New York QSO Party - 2021
Call: K2UA
Operator(s): K1RO K2UA
Station: K2UA
Class: Multi-Op MobileCW HP
QTH: 22 counties
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80: 438
40: 556
20: 413
15: 6
10:
6:
2:
222:
432:
----------------------------
Total: 1413 0 0 Mults = 83 Total Score = 234,392
Club: Rochester (NY) DX Association
Comments:
Rig: Kenwood TS-480HX (barefoot on 40 at 200 W); SGC SG500 amplifier on 80, 20,
and 15 at 500-600 W
Antennas: 40 meters--Tarheel M40A-HP mounted on a brush guard up front; 80, 20,
15 meters--Tarheel M200A-HP on receiver mount at the back.
Soapbox: In the 2020 NYQP, Mike, N2MG, and I had a great time operating as
K2UA/M in 11 counties, where we ran 200 W into a Tarheel antenna and made a
little more than 1000 QSOs in our CW-only operation. Mike started to get the
itch to get his F-150 set up for mobile operating also, so he gathered a Tarheel
and a TS-480HX. As a result, we started talking about doing something a bit
different this year.
Back in the early springtime, N2MG and I started talking with Ken, N2ZN, about
whether he was interested in joining us. He immediately agreed, so that left the
question of our fourth op. Right away I thought of Mark, K1RO, who is a
perennial state QSO party operator and a fine op. I reached out and we talked
about it, and Mark was interested--he had never operated mobile in a state QSO
party, but he was interested in giving it a try. He and I also have a lot of
history, though we had not seen each other in a long time. Mark was my first
manager at ARRL 35 <gasp> years ago when I was just out of college. We
worked together at ARRL HQ for 7 years, but somehow we had never operated in a
contest together. We hadn’t seen each other in 28 years, since I left ARRL HQ
and moved to the Rochester area, so this was a great opportunity to reconnect
and enjoy some new radio experiences in the NYQP.
Since last year, I upgraded the station in my Honda Pilot, including adding a
second antenna up front on a brush guard. I wanted to have a dedicated antenna
for 40 meters so we could quickly switch between 20 and 40, or 80 and 40,
without having to retune the back antenna. This turned out to be a great asset,
as we never had to think about whether it was worthwhile to change bands--we
were able to bop back and forth easily. I also added an SGC SG500 amplifier that
N5OT found for me earlier in the year, and wired it to the rear antenna. It runs
from a dedicated SOK 206-Ah lithium iron phosphate battery that made it through
the 12-hour contest period with a lot of charge to spare. These were really good
upgrades, as it turned out.
I drafted a 24-county route starting and ending in Albany back in the spring,
and N2ZN took that and refined it to what we used. We all got together in Albany
Friday afternoon, which was roughly central to us all. Saturday morning we
headed up to Washington County, where N2MG/M hit the road about 10 minutes
before K2UA/M so we weren’t going to interfere with each other but we could
stay in simplex range on 2 meters. Most of our stops also coincided with each
other, so we had to coordinate which station was on 20 and which was on 40
throughout the day. We wanted to make our counties available to as many stations
as possible.
The weather was really great for the first several hours. Sunny, warm, and calm.
By midday it was up to 79 degrees Fahrenheit and we were doing well, running a
little more than 100 QSOs/hour. Early on, Laci, OM2VL, told us that 15 was open
so we went there and made a few QSOs (including one with Laci), but it was too
early for any rate. Back to 20.
Much of the day we spent between 20 and 40 and the rates were slowly improving.
But in Delaware County, about 4 hours into the contest, it was clear that the
weather was about to change and the rates slowed a bit as well head of the
front. We needed to take a rest stop/driver change around that time. We pulled
into a rest area and the sky opened. The parking lot filled with water and the
wind picked up significantly. The front passed quickly but we still lost a bit
of time there. Behind the front, we had mostly steady rain the rest of the way
except for a nice break around sunset along Seneca Lake--which was really
beautiful, including a rainbow just before sunset in Seneca County. At about
this time, it became evident that our rates were climbing--we made 150 QSOs in
the 21Z hour--so it began to look like 1300 QSOs or more would be possible.
I took a wrong turn in the Cayuga/Onondaga County border area and wound up
headed east instead of southeast, which caused a couple of additional stops to
regroup on the route. For some reason, the NYS Thruway (I-90 and I-87) does not
have county line signs, like every county and state road in NYS does, so I had
to plot them out as Mark was operating. We were also now out of simplex range as
N2MG and N2ZN had continued on the planned route. We knew about 3 hours before
the finish that we were not going to be able to hit all 24 counties, so Mark and
I instead agreed to focus on routing back quickly toward Albany on I-90. We
didn’t have to drop any counties along the path, but we were not able to head
north from Montgomery into Fulton and then over to Saratoga before the end.
Instead we went straight through Montgomery to Schenectady and Albany Counties.
In the last three hours, we logged 400 stations on 80 meters--it was one giant
pile-up for that entire stretch! Usually mobiles experience a nice pile-up when
we enter a new county, then a steady QSO rate that tends to tail off toward the
next county line, where the cycle begins again. Once we hit 80 meters full-time
with a little more than 3 hours to go, it was wall-to-wall from county line to
county line. I’d say we rarely had fewer than ten callers at a time, even as
we were about to cross the next county line--quite a rush!
We had some regular callers all day long, including OM2VL, K2SSS, and N5OT, just
to name a few. We really appreciated their dedicated support! OM2VL worked us 24
times and N5OT and K2SSS each worked us at least as many times as our county
total. However, it was tough to pull stations out of the pileup on 80, so at
times I called stations in the blind who I suspected were in there
calling--including N5OT and OM2VL. The first time I tried this was with OM2VL on
40 in the 21Z hour, and he came right back to me. So I tried the same thing
three more times with Laci on 80 meters; he answered me three out of the four
times when I called him before I had heard him! That was some real QSO Party
magic right there!
As the contest period was drawing quickly to a close, the rates stayed high--we
had a big group of callers right to the end. We crossed into Albany County at
0147Z and made 38 QSOs in that last few minutes, including five Qs in the final
minute. When the clock ticked over to 0200Z, we were on the off-ramp next to the
hotel and we pulled into the lot at 0201Z. Thrilled and exhausted!
Because we were way out of simplex range, we weren’t aware that the N2MG team
had decided to go north to put Fulton County on the air at the end. So in total
we wound up activating 23 of our 24 planned counties, missing only Saratoga,
which turned out to be well-represented.
N2MG and N2ZN were 40 minutes from the hotel at the end, but they stopped for
refreshments so we could all enjoy a “cold one” together as we shared our
experiences and decompressed a bit from an eventful day. We all had a terrific
time and we’ll be back in 2022 for another run!
It was great to spend some quality radio time with old friends--both on the air
and in our group. In the end, that’s what this is all about.
--73, Rus, K2UA
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