[3830] K4OJ Multi-Multi-Mobile 2021 FQP Results

Tue Apr 27 14:56:31 EDT 2021

Hi FQP Fanatical Friends,
After the Virus Apocalypse last year and a truly "special" visit from
Murphy in 2019, the K4OJ/m team was hungry to get back on the road for some
FB FQP action.  We we're not disappointed; wht a blast!  This was our 7th
outing and we had great fun.  Much to tell - read on...

First, the results:
*K4OJ - SCORE SUMMARY:*

*Band     QSOs     Pts  Mul  Pt/Q     7    1792    7168   37   4.0    14
 2548   10192   53   4.0    21      45     180    1   4.0 Total    4385
17540   91   4.0Score: 1,596,1401 Mult = 48.2 Q's*

Please note this is a higher claimed score than in our first year 2014 with
four stations, and within a hair of our best year 2015 running three
stations.  Much of this year's results is due to our Outside-of-Florida
Friends rabid participation - thank you you all!
And of course, my friends and Monster Ops Kevin N4KM and Red K0LUZ took big
advantage of all the activity. GRIN

*Other Stats:*
*20m - K4OJ Max Rates (K0LUZ Op):*
2021-04-24 1704Z - 5.0 per minute  (1 minute(s)), 300 per hour by *K0LUZ*
2021-04-25 2100Z - 4.0 per minute  (10 minute(s)), 240 per hour by *K0LUZ*
2021-04-25 2126Z - 3.2 per minute  (60 minute(s)), 194 per hour by *K0LUZ*

*40/15m - K4OJ Max Rates (N4KM Op):*
2021-04-24 2311Z - 5.0 per minute  (1 minute(s)), 300 per hour by *N4KM*
2021-04-25 1222Z - 3.7 per minute  (10 minute(s)), 222 per hour by *N4KM*
2021-04-25 0049Z - 2.9 per minute  (60 minute(s)), 174 per hour by *N4KM*

*TOTAL (Two Stations Combined) - K4OJ Max Rates:*
2021-04-25 0027Z - 10.0 per minute  (1 minute(s)), 600 per hour by *N4KM &
K0LUZ *
2021-04-25 2159Z - 7.2 per minute  (10 minute(s)), 432 per hour by
*N4KM & K0LUZ*2021-04-25 2126Z - 5.7 per minute  (60 minute(s)), 340 per
hour by *N4KM & K0LUZ*

It was pure bedlam at times, but *soooo* much fun!  And the pileups were
generally very orderly; a real tribute to the quality of our ops outside FL.
Considering the conditions, we all were amazed at the *many* positive
things we observed/experienced this weekend.

*B4 THE BALL - DANCING WITH THE RFI STARS:*
In 2019, I switched vehicles to my current SUV, a 2017 Toyota Sequoia -
and, along with frequent Murphy visits, it was a disaster.  Despite my best
efforts and hundreds of hours of work, the 20m station experienced S5-7 RFI
from 40m.  I even blew up my K3 front-end during RFI experiments (ya know,
cracked eggs to make an omelet...).
K0LUZ lived with the RFI but at those levels we were missing an entire
layer of small signal to work.  Frustrating!
So we agreed we would not do this again in 2021 until two conditions were
met-
1.  All ops were fully vaccinated (that was the easy part)
2.  RFI has been abated to more managable levels
As team lead and VP of Latrines, my job is basically to keep Kevin and Red
happy, drive them to counties on time and not get lost, and just let them
run wild on the bands.  They were watered, fed and (somewhat) rested but
the chief challenge was the dadgum RFI.  So I set out again to try to tame
this tiger, and have worked on RFI abatement daily for the past two
months.  I've learned a lot and had some successes, and have relied on
brilliant engineers like my friend K4SAV, VA6AM and K0BG's brilliant mobile
website.  Their inputs, direct or indirect over the years, have proven
invaluable.

In the end, the 20m RFI was improved to a manageable S2-4 - not optimal but
workable!!  And of course the K3's we use have clean TX, robust RX filters
and super NB/NR functions to really aid this.  And with zero RFI on 40m or
15m, so we declared it "good enough"!
So, we hit de road, Man...

