[CQ-Contest] Mobiling and Contesting - Re-thinking preconceptions

[Jim White]

Prior to operating in the Armadillo Run years back I thought anyone who
stuck an HF rig in their car probably also wore a pocket protector and
thought working A station in Canada was rare DX...i.e. "get a life".

When I followed the Texans as they covered the humongous state of Texas -
with about four times as many counties as Florida, I had a ball - they were
cracker jack CW ops the likes of K5LZO and K5ZD and the anticipation of
waiting for them to cross a county line and the ensuing QRQ pileups was an
absolute blast!  I had a scribbled all over a photocopied list of the Texas
counties which was pencilled out as the weekend went on - mind you this was
still paper logging days!

Several years ago when K1TO landed in Florida a spark was lit to have the
Florida Contest Group sponsor the ailing Florida QSO Party...at a historic
meeting of the FCG we brainstormed the framework for the FQP - there were
ensuing sessions in internet chat rooms (tnx Ron) where the pros and cons of
other state QSO Parties and our proposed rules evolved.

This past weekend I truly felt like the FQP had come of age.  N4KM and I
covered 35 counties and hardly had any dead airtime - think we had once or
twice all weekend long where we called CQ 4 consecutive times without a
response...when the dust settled and I added things up we had 1955 QSOs
gross...of course when you are in a state along with K1TO you learn that
being second is the norm!  K1TO and N4TO had 2195 QSOs from 44 counties...

This is more QSOs than we make in SS, or the NAQP...perhaps there is
something to this.

I would like to to formally thank everyone who made the effort to get on and
work us this past weekend - I am still exhausted but on a post-contest
high...from a QSO Party!
AVERAGING A HUNDRED AN HOUR WILL DO THAT TO YOU!

Thanks again, guys...as a fellow FCG member said to me this morning - "this
goes down as one of my top ten ham radio experiences" - without a doubt!

We have found the FQP to be a big aide in our membership recruitment and
also a good way to expose "Joe Ham" to contesintg...nothing like starting
off being rare, eh?

I hope to get to a rig this weekend to help support the fledgling New
England QSO Party - perhaps the state QSO Party is our method to keep new
blood entering into contesting...which is still the funnest thing in Ham
Radio!

Our club has a number of members that contribute to the FQPs
success...volunteers who check the logs, colunteers who key in paper logs,
certicate makers, plaque orderers, county coordinators...it is a club
effort - another healthy thing!

The message below is typical of ones that have been circulating regarding
the FQP, it is fun chasing the mobiles - not unlike a clean sweep is in SS!

73,

Jim, K4OJ
(+N4KM =====> K4FCG/M)


----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas R. Williams" <n2cu at magtrol.com>
To: <fqp at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 8:53 AM
Subject: [FQP] Great FQP thanks to mobiles


> Thanks to all the mobiles for making this a great FQP! Just checked my log
and found
> QSO's with:    N4TO - 33, K4FCG - 25, NY4N - 24, W5WMU - 22, N4BP - 21,
KN4Y - 15,
> NF4A - 12, and N4OO - 11 (and some others). Without these guys the contest
would be
> boring. I was real excited to beat last year's score by more than 50% and
to see that
> this year's score would have put me in first place last year. Then I saw
the great
> scores from N6MU and W8MJ. WOW! No propagation here on 10m, and 15m was
poor on
> Sunday. Sorry I took time off, missing a sweep by one county (Her).
Looking forward
> to next year, maybe a QRP effort.
>