[NCC] Pa QSO Party W3DAN/R

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

                    Pennsylvania QSO Party

Call: W3DAN /R
Operator(s): K8MR, W8DRZ

Class: Rover LP
QTH: 3 counties
Operating Time (hrs): 2.5

Summary:
Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
  160:    0      0
   80:    0      0
   40:   44    259
   20:    9      0
   15:    0      0
   10:    0      0
    6:    0      0
    2:    0      0
--------------------
Total:   53    259  Mults = 90  Total Score = 30,750.0

Club: North Coast Contesters


By County:

       CW    SSB
ARM   31    110
INN   13    101
BED   0     48


Several years of mobile operation in many qso parties has shown that mobile 
SSB
is not much fun.  But I have found that with a very simple wire antenna SSB 
can
be a blast.  So in addition to the K8MR/3 mobile operation, we stopped in 
three
counties to set up with an inverted vee on a DK9SQ fiberglass mast at about 
25
feet. To keep the entries separate, for the rover operation we borrowed the
callsign of the Shenango Wireless Society, courtesy of K3LR.

We operated from Armstrong, Indiana, and Bedford counties. We found random 
high
spots off 422 in ARM and INN, and operated from the parking lot of the Blue 
Knob
ski area in BED.  We did about an hour each from the first two, and only 20
minutes from BED as it was getting dark and we did not want to have to pack 
up
in the dark.  We might have done better had we stopped at a pull off area at
2750 feet on Rt 56 a few hundred feet east of the SOM line, since we could 
have
operated earlier and had more time before sunset.  

The acts of kindness award goes to WA3HAE who gave us his good 40M ssb 
frequency
in ARM, allowing us another 30 or 40 qsos before we packed it in.

We did not work any of these 3 counties from either of our operations.

Rover operation has much to be said for it. At the start of the contest, 
while
mobile, we had a rather clear 40M SSB frequency, but made only 3 qsos in the
first 4 or 5 minutes.  As a rover, we had the NA 10 qso timer well above
250/hour. That is cool.


73  -  Jim   K8MR