[NCC] W3USA/M Pennsylvania QSO Party (Take 2)

[Jimk8mr@aol.com]

 Pennsylvania QSO Party

Call: W3USA/M
Operator(s): W1NN,  K8MR
Station: W3USA/M

Class: Mobile LP
QTH: 30  Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 22

Summary:
Band  CW Qs   Ph Qs
--------------------
160:           
80:   434    85
40:   548   212
20:   188   50
15:             
10:            
6:     2      
2:     
--------------------
Total:   1169   347  Mults = 124  Total Score =  302,770.0

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Includes  15000 mobile bonus points and 400 K3YTL bonus points.

Breakdown by  county  (in order of operation; in some we left and later 
returned
to  the same county):

CW  SSB
ARM    15  14
INN   41  14
CMB   36    4
SOM   29  10
BED   22   35
FUL   43  33
HUN   33    6
FRA   39   1
CUM   35    3
YOR   55   0
DAU   46    0
PER   37   0
JUN   18    0
SNY   56   0
UNI   61    4
NUM   58  15
MTR   60   16
LYC   35   8
CLI   24   10
CEN   26  38
CLE   39   14
CRN   32  26
ELK   53  15  
JEF   61  40
CLA   39    0
FOR   24   0
VEN   48    8
WAR   24  23
CRA   47   13
MER   30   0


Missed:  ARM, CLI, CRN,  NUM    (All of which we operated from!)
WTX, SBAR, PAC, AK, EWA, ID, MT, NV, UT, ND, SD, PR, VI, All of  Canada
except QC and ON. 

Hal, W1NN, and I had often talked about  sometime combining efforts for a big
time Pennslyvania QSO Party effort. But  we never got especially serious about
joining forces.

Then several  weeks ago my long time mobile contesting partner W8DRZ had to 
back
out of our  planned PAQP effort.  After considering my options, I got in touch
with  W1NN and soon we were planning the 2005 effort.

We used my contest  station on wheels, a 1996 Ford Windstar (now up to 120K
miles), with an  IC-746 and two mag mounts holding a HamStick for 40 meters 
and a
Hustler 3  resonator mount for the other bands. (80/20/15 at this part of the
solar  cycle.) It also loaded up on six for our two qsos there. 

We operated in  90 minute shifts, and divided the last hour on Saturday 
night. 
Although we  are both used to operating full time, we survived a 50% duty
cycle.

On  the drive to our starting point in Armstrong county we could tell that  
the
bands were not in good condition.  One of our backup plans for this  is 75
meters, where we found K8RYU/CLI just before the contest, and put him  in the 
log
for the first qso, followed by N3LL/FOR, before going back to  fight it out on
40.

We slugged it out for the next rest of the  afternoon, including a productive
return to 75 from Breezewood in BED at  2000z.  At 2230 in HUN we switched to 
the
80cw resonator, with good  success. We tried going back to 75ssb around 2330z
from HUN and FRA, but by  then the qrm levels had built up to such that we 
were
not able to work many  people.

40 CW after dark was nearly useless with long skip, low activity,  and RTTY
contest QRM. Is there ever a weekend without a RTTY contest to screw  up 40
meters?  But 80cw was great, as we worked a total of 434 qsos  Saturday
evening.

We started Sunday in NUM, heading to MTR and then  back west.  By late morning
conditions on 40 had become pretty decent,  including 101 qsos in 49 minutes 
from
JEF between 1836-1925z. If only we had  similar conditions on Saturday!

It was fun following the out-of-state  horse race between my two good friends
W8MJ and N4PN.

We only ever  heard one mobile, I believe W3ILG, but he must have driven into 
a
valley  because he faded before we could complete the qso. We did work  
K8RYU/R
several times for needed counties.

We seem to have covered  many of the same counties as the KB3CO/M team, but it
sounds like we had an  easier time because by the time we got to the 
Susquehanna
River the rain had  basically stopped. Earlier on Saturday we had lots of 
light
rain, fog, and  drizzle, but never any rain heavy enough to slow down  our
driving.

Since this year was the earliest possible date for the  contest, the leaves 
were
barely changing colors except at the highest  elevations.  And there we 
usually
were in the fog. Next year the PaQP is  6 days later on the calendar, so it
should be better for fall color  watching.

It's too early to guess what we may be doing in 2006, but we  definitely had a
good time touring PA in 2005.


73  -   Jim   K8MR
2005 Team (W3)USA