New England QSO Party
Call: K1EP/M
Operator(s): K1EP, W1VE
Station: K1EP
Class: M/S Mobile LP
QTH: NE
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
80: 53 0
40: 294 0
20: 154 0
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
------------------------
Total: 501 0 Mults = 45 Total Score = 45,090
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Well, Murphy almost got the better of us at the start this year. Everything was
checked out before we set off on our journey. We pullup up to our first county
about 15 minutes before the start to turn everything on and do the final check
out. The computer logging program started to complain and go nuts. It took
about a half hour of debugging and screaming to realize that somehow the PCMCIA
serial card was either damaged or something happened to cause Windows to mess it
up. A quick switch to a USB-serial cable solved the problem and we were on the
air. The serial link was necessary for both computer control and CW keying.
Don't try using a paddle at 60mph on some of these New England roads! The
weather was lousy this year, damp, wet, and cold. It had to be the worst. But
on the bright side, I spent some time cleaning up the inverter noise so that it
wasn't a factor in receiving this year, as it was last year. Once the serial
problem was fixed, we didn't have anything technical go wrong. Another big
factor was using the K3 mobile. The radio was great! I set up the mobile so
that the operator was in the rear seat. THe rear seats are split so the radio
was on the folded down part of the other seat. The passenger front seat was
pushed all the way up. There was plenty of leg room and it was very
comfortable to operate. We almost always were running so even though the radio
was handy, it wasn't necessary to be turning knobs too often. This realization
came in handy on Sunday, when I had to go out single op because W1VE had family
obligations. I switched the arrangement because I didn't feel like getting out
at every new stop and running around the car in the rain! I folded the
passenger seat down and put the radio facing forward but on the rear seat deck.
I could turn around to check the radio during operation (always parked!) but I
wasn't staring at the radio most of the time. This also worked well from the
driver's seat. As far as operating goes, it seemed a little down. It was
tough to get some runs going. On the other hand, we were running, the short
term rates were as high as around 150 or almost 200. But we quickly ran out of
callers. We were going to stick with just 20 and 40, but late Saturday, we
decided to try 80. Somewhere in CT, we switched to 80 and found that the car
electronics didn't really like that. So, we had to turn down the power to
about 50 watts so that we could drive! But even at reduced power, we had some
good runs on 80. We also had some intentional jamming. As if it isn't hard
enough to deal with road noise, ignition noise, low signal levels, potholes,
and being cramped in a car, some yahoo decides to jam us with a RTTY signal.
This was intentional jamming, not a RTTY op, we could tell that. Luckily, the
K3 has a great receiver and didn't stop us from making Qs. We did 14 counties
the first day. We could have done as many the second, but as I said before, I
was single op. The strategy is different then. You drive to a new county,
park, operate, then move on. In multi op, you drive at a leisurely pace
because you want to have some time in each county. You can switch off to take
food and bio breaks. Very efficient operating. Speaking of breaks, Sunday
about 1PM, I decided to stop and get a sub sandwich for lunch. I parked at my
favorite rest stop with the sub (YORME), got on the air and broke out the sub.
Normally, there is a short delay when you start a new county before people find
you. Not here. Sub in one hand, keyboard in the other, I started probably one
of the best runs of Sunday. The meter was in the mid 100's as I tried to keep
the sub from dripping on the keyboard! Coincidentally, when I had the sub
finished, the pileup disappeared. Even though the weather was the worst of
any NEQP I can remember, we had a good time because the radio and setup were
working well. We didn't get too lost (well we did miss a couple of turns) and
made a decent showing. Since there are a fixed number of mults for US/VE, it
is tough to run up a big score without working DX. And we didn't seem to find
too many. Except for a consistent CU2JT who worked us multiple times. We had
a few others, but not enough to really impact the score. We also stuck to CW,
as both of us are good CW ops. As the FQP people can tell you, CW gets out
better mobile. Plus, I had a sore throat and didn't feel like shouting in the
mike. Thanks to all who called us. Signal reports would be nice. We felt
that we were getting out most of the time. If we didn't come back to you right
away, it probably wasn't that we didn't hear you, there are a lot of things that
happen while you are in a temporary mobile setup that don't happen when you are
at home. It was difficult sometimes to see the keyboard at night. I tried to
find a decent night light, but didn't get one. For a while, I had a 4D-cell
maglite balanced on my shoulder to light up the keyboard. Try doing that at
65mph on some New England road! Anyway, thanks again for the Qs and see you
next year.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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