wireless Association. I'm grateful for
the various MN stations who got on in the OKQP including W0ZQ, who worked me
(and SPOTTED me) numerous times!
My initial plan had been to grab a room at a motel in Valliant, OK as this
would be the closet motel I could find to my jumping off spot at the
intersection of McCurtain, Choctaw and Pushmataha counties.
I waited too long to make reservations however, and the place in Valliant said
they were full so I instead I booked into the HiWay Inn in Hugo. A bit pricey
($75) but a good sized fairly nice place. I made the 90 minute drive up from
my home in Greenville Texas on Friday night, checked in to the motel and then
went next door to the WalMart to pick up some snacks for the road (beef jerky,
bananas, protein bars & water) and fill up the gas tank. Back at the
motel I checked the weather forecast. It called temps in the 50's, overcast,
with occasional light rain. Though there would be no sun, the temps were such
that I wouldn't have to run either the heater nor the AC and the moisture
hopefully would help shut up an noisy power lines along the way. As it turned
out I only rarely had to fire up the windshield wipers, it was good weather for
operating mobile.
After a good nights sleep it was up at 1130Z to hit the hotel's breakfast bar
(waffle and oatmeal) followed by the 40 minute drive to the
McCurtain/Choctaw/Pushmataha intersection.
I got there with time to spare and got set up. I turned on the Sansa Clip and
got recording going with an initial time hack from WWV. As the 1300Z start
time approached, scanning 40m I quickly saw that finding a hole in the
recommended range for mobiles (below 7195) would be a challenge. 7195 is
usually busy all day with a rag chew group and I found W1AW/5 on 7192, with
W1AW/4 on 7185. If you can't beat 'em, join em' so after a couple minutes of
fruitless CQs after the starting bell in the best hole I could find I went and
worked the two W1AW's from each of the 3 counties as the first QSOs from that 3
county corner.
Further CQing was getting me nowhere, but I really wanted to get QSOs with 5
different stations to lock in the 500 point bonus for those counties. I'd be
driving through Pushmataha and Choctaw but this corner was the only shot at
McCurtain.
In desperation I tried striking up a QSO with one of the guys on 7195. I
managed to do a couple of exchanges with him, but he let me know that they
tried to keep that freq clear of contesters, and politely gave me the
brush-off. To each his own, so being resigned to not making my "5 on
40" in McCurtain at any rate and with most of the 20 minutes I'd budgeted
to stay at that corner gone I put the olde grey lady into gear and headed north
into Pushmataha and QSY'ed to 20m where I promptly ran in to N4PN.
I told him my tale of woe, and we quickly agreed that I'd turn back around and
head back to the corner, work him from all 3 counties on 20 after which he'd
dive down to 40m and try to work me on all 3 down there. In a couple minutes I
was back on the corner, the 20m Q's were dispensed with and it was off to 40m.
Found the least bad choice of freqs around 7178, battled through the QRM to get
the 3 Q's on 40 and was tipped that K3TW wanted me up on 20 so back I went,
found a spot on 20 to CQ (14256) and worked 7 more stations from the 3 county
intersection.
30 minutes in I was already 10 minutes behind schedule, so shortly after 1330Z
I rolled north into Pushmataha. I still ended up with only 4 40m QSO's per
county at that corner and so missed the bonus for McCurtain. I got past 5 on
40m during the subsequent drive through Choctaw and Pushmataha however.
>From then on it was just sort of a blur. I ran across southern Pushmataha,
then south into Choctaw, and west across Bryan county, then swung through Nida,
OK to nip off the corner of Johnston, I stopped to spot myself on 40m to run
the Bryan/Johnston county line before crossing back into Bryan, which resulted
in enough Q's to gain the low band bonus for both those counties. Then south
into Bryan proper to head west towards Madill while traversing Marshall county.
I bounced primarily between 20m and 40m at first but had my first 15m Q in the
log at 1403Z with KK6AHB in California while still in Pushmataha county.
