[CQ-Contest] Drive-in Op's Was: Self Spotting

[Schulz Jonathan]

K3BU at aol.com wrote

<snip>
> Then there are "drive-in operators" who drive, fly, walk, swim into
someone 
> else's station
> and do it easy way. They should be penalized by 30% less points :-)
> 
> Yuri, K3BU.us


Alfred J. Frugoli (KE1FO)responded:

>Unless of course these "fly in ops" can't have a station at home due to
CC&R's, or they are apartment dwellers.  Not 
>everyone has the desire to or is lucky enough to grow towers in their
backyard. 


Hi all,

Being a newbie fly-in and operate guy (20M op @ NQ4I WPX SSB M/M #1 US
claimed score) who had lived in a tiny apartment for the last three years, I
have some thoughts...

Previously I would operate with an indoor dipole, or drive to my Father's
(AI9U) modest station, (tribander, wires, FT990, Alpha87A) and operate from
there. To be able to feel "loud" on a band and to hold a run frequency was
an awesome feeling. This feeling is only generated by a tremendous amount of
work, $ and time by Rick building a M/M station. 

This was the first time I had ever used packet in a serious way - while I
didn't use it while running I did try to spot stations I came across while
S&P the 10M & 20M mult positions. I found an incredible amount of busted
spots so it seemed to me the value was about 50% - with the other 50% a
waste of time, IF I was to rely only on packet in the future (doubtful) I'll
have to remember this.

15 minutes before the start I QRL'd 14.151, (gee I must be a real novice
contester, that still is the correct and polite thing to do? - I don't
really recall hearing it too often when others tried to get my frequency
while I was waiting for the mult station to bag a Q) a VE station asked me
to slide up a couple as a Net was going to start on .150 being a sensitive
nice guy I slide to 14.152.5 and held that until the start of the test - 12
hours later we still had that frequency which I suppose is a testament to
being loud. :-) When EU opening came to be early Saturday I remember having
to go find another frequency as I got squeezed badly

The proliferation of the "last 2" crowd - (attributable to the Net guys?)
seemed to be less than I have heard it before, - except for Sunday morning
when I couldn't take it anymore and kind of snapped - a comment from someone
on the frequency about "somebody must be tired " forced me to relax a bit
and go with the flow, whenever I felt myself getting a bit crabby on Sunday
due to lack of sleep/rate/QRM I remembered the comment and put a smile back
in my voice. Thanks to the Masked Man who dropped the comment... Hopefully
you did indeed work us on 20M?

Overall I had a fantastic time, I am thankful that Rick gave me an
opportunity to improve my contesting abilities, he took a heck of a chance
on an unknown operator and I think I did pretty well - The Black Hole
propagation has given me some good training over the years.

I hope to return again to NQ4I for future contests, if you would like to be
a flyin guy also, get a hold of Rick and see what you can work out, I
heartily recommend it.


73
Jon
K9JS