New England QSO Party
Call: NZ1U
Operator(s): N1WK W1UJ
Station: NZ1U/M
Class: M/S Mobile HP
QTH: 35 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
80: 103 3
40: 553 1
20: 234
15: 2
10:
------------------------
Total: 892 4 Mults = 64 Total Score = 114,432
Club: The Barnstormers Contest Group
Comments:
What a super fun radio weekend in the great (still showing some) white North!
Thanks to K1KI for organizing another FB NEQP contest weekend.
Congrats to the top notch NEQP/m effort of the WA1Z team.
We had very low amount of time for implementation, or what we did have for time
may not have been used correctly..
The 'Contest Caddy' used for 2012, 14, 15, and 16's NEQP MultiOp Mobile efforts
was going to take a break this year in favor of the brand-new 2017 Chevy Equinox
SUV, or, the Blue-Ox. Our 5th year, cool!
A Class 2 trailer hitch was procured and installed as the primary antenna mount
along with a Harbor-Freight 500# steel Hitch mounted luggage rack.
Using the luggage rack to mount both the Hustler mast/resonator and the
Hi-Sierra motor-tuned antenna. Right in the middle was an official WRTC-2014
Honda 2KW Generator used by a top 10 team! ;)
Sooooo... we tried High Power. Using a Tokyo Hy-Power SS KW amplifier and
having the Hustler 'Super' resonators picked up recently we hit the road....
One would think that tons of time is necessary to engineer an effort like QRO
mobile radio contest operating, but you may be mistaken! We tested the antennas
around 17Z, or ~3 hours before the start! But the road plan had us -way- North
for the start and much ground to cover. We hit the road. It worked!
It was not trouble free. (SHOCKER!) The biggest issue was that the operator
could not touch the 'touch pad' mouse on the laptop while transmitting or the
laptop would lose comms and CW to the K3.. Also, the sent CW must have sounded
horrible as we could not get the CW weight to work through the serial port CW
on the K3 it was with HP or LP didn't make a difference- sending a bit slower
helped. The amp was not used much, if there was a 5-cq or so lull, turn drive
down to 20w and throw amp in. It would run about 400w with comfort, until
nearing the end and we activated SuffolkMA, we were @900w comfortably. That
generator was working vy hard! Called CQ on SSB even 1 answer..... Everything
held quite nicely. (DO NOT touch that mouse pad!)
Used N1MM+ Logger to send CW through the USB serial port- this was only on
Saturday, on Sunday, the decision was made to introduce a WinKeyer which was a
good move. Still cannot touch the mouse-pad when TX'n or the Rig and the
Winkeyer would drop....
One of the goals was to be home Saturday night. The hub of the barnstormers is
NE CT and we wanted to operate North... starting and ending in the well-covered
WORMA. Another goal was to cover the 'least covered' counties of 2016. The
missed/forgotten factor was that Team WA1Z wasn't there in '16, and their
counties were open in 2016, but they are back in it for '17. On Saturday night
after many requests for SUFMA we knew there was coverage in the north ME
counties and we were heading to SUFMA since it seems there may have not been
activity there with many asking about it again on Sunday morning.
N1WK = "It's not the (Contest) Caddy" in reference to the Blue Ox.
Trade offs for superior luxury, powerful engine... etc... etc... is good gas
mileage and lots of cabin room.... The Caddy will likely be re-commissioned
in future efforts! Just need a trailer hitch. It seems that a couple-hundred
horsepower and luxury seats and operating position is worth the ~5 MPG
sacrifice....
For Saturday the goal was to catch COONH FRAVT GRAVT. GRAVT is way up there,
and we went to the top NW corner of it and headed South right through GRAVT and
making it through while it was still daylight out.
GRANH 9
COONH 10
ESSVT 15
CALVT 14
ORLVT 14
LAMVT 19
FRAVT 63
GRAVT 54
CHIVT 34
WASVT 16
ORAVT 18
WNDVT 25
SULNH 10
CHENH 5
WNHVT 14
FRAMA 11
HMPMA 1 QSO :(
HMDMA 20
WORMA 145
Sunday was the same we looked at least covered counties, but changed things a
bit to cover the requested SUFMA
WORMA- 145
MIDMA 36
ESSMA 37
ROCNH 32
HILNH 8
MERNH 22
BELNH 10
STRNH 27
CARNH 27
OXFME 9
YORME 29
CUMME 31
ANDME 13
KENME 17
LINME 19
SAGME 15
CUMME- 31
YORME- 29
ROCNH- 32
ESSMA- 37
SUFMA 67
MIDMA 36
WORMA- 145
Another learning experience and many mental notes that are likely to be
forgotten next year, but we look forward to it and it is a considerable amount
of fun. More band changes.. Tightening up complete antenna/coax systems...
etc... the normal things... same as last year....
Rock star award to N1WK for powering through with the driving getting us home
safely.
Saturday 707 miles
Sunday 509 miles
Average speed 54.3 MPH
34.0 MPG Best 50 mile run
Average fuel economy 26.6 MPG
Thanks to The Barnstormer fixed team of NB1U and NR1X, while putting in their
own significant NEQP efforts and tracking the NZ1U/m team and notifying the
masses where we were. Also to the Cap'n KB1H(sk) for getting us all together.
Thanks to all of the 'Regulars' that follow the /m's through the counties, you
guys make it worth it for everyone.
A few pics and vids here; http://w1uj.net/NEQP-2017/
73
The Barnstormers
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