The first DX (other than VE) was worked a few minutes prior to 1400Z when I
worked Tony YV5OIE on 20m from Pushmataha. I'd work Tony a total of 10 times on
20 & 15 meters from 9 counties before the day was out.
John, the ubiquitous N6MU first went into the log at 1340Z. John and I would
eventually have 13 QSOs (9 on 20m, 3 on 15m) from 11 counties.
At the Marshall/Carter county line I stopped and ran the county line first on
20 then on 40m. I managed 40m QSOs with 4 stations while there, one shy of
what I needed for the bonus. While I would later pick up a couple more on 40
while in Carter, that was the last chance for Marshall, so no bonus there.
I continued my westward trek into Carter county (the first of 3 separate
incursion as I popped in and out to get to surrounding counties) then headed
south to get just over the line into Love county where I pulled into a big open
gravel parking lot that I'd spotted earlier on Google maps.
My first QSO there was with W0ZQ on 20m, who it turns out immediately spotted
me on ch.w6rk.com and then the hordes descended! In 8 minutes I made 25 QSOs.
I moved to 40m where I again was found, worked and spotted by W0ZQ up in
Minnesota. That was to be just one of several occasions where W0ZQ was a great
help. Thanks so much!!
Alas I could only come up with 4 40m QSOs from Love before I felt I had to move
on down the road, so no bonus for Love, although so far I had made the bonus in
Pushmataha, Choctaw, Bryan, and Johnston.
I rolled back up north into Carter and started the journey west towards
Jefferson. Had a good run on 15m and made my one and only 10m QSO (with
DK3EE). I caught the NE corner of Jefferson county turning north at Ringling,
OK to head north to Stephens. By now I was almost 20 minutes behind schedule
and just blew thru the county on 20m, never even attempting 40m until I got to
the Jefferson/Stephens county line.
I sat on that county line for several minutes CQing on 40m but the only reply I
got was static. I don't know if I was unable to get an internet connection
through my phone out there (happened at least once as I recall) or whether I
never even bothered to try and spot myself, but after several fruitless minutes
and with me slipping further and further behind schedule, I finally just fired
up the olde grey lady and moved on down the road.
Back on 20m I called CQ and was promptly answered by N4PN. In 5 minutes I
managed 11 QSOs before my eastward trek took me back into Carter for the third
time.
Owing to all the time I spent in CARter county I made more QSOs there (75) than
any other county. I think I must have run it dry as my log shows a 16 minute
gap between the last QSO I made in Carter at 1757 Z and and the first one when
I crossed into Murray at 1813 Z.
The run north thru Murray is a short quick one on I-35 and I never got off of
20m there. By this time I was getting anxious to get to my first pit stop at
Paul's Valley in Garvin county. It wasn't so much that the olde grey lady's
tank needed to filled but rather that after more than 5 hours on the road mine
needed emptying!! It was onward into Garvin as I blew thru Murray in 9 minutes.
After about 15 minutes (still on 20m) I at last rolled into a Valero Station in
Paul's Valley, OK. Pulling up to the pump I stopped recording on the Sansa Clip
and Dash Cam then got the gasoline flowing. While the olde grey lady was
drinking her fill I fired up the laptop to get ready for the first data backup
from the dash cam and Sansa Clip. I popped the Compact Flash card out of the
Dash Cam and plugged it in the multi format USB card reader I'd packed with the
laptop. Based on a previous test with a different CF to USB I'd used before I
figured I could transfer the 8GB capacity of the CF chip in under 10 minutes.
The "time remaining" however indicated over 2 hours. I let it go for
a while hoping it would get better. Soon the olde grey lady had drunk her fill
of volatile hydrocarbons, but after securing the gas pump and replacing the gas
cap on the filler port (which on a vehicle of that vintage is under the rear
license plate where it belongs!) I saw that the estimated time to download the
Dash cam file was still in the 2 hour neighborhood. I canceled the download,
drove to a parking spot and made the mad dash to men's room just as my back
teeth were starting to float.
