[3830] TxQP W5CT(@W5MJ) Multi-Op Mobile HP

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                    Texas QSO Party - 2022

Call: W5CT
Operator(s): W5MJ K5PI W9MC
Station: W5MJ

Class: Multi-Op Mobile HP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                   
   80:    42             
   40:  1048    21       
   20:  1488     4       
   15:    29             
   10:                   
    6:                   
    2:                   
  UHF:                   
----------------------------
Total:  2607    25      0  Mults = 112  Total Score = 919,552

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

This was the tenth QSO Party outing of the W5MJ-K5PI team, this time with
intrepid driver Mike W9MC.  We were saddened by the loss this year of our long
time teammate Steve WK5S who kept us out of the ditches and imparted much
technical wisdom.  

It almost didn’t happen this year.  Madison had a scheduling conflict, but
then things shifted to make it possible.  It takes us a number of work sessions
to get everything ready to go, and we got a very late start this year.  So we
decided to set things up as much like last time as possible:  two TS-480HX
radios, a Tarheel 100A screwdriver, a Texas Bug Catcher, and N1MM.  We’d do
the same route as last year.

We try to operate both radios throughout the contest as a multi-two.  But there
are challenges with that.  Even with band pass filters, there is still quite a
bit of inter-station interference.  The 40M signal runs from S5 to S9 into the
20M radio most of the time.  We try to sync up our transmissions, but that’s
never perfect.  Sorry for the repeat requests – some Q5 signals just got
locally QRMed.  

The second big challenge this was power.  We had no problems running two radios
last year, but this year the vehicle’s electrical system couldn’t keep up
when we were just idling (e.g., at county lines).  We dialed the power down from
200 to 100 watts, revved the idle speed up a bit, and that helped some.  But
when the voltage would sag, the radios would blink off.  After a minute,
they’d come back on.  But unfortunately, it sometimes an additional minute or
two for the antenna switch relays to get the voltage they needed.  

The final challenge this year (and most) has been RFI.  We’ve always installed
the radios at the back of the vehicle.  But that means long cable runs for the
control heads, RS232, keying, etc.  Torroids just couldn’t tame the RFI this
year, so we ran without RS232 connections and suffered through quite a few
Winkey lockups, which required pulling the USB and restarting N1MM. 
Unfortunately, Madison’s laptop liked to assign a new port number with most
USB reinsertions, so he juggled port numbers at times.  We may move the radios
to the seating area to substantially shorten those cable runs.  We also hear
that disconnecting the rear window defroster can help.

One more set of challenges is inherent in mobile operating.  Sometimes you hit a
low spot, drive under noisy power lines, or hit a bumpy road that makes it
nearly impossible to type!  Thanks for your patience as we worked though this.

The good news is that the antennas worked great!  We got everything tight at the
start, and it held up well.  Our 80M bug catcher SWR could have used a tweak,
but we decided to live with it during our last hour on Saturday night.

We also stayed on the path with only a few missed turns.  Mike relied mostly on
paper directions with me providing some cues by watching GPS-connected Microsoft
Streets and Trips.  This program has worked very well, but is probably due for
replacement as it’s now almost 10 years since the last update.  

Due to our technical problems, Madison was probably off the air on 40M for at
least 25% of the time.  I probably lost 10-15% of my time.  Nonetheless, we
achieved another personal best score.  We came very close to matching the
(K5NA/K5OT/W5ZL) record number of CW QSOs, but we made very few SSB QSOs and
fell far short of the record multiplier total of 185 (!).  

Thanks to all who followed us, especially DL3DXX and OM2VL who worked us in most
of our counties!  Thanks also to Chuck NO5W for his great APRS tracking map and
for all his other work on the contest.  See you next year!


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