[NCC] Fwd: OhQP K8MR Rover LP

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

From:  webform at b4h.net
Reply-to: jimk8mr at aol.com
To: 3830 at contesting.com,  jimk8mr at aol.com
Sent: 8/26/2013 11:59:50 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj:  OhQP K8MR Rover  LP


Ohio QSO Party

Call: K8MR
Operator(s): K8MR AC8E
Station:  K8MR

Class: Rover LP
QTH: 22 Counties
Operating Time (hrs):  12

Summary:
Band  CW Qs  Ph  Qs
--------------------
80:  222      39
40:  207     42
20:   86      6
15:    0      0
10:    0       0
--------------------
Total:  515     87   CW Mults = 71  Ph Mults = 49  Total Score = 133,800

Club:  

Comments:

By County:
CW   SSB
TUSC   21     4
CARR   19   16
GUER   25     0
HARR   33    8
BELM    14    0
MONR   36     6
NOBL   35    4
MUSK    14    0
MORG   18   12
PERR    26    4
HOCK   31     5
VINT   18    0
PICK    30    6
ROSS   15     1
FRAN   23    7
DELA    19    3
MORR   21     0
RICH   14    5
ASHL    21    2
WAYN   28     1
MEDI   25    0

TOTL  515    87

CTY    36   31
SPDX    35   18

After several good experiences last fall as a Rover in  the PA and NY QSO
parties I decided to give it a try in Ohio. While as a  mobile one can rack 
up a
big number of QSOs by repeatedly working the  regulars on CW from many 
counties,
one misses the great portion of those  participating in the contest who 
operate
primarily or exclusively on SSB. As  a rover, with some operation on SSB 
with a
real antenna, these people can  benefit from my travels to lots of rare
counties. And rover vs. mobiles makes  things a lot easier on a full time 
driver
with the frequent breaks from the  road.

Or at least they could had propagation cooperated this weekend.  Other than 
a
few brief periods early, there was absolutely no in-state  propagation on 
40. In
those few periods I did get a better than usual number  of counties and new
callsigns in the log. But otherwise even with the real  antenna, 40 SSB 
yielded
just a relative handful of out of state  stations.

My fixed antenna worked out very well. I call it the 33 foot  hamstick - 33 
feet
of vertical wire fed against the body of the Honda  minivan. This time, 
rather
than relying on trees for support as I had done  last fall, I used a 33 foot
DK9SQ fiberglass mast, supported by a tripod made  of pairs of 4 foot 
aluminum
army surplus mast. This gave a support point at  six feet, which was quite
stable, at least in the relatively calm weather we  had. Setup time was 
about
five minutes, teardown a bit less. Had the bands  cooperated, the three 
S-unit
improvement in signal over the mobile antenna  would have returned the setup
time in about five minutes. Checks before the  contest also indicated a very
substantial improvement on 15 meters, though 15  was useless on Saturday and
generally is not very active anyway.

We  stopped to operate in six counties. We had planned to stop in another  
six,
but with the bad propagation on 40 we could work just as many stations  on 
CW
with the mobile antenna, i.e. not many. As it was, my time estimate  with 
the
extra counties would have put us way behind our goal (successful)of  getting
back to AC8E's QTH by not much after midnight.

So it was quite  a disappointment after the incredible experience in 
Michigan
earlier in the  year when I was able to make nearly 1500 QSOs as a mobile 
in the
same time.  But in any event, a trip around Ohio for the OhQP is always a 
good
way to  experience the waning days of summer.

Thanks to all who  participated!


73 -  Jim   K8MR


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