Several minutes later, and greatly relieved I tried again with a Dash Cam to
laptop backup but it again was taking way too long. It dawned on me that the
old card reader I'd brought was probably USB 1.0 and USB 2.0 was what was
needed. Turns out such was the case. Though it wasn't absolutely necessary,
out of an abundance of caution I connected the Sansa Clip to the laptop and
spent about 8 minutes copying over the first audio file of the data which came
in at a little under 1 GB.
Then it hit me that I was hungry. I devoured the beef jerky, scarfed up a
protein bar and banana and re-hydrated while I finished stowing the laptop and
getting things set up for the next leg of the journey. I also took a few
minutes to assess the situation. Although I'd made up some time by just
scooting through Murray county I was still well behind the time line in a
schedule that didn't have any margin to begin with. Moreover, my 10 minute pit
stop had already turned into something more like a half hour, so something was
going to have to give.
By now I'd figured out that to reliably get the 40m QSOs I was after for the
bonus points I needed to take the time to stop on county lines occasionally and
get spotted, which would mean less time to cover all the miles. At that point I
made the decision to drop the two "dead-end" counties of Cleveland and
LeFlore where I would have to dash in and then back track back out.
It was shortly after the halfway point (1900Z) when I cranked up the olde grey
lady again and headed east on Hwy 19 to catch Hwy 133 north into McClain
county.
Some counties on my itinerary were on the north side of the Canadian River.
Originally, I'd planned on continuing north on I-35 to Purcell, OK and then
cross the bridge there into Lexington, OK. However, during my route planning I
discovered that that bridge had recently been deemed structurally compromised
and had been closed even to foot traffic. The nearest alternative bridge was
a small bridge on a back road between Byars, OK in McClain county and Wanette,
OK in Pottawatomie county.
Shortly before I got to the Garvin/McClain county line I QSY'ed from 20 to 40m
in preparation for running the county line. As he would several times on 40M,
K0DEQ chimed in from Missouri, added to my 40m total and spotted me to boot. I
ran the county line on 40m and as would be the case in multiple counties, KI0Y
from MO, K0PVW from Kansas and K2DSW from Iowa were among those who were
instrumental in helping me secure those coveted 40m QSOs. The Midwestern
states were key to my 40m QSOs. The top mults on 40m for me were Missouri
(35), Texas (25), Kansas (11) and Iowa (10).
My good friend KK5MR from my home QTH in Greenville, TX also made his first
appearance of the day there. Mark would follow me along on 40m for most of the
rest of the contest acting somewhat like a "Mission Control".
Part way through that 40m county line run K0DEQ broke back in to inform me that
he'd gotten a phone call from KC3X who wanted to know where I would be on 20m.
I passed back that I would be somewhere below 14260. (As an aside on 20m I
never strayed beyond 14248-14260.3). Shortly thereafter the rate on 40m
tapered off (and I had crossed the 5 QSO threshold with a little margin) so I
went to 14259, called CQ and after working KD8IZZ, KC3X showed up and went into
the log. Laci, OM2VL also showed up for a pair of QSOs on the GRV/MCL line.
After working the pile down on 20m I announced a QSY to 15m where I again
worked OM2VL and a few others. Finally after sitting on that county line for
20 minutes (which hadn't been in the original timing plan), it was time to put
it in gear and head for the bridge into Pottawatomie.
When I got to the bridge I knew it wouldn't be huge, but it was only one lane!
I had to wait for a car coming from the other direction to cross then rolled
over it myself right at 2000Z while in QSO with N6MU on 20m. He remarked that
my signal wavered up and down as I drove under the big old cast iron bridge
supports. I was essentially inside a big leaky Faraday cage! The Canadian
river was no where to be seen (just a big long empty ditch) as Oklahoma has
likely suffered from the same drought that has plagued us down in Texas. That
bridge crossing was a real trip. If I post some YouTube videos from this trip,
a clip of that will have to be among them.
