Florida QSO Party
Call: N4DAB
Operator(s): WB4OMM KB4T W2EJG KK4BFN
Station: N4DAB
Class: Multi-Op MobileMixed LP
QTH: ROVER
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40: 25 10
20: 380 42
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 405 52 CW Mults = 50 Ph Mults = 27 Total Score = 132,748
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
Drove 340 miles, over 9.5 hour -8 Counties over 2 days; two vehicles, 4
operators, two radio stations. It hit 98 degrees in Putnam County on my car
sensor....and it felt it in the Sun!! The CW station used a vehicle mounted
hamstick on 20M/40M, ICOM transceiver, generator power supply. SSB station
used an ICOM, Buddipole, and 85 AHr storage battery. Bands were "OK"
for CW. SSB conditions sucked dirty canal water. Huge QSB & atmospheric
noise (would hear stations "disappear" mid-transmission both days!).
Called CQ for hours without response (fortunately two of use taking turns). At
least two out-of-state stations (obviously at home and running amplifiers) sat
in the mobile window for almost all day Sunday...including others sitting on
freqs, "Calling any Florida Stations" making it difficult to work in
the designated window. I thought WE were the sought-after Qs! Also, had a
Special Event station (WWII memorial) right in the middle of the SSB window.
It appeared that at least in the SSB category, no one cared to look for
mobiles, as they were busy hunting down (and waiting in pileups) for the
alphabet stations many running kilowatts & beams, at home stations. Not so
bad on CW sub-bands, but after about 30 mins, the calls again were down to a
sporadic hit or miss. For years, we only went out on Saturday - had we done
that this year, we would have had HALF of the contacts shown (Saturday when we
closed down, we had 28 SSB and just over 200 CW Qs. Good thing we did the
second day this year! Yeah, our SSB rate was 4 per hour.
If FCG wants to keep SSB folks, we to re-think the scoring and
"alphabet" stuff. Maybe.... making mobiles worth more points;
auto-disqualifying any non-mobile station running in the mobile window.
Reducing the number of "alphabet" stations (we had 20....maybe
5-10??). While I LOVE going out with the fellas to do this contest (and have
for the last 5 years), I am seriously re-evaluating the SSB portion......maybe
not doing it next year.
All-in-all, lotsa fun, lotsa laughs, and good comrades sharing a great hobby!
Hope the other mobiles (SSB) did better.
73 to all!
Steve WB4OMM
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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