[CQ-Contest] Tennessee QSO Party

[Joe Fischer]

I can appreciate the frustration by those who wish that QSO Party in-staters would spend more time on the higher bands.  In the OHQP I ran for a while on 15 in the afternoon and it was like shouting in a large empty field.  20 meters was a little better but I got a lot more action - and most importantly, multipliers - on 40 and 80.

We have a chicken and egg situation here.  It is nice to pick up contacts on the higher bands during the day but if few people are there, we'll go somewhere else.  Out-of-state people tune around the high bands but don't hear anything so they do something else.  And I'm not allowed to self-spot, either.

Whatcha gonna do?

As far as the /xxxx suffix, just because somebody has an 8-call, for example, there's a pretty good chance that they don't live in OH, MI or WV.  With the suffix I know whether they're in-state or out-of-state.
------------------
TU es 73 de Joe, W8JPF

> 
> Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2016 15:11:37 -0700
> From: Jim Brown <k9yc at audiosystemsgroup.com>
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Tennessee QSO Party 2016 - September 4
> Message-ID:
>    <1df92fbd-e932-a0d9-e90e-91d15cdc06d8 at audiosystemsgroup.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
> 
>> On Mon,8/29/2016 10:05 AM, Ted Bryant wrote:
>> Come join us and chase the mobiles across the Tennessee hillsides throughour 95 counties.  Action should be non-stop.
> 
> Some observations. As usual, TNQP was bolstered by several mobile 
> operations, some more serious than others. Working a QSO Party from 
> 2,000 miles away is a challenge for the stations on both ends of the 
> path. W4NZ  and K4ZGB had the best mobile signals. N2WN and K1GU were 
> never very loud, but were workable on the higher bands. All had great 
> ears. Interestly, W4NZ and K4ZGB were workable on 40  before fixed 
> stations could be heard well enough to copy; ditto for K4ZGB on 80M! I 
> worked Tom twice on 40M and once on 80M; I made 7 QSOs with Ted on 40M, 
> none on 80M -- his best signal on 80M was mostly fumes. The few times I 
> could copy well enough to get my call and exchange, I couldn't make it 
> through the other callers.
> 
> Some conclusions.
> 
> First, I suspect that the lower radiation angle of those mobile antennas 
> helped them with propagation when the bands were just opening.
> 
> Second, most operators, including the mobiles, abandoned 20M at least 
> two hours before the band died (ZGB abandoned it at least an hour 
> earlier) and at least an hour before I could hear them on 40M. 20M was 
> good to TN to at least 02Z. 40M prop never died, but all the activity 
> moved to 80M.  I missed a dozen or so fixed stations on 40 because they 
> went to 80 before 40 opened to W6. I ran SO2R high power assisted with a 
> P3 looking at both active bands. My 40M antenna was a 2-el wire Yagi at 
> 120 ft, with a Beverage on the 2nd RX. My 80M antenna is a 2-el wire 
> Yagi at 140 ft.
> 
> SO -- if you want participation from west of the Rockies, you've got to 
> spend time on bands with propagation to this area. I'm guessing that 
> missed Tom in at least 4 counties, and Ted in at least 5. And even when 
> I was able to work these guys on the lower band, the higher band would 
> have provided extra Qs (and mults) for both sides of the QSO.
> 
> A third observation. I wasn't aware that K1GU was mobile until midway 
> through the contest. We may have missed him in one or more counties for 
> that reason -- I saw spots, but thought he was at home. Jules was 
> signing N2WN/xxxx, but Ned was not, at least early on.
> 
> And I really wish that fixed stations would NOT sign /xxxx -- that 
> practice should, IMO, be limited to mobile or portable stations that 
> operate from more than one county.
> 
> Please take this as positive criticism, and thanks to all for a another 
> fun weekend!
> 
> 73, Jim K9YC
> 
>