[NCC] Fwd: PaQP K8MR Rover Single Op LP

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

Thanks to all the NCC/MRRC folks who showed up to work me!
 
I'll be in New York next weekend for the NYQP (Saturday, 10am to 10pm) ,  
probably doing a similar roving operation at least during the daylight  hours.
 
 
73  -  Jim  
 
 
  
____________________________________
 From: webform at b41h.net
Reply-to: jimk8mr at aol.com
To:  3830 at contesting.com, jimk8mr at aol.com
Sent: 10/15/2012 11:22:59 A.M. Eastern  Daylight Time
Subj: PaQP K8MR Rover Single Op LP


Pennsylvania QSO Party

Call: K8MR
Operator(s):  K8MR
Station: K8MR

Class: Rover Single Op LP
QTH: 6  Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 5.5

Summary:
Band  CW  Qs  Ph Qs  RTTY Qs  PSK31  Qs
---------------------------------------
160:      
80:             
40:  173    324               
20:   37      2   
15:                     
10:        
6:             
2:                      
---------------------------------------
Total:  210     326      0         0  Mults =  99  Total Score = 74,054

Club: North Coast  Contesters

Comments:

By County:

CTY    CW   SSB
COL   35    34
MTR    22    60
NUM   45    75
UNI    40    33
CLI   23    47
CRN    35    77

Operating time above does not include driving  time.

I've done the PaQP every year since 2000 as a mobile, either as  K8MR/M or
W3USA/M. This year, however, I helped my daughter moved into her  new home 
in
Montclair, NJ, so I wasn't able to recruit a driver or  otherwise spend the
weekend playing radio. However, I did arrange to do the  drive home on 
Sunday,
and play around in the PaQP on the way.

Since  I do not want to operate while I drive, a Rover operation was the  
choice.
To be able to quickly put up an antenna at my stops, I came up with  the 
"33 Foot
HamStick" on 40 meters. Simply, this is a 33 foot piece of  wire, attached 
to the
magmount that I normally use for mobile antennas. I  used the 20 meter 
HamStick
to hold the 40 meter wire, so I had a two band  antenna available.

I had hoped to also have 15 meters available, but  ran into problems on
Saturday. I decided to test things on 40 from NJ, and  had several easy CW 
qsos
when while working N3KR, he asked for a repeat, I  noticed a very high SWR, 
and
signals were there but weaker. I never  completed the qso, but discovered 
that
the ground connection in the mobile  mount had given up the ghost from
corrosion. In addition the center  conductor path was showing about 15 ohms 
of
resistance. The mount was not  field repairable, so I swapped the other 
mount to
use for 40/20.

The  40 meter wire worked great. I could generate pileups and hold  
frequencies,
not something one does on 40 with a mobile antenna. It took  maybe five 
minutes
to put up, and a couple minutes to take down. I had 40  meter SSB Last-10 
qso
rates above 250/hour in several counties, and over  200 on CW for a while 
from
CRN.

I believe I worked 61 counties,  missing ARM, CRN, GRE, UNI, WAR, and WYO. 
Out
of state activty/conditions  were down, only 38 sections in including 
EPA/WPA.

I operated from rest  areas on I-80 in COL, MTR, and CLI. NUM was at the 
Milton
State Park (in  the middle of the Susquehanna River at Milton), in UNI up 
the
hill from  exit 199 (a very out of the way road that had about as much horse
traffic  as motor vehicles) and the Wykoff Run parking area in CRN. With  
mostly
clear weather the fall leaves were again a highlight of the  PaQP.

As always, it was a fun weekend. With my daughter now living a  hour from 
the
eastern side of PA (and me a hour away on the west), I will  have new
possibilities for future years.

73  -  Jim   K8MR