[3830] TxQP K5IX SO Mobile LP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    Texas QSO Party - 2021

Call: K5IX
Operator(s): K5IX
Station: K5IX

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

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                   
   80:                   
   40:   29      7       
   20:  137     28       
   15:                   
   10:                   
    6:                   
    2:                   
  UHF:                   
----------------------------
Total:  166     35      0  Mults = 44  Total Score = 37,992

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Well, I think I know why the South counties are so rare--they're huge!  Spent
most of my time driving between county lines which is not productive. SSB mobile
is not my thing, but made a few contacts while in transit. Only 13 counties this
year, but logged 575 miles.

    I got my ATAS-120 screwdriver antenna working and I thought I'd be more
efficient with just one antenna.  Well, it worked but band changes involved a
bit of fiddling.  It's still not quite right on 40 and 20 meters--seems fine on
15 for some reason.  There's an SWR issue--maybe I need to delve into coax
length changes.  I finally caved and resorted to my hamsticks on Sunday, with a
simple coax switch.  That seems to be the right solution for next year.

    Sunday's session was truncated by my just running out of steam and wanting
to get back to the family.  They were very generous to allow me all day Saturday
to roam.

    I managed to work a SSB satellite pass since I was down in EL07 and lots of
sat guys needed the grid.  The problem is my FT-857D does double duty as my HF
mobile, as well as one-half of my UHF-VHF full duplex satellite rig.  That means
LOTS of disassembly/assembly of cables, separation kits, power sources, etc. 
Won't be doing that again unless I get a dedicated satellite setup.

    One bright spot, if you will, involved the dit contact on my paddle.  This
problem manifested itself on my first county line.  Lucky for me I had acquired
a butane soldering iron recently and had it in my toolkit.

    Finally, the laptop froze up on my last county line (VVER/KINN) and I had to
resort to hand keying/paper logging for the final dozen or so. Actually that was
probably the most fun of all.

    I was informed that my APRS signal stopped beaconing early in the trip so
apologies to all who were following me.  I use an iPhone app and I guess I need
to monitor it more closely.

    Zero law enforcement/Border Patrol encounters while parked on the
lines--that was unexpected considering the territory I was in.

    My score this year is not competitive, but I enjoyed myself and was able to
furnish OM2VL with ATAS and MMUL counties--new ones for him.  I missed WB9CIF
from WEBB; maybe my losing APRS had something to do with that, and I'm bummed
out for him.  He's only 3 counties from working all 254.


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