Now into Pottawatomie, I headed east, omitting the originally planned westward
foray into Cleveland as I was by now some 45 minutes behind schedule.
When I got to the Pottawatomie/Seminole county line I again stopped, spotted
myself on 40m, scared up 5 stations for the bonus in both counties, then QSY'ed
to 15 where I found OM2VL CQ'ing, worked him and then motored on down the road
into Seminole proper.
I didn't know it a the time, but somewhere near Konawa, OK just inside Seminole
county a motorist behind me found herself bemused my my antennas. Using her
cell phone she snapped a picture of the rear of the old grey lady as she
motored down the road, her Hustler vertical with all the coils and whips
silhouetted against the gray Oklahoma sky. The photo was promptly posted to
Facebook with the caption "Yes that's a TV antenna mounted on a spring.
Texas plates."
In one of those "small world" affairs it turned out that this lady
motorist school teacher had a Facebook friend who was the wife of someone who
works at the same large Aerospace company that I do. That gentlemen instantly
recognized by vehicle (it sort of stands out in the plant parking lot) and
forward it his boss, another friend who also works the same place I do. The
Monday after the contest I get an email from my colleague (and cc'ed to several
other of my co-workers) with a screen grab of the Facebook posting with the
notation " Victor seems to be trending in Oklahoma on Facebook. What were
you doing in Oklahoma?" I darn near fell out of my chair laughing!
In my email reply I got to explain a little bit about ham radio mobile
contesting. I assume that word eventually got back to the lady in OK that, no,
it really wasn't a TV antenna :-), but I digress.
Heading back south over the Canadian river (on a much bigger and more modern
bridge) Seminole gave way to Pontotoc. After passing Ada, Ok and heading
southeast towards Coal county I moved off 20m down to 40m and in scanning the
band found two of the only three Oklahoma stations I worked all day, W5GFI in
Craig county and W5CW in Muskogee. After reaching the Pontotoc/Coal county
line I stopped, went back and worked them again for Coal. After QSYing to my
typical 40m run freq of 7191 kHz and getting spotted once again by K0DEQ, the
3rd OK station was worked, NE5S from Oklahoma county, Oklahoma. After a nice
40m county line run I went to 15m and eased on down the road, working a mix of
USA and some DX including OM2VL, YV5OIE, EA2BY. A QSY to 20m brought in S58N,
OM2VL again along with regulars N4PN, WB8WKQ, KO7X, K4YT and others.
After crossing into Hughes northbound it was back to 40m again to try and scare
up 5 QSOs for the 500 point county bonus. NW0M (ex-WD0ECO) from Missouri showed
up for the 9th of what would be his 10 QSO's with me (6 on 40m and 4 on 20m)
along with well-known mobile county hunter Joyce N9STL from Illinois. Back on
20m repeat DX customers OM2VL, LY5A, and YV5OIE all made it into the log again
along with frequent callers N8OYY, WB8WKQ, KC3X and others.
Heading east again now, Pittsburg county came next along with the obligatory
QSY to 40m where KK5MR was waiting with a QSO and a spot, a process from which
I would benefit repeatedly until the closing bell. After 3 QSOS from the great
state of Missouri thanks to KI0Y, NW0M, & AC0CU with support from Iowa and
Kansas in the form of K2DWS and K0PVW respectively, it was back to 20m and 15m
for the long eastward trek across to Latimer county.
I stopped in McAlester, OK for my 2nd and last pit stop for a quick top off of
the gas tank and a whizzle stop for me. After about 15 minutes I was back on
the road again.
