[3830] NewEngQP NZ1U/M M/S Mobile LP

Tue May 7 18:53:35 EDT 2019

                    New England QSO Party - 2019

Call: NZ1U/M
Operator(s): W1UJ N1WK KB1SBC
Station: NZ1U/M

Class: M/S Mobile LP
QTH: CT RI MA VT
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  CW-Dig Qs  Ph Qs
------------------------
   80:     221       
   40:     453       
   20:     326       
   15:               
   10:               
------------------------
Total:    1000      0  Mults = 57  Total Score = 113,886

Club: BARNSTORMERS

Comments:

What a weekend!

As we do these year-after-year, so much knowledge is gained; however, it is
neglected before the next event while hastily assembling the LMR/Last Minute
Rover.

N1WK gets a gold star yet again for safely traversing the beautiful New England
countryside.  He did not tell me he had a cold until we were 2/3 of the way
through day 2, deep in Vermont.  The Dude drove more than 1000 miles / 1600 KM!

The call went out from K1KI for coverage to lightly covered counties in Vermont,
we had hoped to cover all on the list but 1 or 2 with an aggressive Sunday
ride.

Saturday, we stayed in Southern New England.  Started in Central CT and moved
East towards Rhode Island and Cape Code (MA) headed North to offer some QSOs
from the nearly-always lightly covered SUFMA from Boston.

Although we still held to the title LMR, or Last Minute Rover, everything was
tested, or so-we-thought....   Could not get the CAT to work when we started
out.  Changed out the Kx3 USB Cat Cable and everything was great.

Met up in PLYMA with Barnstormer and NZ1U operator/Driver KB1SBC where we made
the  difficult decision to have Mexican food, whilst knowing N1WK and W1UJ would
be in the same cabin for the next 1.5 days.  Ended up working out OK!  Thanks to
KB1SBC for dinner... Timing was perfect as was the break and company (3 Amigos)

Weather was OK- Roads were pretty rough in RI as usual with BRIRI having the
same bone-jarring roads as detected in years' past.  The bridges to and from
NEWRI are always scenic.

Saturday / Day 1
410 Miles
TOLCT  6
HARCT  18
MIDCT  18
NHVCT  6
MIDCT-
NLNCT  18
WASRI  33
NEWRI  19
BRIRI  15
BRIMA  31
PLYMA  67
BARMA  27
PLYMA-  
NORMA  17
SUFMA  29
MIDMA  24
WORMA  40
WINCT  12

Day 2 started a bit later than planned, but the good night's sleep at home was
terrific. Weather was amazing 'up North'  windows-down...  fresh air. (Well
except when we had to hear stations calling...)

GRAVT was surprisingly flooded. The water was high and it seemed as if many of
the lake's cottages were not accessible.   We hit traffic on the horrible route
chosen right through the middle of Burlington VT--- there were marches and
things and young people with brightly colored hair everywhere, and way too many
stop-lights.....  in Northern RUTVT county we hit a horrific looking motorcycle
accident.  Research of the accident shows there were 'non-life threatening'
injuries, thank goodness.  This held us back, in an RF hole, for about 40
minutes.

Sunday / Day 2
624 Miles
HMDMA  53
HMPMA  26
FRAMA  37
WNHVT  53
WNDVT  34
ORAVT  51
WASVT  27
LAMVT  50
FRAVT  44
GRAVT  44
CHIVT  49
ADDVT  50
RUTVT  55
BENVT  47
WNHVT-
FRAMA-
HMPMA-
HMDMA-

Most importantly, a colossal thanks to the guys that follow us around.  This is
exactly why we put forth the effort in this event.  It keeps us coming back for
sure.

N8UM	31
WN1GIV	21
K4QS	20
N3XF	19
N4PN	18
N4DW	17
DL3DXX	15 *
K3WJV	14
R7NW	14 *
VA3EC	13
WA1FCN	12
WN4AFP	12
K3QP	11
K4BAI	11
K5LH	11
N8II	11
K0AP	10
K0LUZ	10
K1GQ	10
K4GMH	10
WB8WKQ	10

We missed the following states-
AK HI LA MS MT ND NV SD UT WY
And many, most.. Canadian Provinces. 

For DX it felt like DL3DXX and R7NW were loud and everywhere.
DL F G HA I ON S5 SM SP UA XE

We have great success using the Elecraft Kx3 in the dash and the KPA100 on the
floor in the back-seat. A very nice radio without the footprint of the K3 while
holding what seemed to be similar performance.  It was very very quiet, we had 2
large car batteries on the floor in the back seat with the Kx3 completely
isolated from the Ox's power supply.  The Kx3 needs more drag on the VFO knob or
a freq lock.  If we weren't paying attention, it would have mechanical drift
quite a ways... changing the tuning rate, to a setting of fine, helped.

Audio was just pumped in to the car stereo.  No headphones. SR2O Operation. N1WK
and W1UJ chatted the entire way.

We pretty much do not stop....   Stretch breaks and food, meet up with KB1SBC in
PLYMA... other than that, always moving.

Antennas are High-Sierra screwdriver for 20m and 80m and a 40S High-power 40m
Hustler resonator on a triple-mag mount on the roof of the 'Blue Ox' 2017 Chevy
Equinox.  We miss the Contest Caddy, that may make a comeback.

Only NewE county NZ1U/m has not operated from is NANMA..... Got to figure
something out for that one.

We had a freshly acquired dash-cam installed in the 'Ox on Friday before the
event.  It seemed to work pretty well.  There are some 'time lapse' 6x speed
videos of the trip from the dash cam.  As of this writing there are many videos
to upload. But check it out, see what things are like driving around New
England. https://youtu.be/Q-2Zm_tlRxU

Thanks for the QSOs 

The NZ1U Barnstormers.

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