[3830] TxQP WB0TEV/M SO SSB Mobile LP

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Texas QSO Party

Call: WB0TEV/M
Operator(s): WB0TEV
Station: WB0TEV/M

Class: SO SSB Mobile LP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 18.0

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                   
   80:                   
   40:                   
   20:                   
   15:                   
   10:                   
    6:                   
    2:                   
  UHF:                   
----------------------------
Total:   0      0       0  Mults = 0  Total Score = 42,000

Club: DFW Contest Group

Comments:

I won't know my score for a while but with some luck I hope to have come out on
top in the SO SSB Mobile category as in some prior years.  In order to maximize
score as a solo op I record the audio throughout the whole ride using a
miniature Sansa Clip and also a dash cam with microphone. For the next
fortnight I'll be replaying all 18 hours of it to transcribe a log and compute
a score which I'll try and post on 3830 sometime after my planned trip to
Belize Oct 6-11 where I plan to be on as V31VP, buts that another story.

After taking a hiatus in 2015 to operate in the RTTY contest at PJ5A I mounted
my most ambitious route yet targeting 42 counties, 28 on Saturday and 14 on
Sunday.  It was close but I made it.  Rig was an old 1985 Yaesu FT-757GX to a
Hustler vertical with multiple resonators to cover 40,20 and 15m all mounted on
"the olde grey lady" my 1986 Pontiac Parisienne.  

Conditions were mediocre at best.  15m was useless though I did call and tune
around there a couple of times.  Even tried 80m in the last 10 minutes Saturday
night but no one was doing SSB on 80.  This year was exclusively a 20m/40m
affair.  40m was pretty crummy most of the time and the number of Texas
counties worked will I'm sure be way down from previous years. Thankfully some
faithful folks like AC0CU in MO helped ensure that there was SOMEBODY I could
count on for some 40m QSOs.  

Some statistics:  ~900 miles under the wheels, ~50 gallons of gasoline, 1 quart
10W30, 42 counties, several hundred QSOs, (but only the minimum 5+ in some
counties to ensure the 1000 point bonus) and one bird strike.  

Yup, I was rolling down some rural road in the middle of nowhere East Texas
when I come upon a dozen or so vultures in the middle of the road feeding on
.... something dead. I decelerated to give them time to fly off, but one avian
just couldn't get enough lift and get airborne in time and SPLATTTT CRUNCH!! as
he met his demise from a steel front bumper on 2 tons of automotive steel moving
>50 mph.  As I passed over it I saw an explosion of black feathers in the
rear view mirror.  I guess I need to stencil a silhouette of a buzzard on the
front fender of the olde grey lady.  4 more and I can become an ace?

One of the highlights was working Bob W0BH at his 4 county intersection on 40
meter SSB.   Since he was going to be there a while we made a sked to do it
again when I was in the next county.  By good luck and timing I made it all the
way through the next county and was on the county line of the following county
when it was time for our sked.  After working his 4 counties from Freestone
county I then told him we needed to do it all again as I was in Navarro county
as well.  Made us both happy!

Weather wise I ran through some serious storms near Corsicana on Sunday.  Rain
was coming down in buckets and for 15-20 minutes it wasn't safe to go any
faster than about 30 miles an hour. Aside from that and a few other more modest
rainy patches, the weather was pretty decent. 

Thanks to all the folks who turned out for this years TXQP.  Although we likely
fell short of the goal of activating all 254 counties we came close.  Many
thanks to those who worked me from multiple counties especially when I was
running behind schedule catching just a tiny corner of a county and really
wanted to get just 5 QSOs out of the way so I could get on down the road. 
While the TXQP is primarily a CW contest, we SSB only ops work to activate some
counties which would otherwise be unavailable.


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