I was running on 15m as the Latimer county line came into view so I worked AI7J
from both sides of it, worked WQ7A inside LAT and then went to 40m again to go
fishing. In motion this time, KK5MR found me on 7183 kHz (that's 1),
Missourians KU0G and KI0Y followed (2,3), trailed by Kansan K0PVW (4). KC3X
apparently saw the spot and reached out from NC to put me over the goal line
for the Latimer county bonus, while securing a 3 band bonus for us in the
process. Later, in the waning minutes of the contest Hollis and I would also
QSO on 75 meters making him the one 4-band bonus station from WB0TEV/m.
With no more callers on 40m it was back to 20m for a scenic drive along the
winding Hwy 2 through some pine crested mountains and valleys southward towards
Pushmataha (where I'd been in the morning) forgoing my originally planned foray
into LeFlore county to make up time. There was now but 90 minutes to go but by
dropping Cleveland and LeFlore I had made up most of a 45 minute deficit. While
I likely wouldn't make it to the targeted Pushmataha/Choctaw county line where
I'd planned to do a 75m run, there was only 1 unvisited county left (Atoka) and
barring something really going haywire I could get there in plenty of time to
activate it.
The push was on to get to Atoka. Now back in Pushmataha the route to Atoka
took the olde grey lady and I around the east side of Lake Sardis to Hwy 43
along it southern edge catching the far southeastern corner of Pittsburg county
then back into Pushmataha yet again for a few miles before reaching Atoka.
I was on 40m for most of that PUS to PIT to PUS to ATO run along Hwy 43 and
worked county hunter N5MLP/m mobile to mobile from all three of those counties.
Ron was weak from his mobile down in Montgomery county Texas but it was good to
hear him show up again after having worked him some 8-1/2 hours earlier when I
was on the Johnston/Bryan county line.
A few minutes after crossing into Atoka county and with the entrance to the
Indian Nation Turnpike looming in the distance I pulled off at a closed gas
station, parked and went back to 20m one last time. Final QSOs with KK4HEG,
YV5OIE (#10), OM2VL (#15), K1TKL (#7), N8OYY (#6), and WA4WKL (#9) among others
ensued.
With 30 minutes remaining before the closing bell the 20m run dried up and I
went QRT to strip the 40/20/15/10 stack off the Hustler vertical and replace
it with the 75m job as the sun approached the horizon. Since it was obvious
that I wasn't going to make it back down to the Choctaw/Pushmataha line I
decided to run 75 during the last half hour through the few miles of Atoka that
remained and then the run down the Indian Nation Turnpike in a final push
through Pushmataha.
The first call on 3860 kHz went out from Atoka County at 0033Z as I rolled back
onto the highway and headed for the on-ramp to the Indian Nation. Soon the olde
grey lady was racing southward on a that luscious piece of high speed concrete
and its 75 mph speed limit. Although perhaps still remembering a very
expensive speeding ticket I recieved on the Indian Nation Turnpike some some 34
years ago while a college student (and the speed limit on the turnpike was only
55 mph back then) I kept it to only 65 mph or so. The miles were rolling by,
but the QSO sure weren't. I hadn't made a single 75 m QSO before I was out of
Atoka and into Pushmataha.
I was beginning to think the QSY to 75 had been a mistake, but the other
resonators were now in the back seat and I was committed. Even if I didn't
make a single 75m QSO, I'd still had a blast and doubtless provided some wanted
counties for the county hunting crowd as my mail box would later attest.
After almost 10 minutes of CQing and with the sun just going down (although I
couldn't be sure given the overcast skies that had been present all day) KK5MR
broke through the noise. We exchanged signal reports (hint, they weren't the
usual 59), but I had been heard.
A minute later KJ4LTA called in from Alabama for his 16th QSO with me. The
skies were darkening as a new call NW6S rolled in from North Carolina. The low
band propagation gods of darkness were starting to cast their nocturnal spells.