*TAILS FROM THE ROAD - Positive, Negative and Just Plain Weird:*
*Highlights:*

   - Ain't no Meters...40m was *huge* with nearly *1800* QSO's (wow!) that
   kept Kevin busy day and night.  Kevin made a Whopping 1000+ 40m QSO's on
   Saturday alone!
   - REDY ON 20:  Big numbers on 20m too - Red made 2500+ QSO's despite
   Henny Penny's Solar Event with ESP signals and plenty of QSB.  This is
   where the reduced RFI levels really paid off!  I'm absolutely convinced Red
   would have put at least 300-500 Q's more if conditions had been better and
   signals stronger (he's done it repeatedly in the past).
   - Terrific Teamwork:  Ex. - Red would be trying to pull out a weak EU
   and asked Kevin to QRX until the QSO was complete; these two are simply
   wonder operators and team players.  Much fun to watch them work together
   like that.
   - Get your Game-Face On:  The new Sequoia was not nearly as roomy as my
   old trusy/rusty Suburban, so ergonomic sacrifices were required.  One of
   the changes was switching to 87 key Gaming Keyboards.  These are smaller,
   tactile but not too loud (I had to learn about red, blue and brown switches
   - I like brown); and they are waterproof and tough as nails.  And my ops
   love that they have backlit keys - great for nighttime operating.  Good
   enough for weekend Online and HF Gamers alike!
   - Traffic:  In the 9 years I have been doing FQP mobile, this was the
   lightest traffic I've ever seen.  Not much police activity and much of
   the*endless* road construction on our route was completed.  So nice!
   - Come back another day:  Very little rain and love bugs - just a
   scattering of each.  One 10min downpour near BRE was it. and no biting
   flies in MON (1st year ever).
   - Rock solid station/antenna/power reliability - during the contest
   nothing stopped working, period.  Almost boring, but careful what you wish
   for!
   - *The Pile ups!*  Both Red and Kevin enjoyed some Texas-sized pile ups,
   with truly A1 operators on both ends that kept it manageable and fun!  With
   the higher activity we worried less about 'schedule' and often stopped in
   smaller counties to let 2nd and 3rd tier signal work us for the mults.
   Huge, extended pileups included stops in NAS, CLM, LAF, HEN, HIG and OKE.
   Hope you got what you wished for...
   - *MONROE!*  We headed through the Grand Dragon County of CLR for almost
   an hour before getting to that sweet little swath of paradise at MON.  We
   stayed in MON for a full half-hour as headphones crackled with dx-style
   pileups espcially on 20m; Red was exhausted but happy!
   - *Activity Levels *were off the charts (thanks to all of you!).  We
   were driving in CLR for about an hour and we *still* had a steady stream of
   callers - WOW!  It was like that all weekend - thank you!
   - Murphy was largely kept at bay (see lowlights below).  You may recall
   that in 2019 we lost our first hour, both stations, when a K3 died five
   minutes after the start of the contest and had to be replaced/rewired.  BRO
   county-wide roadblocks cost us another hour.  Gennie fuel line failure -
   you get the drift for 2019.  But not this year!
   - Driver was permitted to operate both stations during Gas/Nature
   breaks; oh my, I missed those sweet pileups!

*Lowlights:*

   - We Be Jammin' Red Hot:
   Red had to put up with intentional, persistent QRM, as well as multiple
   FIXED STATIONS IN THE MOBILE WINDOW (bad dogs!).  Red fought valliantly but
   repeatedly was driven to QSY - really, really frustrating.  Oh well, hope
   we can all respect the window next year.
   - There Ain't No Meters; really!
   15m was open Sunday but only the smart few checked it out.  As we
   traveled big counties in SFL, Kevin would QSY to 15m to chum for QSO
   sharks.  We had 45 takers - all with good signals from East to West coasts,
   VE and everywhere in between.  Even worked an LU... Where was everyone
   else?  Hopefully folks will try our forgotten band next year.
   - No LUCK, LAK - Murphy gets cute:  Massive road construction near our
   starting point meant we missed our first county of LAK; we made up enough
   time to add PIN at the end of the first day instead.  So 47 total counties
   instead of 48.  Hopefully next year we'll be more prepared (and the
   roadwork finished!).
   - Murphy PowerPlay:
   So I pull into the Publix parking lot meeting point and our ops get
   inside to familiarize themselves with the stations.  When Red hits his
   first DIT, the generator dies...Noooo!  Kevin and I start debugging.  I
   accuse Red of secretly smuggling an SB-220 into his setup thus killing the
   gennie.  His denials seemed genuine so Kevin and I keep debugging and
   figure out that the fuel cap to the gennie from the external tank was not
   tight and thus leaked air (so no syphon). UGH
   Well, here we are - empty 50lb gen and full 35lb external fuel tank next
   to it; and no way to get gas from one to the other...yikes!
   The brilliant station engineer says, "We can use gravity!" and promptly
   asks his bestest buddy Kevin to hold the 35lb tank above his head while we
   draiin some fuel into the Gen. "Kevin, the fuel line it too short; can you
   please squat a little bit?"  Tnx Kevin.  With some gas in the gen once
   again and a retightened fuel cap the generator cranked up and kept going
   strong the rest of the weekend.  But I still don't trust that 20m 5KW DIT!
   -
*BREAKING NEWS - FQP DOPING SCANDAL! *Three weeks before FQP I was working
   on the SUV and stations and wrenched my back - ouch!  So the first week it
   was Ibuprophen and cold/hot packs.  The 2nd week I start to worry and go to
   my chiropractor but no treatment is working. Stiff as a board... The week
   of FQP I break down and talk to my doctor and beg her for good drugs - she
   prescibes a muscle relaxer *and* prednisone.  Five day treatment on
   steroids finished Sunday and kept enough of the pain away to allow me to
   function and drive.  FQP Leadership has demanded that I submit to a random
   drug test before FQP 2022...

