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

Mon Oct 17 11:26:28 EDT 2005

My sincere thanks to you and all of the other mobiles for putting such
huge efforts into this contest!  

Bob, N3FR

-----Original Message-----
From: paqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:paqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jimk8mr at aol.com
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 10:57 AM
To: paqso at mailman.qth.net; ncc at contesting.com
Subject: [PaQSO] W3USA/M Pennsylvania QSO Party (Take 2)

 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

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