[3830] NewEngQP K2UA/M M/S Mobile HP

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                    New England QSO Party - 2021

Call: K2UA/M
Operator(s): K2UA N2MG
Station: K2UA

Class: M/S Mobile HP
QTH: New England
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  CW-Dig Qs  Ph Qs
------------------------
   80:     291       
   40:     816       
   20:     441       
   15:               
   10:               
------------------------
Total:    1548      0  Mults = 60  Total Score = 185,640

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Mike, N2MG, and I had an amazing time in NEQP. The scenery of Northern Vermont
is just gorgeous at this time of year--which more than made up for the traffic
insanity in and around Springfield at the start of the contest. 

Although we operated from 22 counties, we did some looping out and back in some
counties for reasons of reaching other counties, and that resulted in more
county entries (something like 27 or 28). We found a fresh pool of QSOs to work
each time!

Mike and I were impressed at the consistency of the signals in the mobile setup.
We experienced QSB at times, and a few areas we traveled through definitely
knocked signals down, but we were pleased at the consistency of signals and
rates even when we were driving through the valleys of Vermont.

Short skip on Sunday on 40 in the first 2 hours, and then on 20 for most of the
day, was spectacular! Stations as close as other New England states, New York,
and Pennsylvania, to every corner of the country and Europe, was loud--it was
fantastic! One tactical mistake we made was not checking 15 and 10 meters at any
point--especially Saturday when the 7QP was still running, but with a 4 PM start
I really didn't expect much out of the higher bands. We didn't go to 20 until
late Sunday morning in Franklin County, VT. Lessons learned!

Another lesson, which K5ZD rightly called out, was our CQing as K2UA/M rather
than K2UA/CALVT, for example. I felt it would be too confusing to have a 2-land
call mobiling around New England signing something other than /M. But judging by
the number of “cty?” “QTH?,” etc, inquiries we got (literally hundreds),
it was clearly an opportunity for improvement. I thought, incorrectly, that
people would hear us sending it in every QSO. We also had more than 50 dupes,
many of which were attributable to the same thing.

This was our first serious mobile QSO party effort. Last October, Mike and I
planned our NYQP operation in 3 days. That was quite casual, with 11 counties in
the 12-hour contest period and about 250 miles of driving. No spares, no tools
to speak of, and no contingency plans. The 2021 NEQP was a serious 2-month
planning effort with all of those things and a carefully planned route with more
than 650 miles of in-territory driving. I think that Mike and I now know enough
to be dangerous in state QSO party mobile operations. A big shout-out here to
Mark, K1RO, and Ken, N2ZN, for their tremendous help in planning and
particularly to Mark for his guidance on roads to avoid. Some of the two-lane
roads are pretty tough at this time of year. Ken’s knowledge of state QSO
party strategy from many years of mobile and fixed operating in the NYQP and
others was a huge help as well.

It has been nearly a 2-year on-and-off effort to get the noise floor in the SUV
down near zero, but it has been well worth it. When the engine is running, the
only band that has noticeable noise is 20 meters (S1-S3). All the others,
including 40 and 80, are limited by band noise. During the day they show no
S-meter deflection at all with the engine running. The last big improvement came
from disconnecting the rear defroster, which is inches from the antenna. I’m
winding some chokes on mix 31 ferrite to go in line with the power leads, and
that fit under the trim, to allow me to leave the defroster connected. We have
other improvements planned as well. Mike is also building out his own mobile
station in his F-150!

The anticipation of working all the chasers is one of the best things about
operating mobile in state QSO parties. Mike, N2MG, probably thought I was a
little crazy each time OM2VL (24 QSOs) would call in, or K4QS (our top chaser
with 27 QSOs), or many others such as K8MFO, K0DEQ, and K2MF, who were chasing
counties we were in. All that really kept the energy up for me!

Our last county was Litchfield, CT. When we came across the border from
Berkshire County, Mass, the sky opened. It was raining so hard that there was
local flooding. Mike just kept “running the boys” throughout it all. We had
a great finish on 80.

As for the band breakdown, I never anticipated that we’d make more than 800
QSOs on 40 meters! I’ve operated SOAB DX contests from home with 2 el at 100
ft and 1500 W that didn’t produce many more than that! I had a quiet goal of
100 QSOs/hour for the contest period, which would have put us at 1800 QSOs for
the 18 hours we were on. We came close, and I think we can do better next year!
There’s room for a few more county activations, too.

Some stats from our one-radio, two operator, CW-only operation:

Day 1 QSOs: 570ish in 8 hours of operating (4 PM to midnight)
Day 2 QSOs: 970ish in 10 hours of operating (9 AM to 7 PM)

Travel window: 9 AM Saturday to midnight Sunday
Miles driven: 1210
Average gas mileage: 26.7

Personal favorite stat: 24 QSOs with OM2VL, including 5 on 80, 12 on 40, and 7
on 20. Laci is always loud and easy to pull out of a pileup!

Hourly Breakdown
Hour QSOs
20Z   59
21Z   97
22Z   59
23Z   48
00Z   66
01Z   80
02Z   99
03Z   63
13Z  115
14Z   96
15Z   84
16Z  100
17Z  124
18Z  120
19Z   90
20Z   78
21Z   71
22Z   87
23Z   12

We traded off driving and operating every few counties:

Band/Op Breakdown
Operator   3.5    7    14    Total
K2UA       201  285   339    825
N2MG       90   531   102    723

Thanks again for all the QSOs, and to the NEQP organizers and log checkers for
all of their efforts. GREAT contest!

--73, Rus, K2UA


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