*STRANGE BUT TRUE ROAD TALES/TAILS:*
This driver really enjoys operating FQP but the Stations management, route
planning and especially driving the road rally can be both challenging and
very rewarding.  Our state is so beautiful and the endless green fields,
huge trees and inviting lakes/ponds make this part of FQP fun for me.
However, I also noted some real weirdness including the following, *all*
near the MON/DAD/CLR tri-county line:

   - LOST HIS HEAD:
   After our trip at the MON line, we start into DAD and within a mile I
   see a 10-11ft alligator with a huge belly - and *no head*.  Some of our
   local swampfolk must have enjoyed the souvenir.  Or had a really tasty
   meal...(er, tastes like chicken?).
   - I GWANNA FQP, MON:
   So just as we started heading north on US27 in DAD after seeing our
   headless buddy, I'm going at a pretty good clip when I see something long
   in the road.  Is it a branch? A Boa? Another Gator?  NOPE!
   Just chillin' there in the right hand lane across from the Seminole
   Casino is a 3-4ft Iguana.  I had no time to react so I just aim the tires
   on either side and hope we both stay still.  Immediately looking in my
   rearview mirror, both Guana and I say YIKES and he runs back to the edge of
   the road and into the grass unharmed...only in South FL.
   - These are *not* Steroid delusions - promise!  My grown children still
   don't believe me...oh Dad!

So there you have the 2021 FQP K4OJ MM/m adventure - it was a heck of a lot
of fun and we'll be back next year when (hopefully) 15m will grace us with
her presence.  We may or may not add a 3rd station accordingly.  Red and
Kevin and perfect teammates; we have great synergy and encourage and help
each other.

We'd like to offer special thanks to our own FCG past president and VP FQP
Dan Street K1TO, who has been the Foundation of and Leader for FQP since
1998 - tnx Dan for all you've done for us including providing such amazing
scoring results and analyses!  You are the heart and soul of all things FQP.
Thanks also to our FCG president Chris W4WF; he is a superb, effective and
practical leader who motivates all of us to give our best for FQP and FCG -
tnx Chris.
KU8E is our new FQP Webmaster and it's been a pleasure to work with him;
sure appreciate it Jeff!

Also a *must* - sincere appreciation to Bob K0RC and Chuck NO5W for their
super-duper county tracking tools - these are indispensable for working the
sweeps, planning routes and more.  Bob/Chuck - you guys are the best!
Thanks for your major support.

A tip of the hat to our fellow road warriors, each of who do an amazing job
of getting cobwebs off antennas, rigs, pc's power plants and performing
vehicle and routing set up to make the first contact.  I sincerely am in
awe of your enthusiasm for hitting the road and am proud to call you fellow
FQP mobiler/expeditioner.
Also have to give huge kudos to our terrific Fixed and 1x1 Spelling Bee
partners - you all are the foundation of our way-cool QSO Party - thank you
for standing strong on all the bands representing our Sunshine State.

Red and Kevin - let's do this craziness next year!  I already have top
secret plans in the works!  Batteries not required...steroids optional.

Finally - our biggest, loudest applause is for all of you *out-of-state
operators *who are the real heros. Whether you make a dozen or several
hundred QSO's, your enthusiastic participation and support help make the
FQP fun for all.  We can throw the party, but it is you that keep coming
back every year - thank you, thank you, thank you!

Next year will be our *25th Anniversary edition *of the Florida QSO Party -
wonder what surprises await?!?!?!?!
*See you in FQP 2022!*

*FQP - So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades!*
😎

vy 73/OJ,
Chris, NX4N - K4OJ MM/m Team Lead