[SEDXC] K4BAI/M (with KU8E) results - 2003 Ga WSO Party

[John Laney]

Here is a copy of what I sent to the contest reflector.  I will post a
detailed breakdown to our reflectors later.  73, John, K4BAI.

Subject: 
          GaQP K4BAI/M(@KU8E/M) Rover LP
     Date: 
          Tue, 15 Apr 2003 10:57:27 -0700
     From: 
          webform at b4h.net
 Reply-To: 
          k4bai at worldnet.att.net
       To: 
          3830 at contesting.com, k4bai at worldnet.att.net




                    Georgia QSO Party

Call: K4BAI/M
Operator(s): K4BAI, KU8E
Station: KU8E/M

Class: Rover LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   80:     0    0
   40:   232    0
   20:  1383    0
   15:   225    0
   10:     5    0
--------------------
Total:  1845    0  CW Mults = 40  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score =
147,600

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

Jeff, KU8E, and I shared operating and driving in his Saturn.  He
had his TS850S
installed in the back seat, so the operating was done from there.
We used the
NA logging program with a Dell laptop powered from the cigarette
lighter plug
with a transverter.  We used a tri-mount Hustler for 10/15/20 and
QSY was very
easy from one CW frequency to another.  But, to go to 40 meters, we
had to stop,
change the antenna to a Hamstick clone and change the cables to
insert an
external antenna tuner in the line.  The rig had no ATU and the
tuner had no
straight through position.

Our intention was to operate in all the 42 counties in SW GA from
Harris (north
of Columbus over to just south of Macon, down I 75 to Tifton, and
then one or
two counties east of I-75 down to the Florida line and everything
south and west
of those counties.  We intended to operate on both SSB and CW and to
work 40
meters for those close in stations where contacts seemed to be
possible. 
However, the first attempt to change to SSB on 20 meters took so
much time and
was unsuccessful, so we decided to make it an all CW contest and to
try for a
quicker change-over system for the next mobile trip.  For the same
reason, we
did not QSY as often to 40 M.  It required stopping and going QRT
and changing a
lot of stuff to go between the other bands and 40 and back again.
We did
activate all 42 counties as planned and got back into one of them
for the second
time at the end as well as going through Muscogee (my home county) 3
times and
Talbot twice as we ended one day and then started the next.

The support by the contesting community was great and we'd like to
thank all
those who called and made those great rates possible.  In return, we
hope
everyone had a great time and worked many still needed Georgia
counties.  We
hope all will send in their contest entries to KD3UC at
jshort at mindspring.com. 
There are a lot of certificates and plaques to be claimed.

Conditions generally were pretty good on 20 M, fair on 15 M, and
good at night
at least on 40.  The Europeans really made the contest a lot of fun
with a lot
of Europeans worked on 15, 20, and 40.  Apparently, not too many
realized that
15 was open.  We worked W9RE and K5YAA and once KG5U (QRP) close in
on 15 when
the band didn't generally seem to be open to those areas.  On
Saturday afternoon
about 2345 UTC, 15 opened good for short skip and we worked K8MR,
WA3HAE, and
maybe a few others.  Most of our 28 mhz contacts were with W6OAT,
Rusty Epps,
who originated the first GQP in the early 1960s when he was K4BVD in
Columbus,
GA.  

We sincerely apologize to those who were disappointed by our
inability to QSY to
SSB and 40 meters as often as was desired and I especially apologize
to HA0DU
for giving him the wrong day for us to be in Mitchell County causing
him to miss
another new one.  We expect that KU8E or N4PN will be able to give
HA0DU that
Mitchell County contact by sked soon.

I always insist on having my keyer and paddle handy.  I detest the
delay when
there is a problem typing the call into the computer correctly so
the answer to
the call can be instantaneous and I have a lot of problem getting
into keyboard
mode and back out again using the ALT K commands.  Jeff went to a
lot of trouble
to make it possible for me to use the paddle, but it wasn't
conveniently located
for my right hand (the rig was side mounted to the left and the
laptop was on
the knees of the operator), so the paddle was never used.  As a
result, I am now
a lot better at getting into and out of keyboard mode in the contest
programs,
but I still make a lot of mistakes and wonder why the logging
program appears to
be "locked up" when it is just in keyboard mode.

We doubt that we got quite all counties active this weekend, but we
haven't
heard from everyone yet.  I think W6OAT worked about 136 counties
with 299 QSOs
from California.  With just a little more effort, next year we may
have all 159
counties QRV and it could be possible for someone to work them all
in one
contest.  We failed to properly communicate to KN4Y and W3DYA about
the date
change in time for them to be QRV with us in Georgia and we hope
that they and
others will join in next year and we can get all counties active.

There are many very good ops out there and they certainly
demonstrated it this
weekend.  Thanks to one and all.

Look for KU8E (with W8UE) in the Florida QSO Party on April 26 and
27.  No doubt
Jeff will make some small improvements and they will be out to do
better than we
did this weekend.  Unfortunately, most of the FL counties are larger
than most
GA counties, but the extra miles south may make for better skip on
the higher
bands.

73,


John, K4BAI.


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