K0DEQ from Missouri was hot on his heels. 16 minutes to go and another station
started to rise above the noise. It took a bit of work but with 16 minutes to
go WA2VYA from Florida made it through. As propagation improved as darkness
fell, the QRM started rolling in as well. I was on 3860 and it sounded like a
net was getting warmed up a little above me.
Five minutes went by when Hollis KC3X reached across the ionosphere to work me
from North Carolina. I wouldn't realize it until days later when I was
processing the log, but that was his 4th band QSO with me, having already
worked WB0TEV/m on 40m, 20m and 15m earlier in the contest.
The biggest surprise was yet to come. With 9 minutes to go KO7X from Wyoming
called in, where it must have still been daylight (though perhaps not by much).
What was to be the final QSO of the night took place just before I hit the toll
booth at Antlers. KG5VK who was working in the Louisiana QSO Party called in
from Bossier parish.
After paying the $1.75 toll I pulled off in the siding just past the toll booth
and called CQ again for the final 2 minutes or so, but no further QSOs were to
be forth coming.
During that 30 minute run on 75 meters I only made 8 QSOs, but as I was to
discover later when processing the log, two of those QSOs qualified me and the
other stations (KJ4LTA and K0DEQ) for a 500 point 3 band bonus and the QSO with
KC3X made for 4 bands with him netting a 1000 point bonus. So, the move to 75m
was worth an extra 2000 points total.
So, could I have done better score wise to have stayed on 40m and 20m? Even if
I had, I don't think it would have been as much fun. I know it wouldn't ahve
been as much fun for KJ4LTA, K0DEQ and KC3X and one of the prime motivations
for me isn't necessarily to maximize my score but to maximuize the fun factor
for both me and those I work. After all this is a hobby and hobbies as
supposed to be fun!
Nonetheless, to answer the question of whether the move to 75 likely helped or
hurt my score, lets run the numbers. 8 Qs x 2 points/Q x 54 mults =864 points.
Tack on the 2000 bonus points earned thereby and we get 2864 points. Divide
that 2864 points by 54 mults then again by 2 points per SSB QSO and you get
26.5 QSOs. Could I have made 27 or more QSOs in that 30 minute time frame?
Given that I was in a county I'd already activated in the morning (I actually
crossed into Pushmataha county 4 separate times) and it was late in the day,
the answer is probably no. So, in doing good by going to 75m, I also probably
did well.
WHEW!
In a little under two hours the olde grey lady and I were back home in
Greenville, Texas. In the days that followed, many hours were spent playing
back the Sansa Clip audio and DashCam video/audio files and building a log in
an Excel spread sheet so that I could filter, sort and assemble all the
statistics.
Of course a not insignificant amount of time went in to composing this rather
lengthy tome. I hope in reading it you got your money's worth :-).
In the coming days, if I can get around to it, I hope to post some video clips
captured from the Dash Cam on YouTube. If you worked me, maybe you can hear
yourself coming out of the FT-757 in the olde grey lady and see what I saw
through my windshield while in QSO with you. A shot of the traverse of that
funky narrow bridge I mentioned earlier would be worth posting too I think.
If your interested, check my QRZ page for links to any videos I eventually
post.
http://www.qrz.com/db/wb0tev
At press time, I still need to do the machinations necessary to generate a
Cabrillo compatible text file from the Excel spreadsheet and get it off in an
email to Connie K5CM, the driving force behind the OKQP.
I've got a bone to pick with him. I had so much fun in the OKQP, that now he's
got me hooked. In addition to being a regular mobile op in the Texas QSO Party
in September, now heaven help me, it looks like I'll be back for the 2015 OKQP
unless Providentially hindered. I've already been plotting a better route
based on lessons learned this year.
Lets see, how about if instead, I grab a hotel north of Durant, start the day
on the Johnston/Bryan county line, then over to Marshall............
See you on the radio.
73, de Victor, WB0TEV/m
P.S. The "olde grey lady" sends her regards as well. :-)
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