[NCC] K8MR/m (+W8DRZ) MiQP Report
Jimk8mr@aol.com
Jimk8mr@aol.com
Tue, 23 Apr 2002 09:20:09 EDT
K8MR/m (+W8DRZ) 2002 Michigan QSO Party, Mobile
County 40CW 40SSB 20CW 20SSB 15CW 15SSB
Midland 7 4 5 0
Gladwin 15 6 13 0
Bay 6 3 5 0
Arenac 21 4 19 3
Ogemaw 16 7 8 4 2 1
Roscommon 24 14 16 5
Crawford 21 8 10 0 1 2
Oscoda 24 6 11 0
Montmorency 18 13 10 9
Otsego 12 25 19 2 1 0
Cheboygan 19 12 16 11 1 0
Charlevoix 18 0 4 0
Antrim 21 4 12 2
Kalkaska 20 1 9 0
Gr Traverse 10 0 3 0
Wexford 13 6 3 0
Missaukee 51 10 0 0
Osceola 33 1 2 0
Clare 34 15 0 0
Isabella 37 11 0 0
Gratiot 29 8 0 2
Clinton 36 0 0 0
Total 485 158 160 38 5 3
CW SSB
Counties 29 28
States 34 26
854 QSOs 117 Mults 176,553 Claimed Score
Though I had really been looking forward to the MQP this year, I was not
excited driving up to MI on Friday. The solar disturbances and geomagnetic
storms had me fearing a very lonely drive around the state. In fact, I
brought along the back 4 elements of a two meter beam, so in case the aurora
got too bad I could at least work some 2 meter AU contacts from up north.
It was not any more encouraging driving north from K8CC's QTH on Saturday
morning, straining to hear WWV giving out K=5 numbers. But nevertheless
after lunch near Bay City, we proceeded into Midland county where we started
the contest. Signal were't great, but there were some people to work, and
after three quick counties from the Midland - Gladwin - Bay corner, we had 62
qsos in the first hour.
Things went OK for the next few hours, and by hugging some county lines we
had lots of time to operate while parked, a key part of my qso party
strategy. These were counties where we were the only scheduled mobile, so we
made it a point to give them good attention. However, it was a 40/20 contest.
Several tries on 15 netted very little, and about half of those few were
other MI guys. Most of the SSB signals there were speaking Spanish. Overall
we had only two DX qsos, with OZ8ABE on 20 CW around 18Z.
As the sun started going down, the signals started improving. It turns out
that the K index was headed down to 2 by then, and with the improving signals
the rates began improving as well. By 02Z 40 meters was great. The pileups
in Osceola and Clare counties in particular reminded me of a K3LR line from a
Field Day very long ago - "Do these guys think we're on some island?". The
rate meter peaked (on 40 CW) at 0227Z in Clare county with a past 10 rate of
195 and a previous 10 rate of 162. Not bad for hundred watts and a seven
foot whip!
In Missaukee county we stopped to switch to the 80 meter antenna. It would
not load, on either mag mount, nor with W8DRZ's backup HamStick. It turned
out to be a tuning problem with the top hat... for an unknown reason when I
checked it Friday, I had to use longer wires, but when I checked it out after
the contest found it was resonant at about 3450 HKz. From the reports it
sounds like I did not miss many multipliers from the other mobiles.
This time driver W8DRZ even got into the operating act, making six SSB qsos
while I was doing bladder relief duty. I hope he didn't sound too odd asking
K4BAI for a repeat of his state.
I was pleased that quite a few good out of state contest ops running up some
big numbers. I still am shooting for 1000 qsos as a mobile in the 12 hours of
MQP/OhioQP. I think it is possible with some additional serious home station
activity, especially earlier in the contest when activity tends to be lower.
Noting the comments from K3WW and K7SV (and from my own NCJ article) about
sharing operating time with lawn care duties, maybe we will have to approach
the Scott's Lawn people (based in Marysville, OH) about corporate sponsorship
for the Ohio QSO Party - the winner getting a free year's lawn care :-)
Thanks to all who helped make our MQP trip a most excellent time for us.
Jim (MR) & Jim (DRZ)