Florida QSO Party
Call: VE7FO
Operator(s): VE7FO VE7HDC VE7HAK VA7NSA
Station: VE7FO
Class: M/SMixed HP
QTH: Vancouver
Operating Time (hrs): 9:30
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40:
20: 89 14
15: 1
10:
--------------------
Total: 90 14 CW Mults = 45 Ph Mults = 14 Total Score = 11,446
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
Once again, had some newbies here. Not total newbies, though, they had all been
here before. Actually got two of them on cw, which is a good thing in FQP. One
has had his ticket for some years and can do around 20 wpm. He found it a bit
of a stretch and I would help him as required.
The phone op found it pretty slow going as we didn't hear a single mobile on ssb
and only 14 fixed stations. All S&P except he made one Q after calling CQ for
15 minutes or so.
The other cw op just passed his 5 wpm a month or so ago. I've encouraged him to
practise with the TRLog cw contest simulator which helped a lot. In particular,
he was very used to logging contacts. Obviously, his speed wasn't up to contest
rates so here's what we did.
He tuned in a signal.
I wrote the call down on a piece of paper.
He dupe checked the call and, if OK, called the station.
I wrote the county down on a piece of paper.
He entered it into the computer, sent our exchange and, bingo, another
successful Q.
Now, the biggest problem newbies seem to have is knowing when to dump the call.
So, at the appropriate time, I would make a hand gesture or say "Now" and he
would dump the call. He was getting the rhythm of it, even though he was
picking up very little of what was being sent. He was also good at bumping the
speed up and down to match the other station. It was fun watching him work N4TO
a couple of times at 32 wpm after which he would turn to me and say, "I've no
idea what either of us said."
I was a little worried that he wouldn't find acting as a robot much fun but he
did enjoy it. Next thing is to get him up to speed for Field Day.
We went HP here as the name of the game was for the newbies to make as many Q as
possible. HP in my case is 200W.
Cndx into Florida seemed not too bad. No booming signals except for AD4TR. All
20m except for 1 Q on 15.
Mobiles worked - all cw/20m
N4TO 12x
W4SAA 9x
W4OV 8x
W1NN 7x
KN4Y 6x
NF4A 5x
As others have commented, it seems that if you just say out loud "N4TO" with the
rig off, he'll hear you.
Was very nice to work W1YL on Saturday. Didn't hear her on Sunday. It was also
nice to get a lot of OJ responses to the OJ in my exchange. My OJ button from
Dayton is taped to the monitor.
It was sometimes hard to tell whether a cw fixed station without a 4 in the call
was in Fl or not. I heard a variety of attempts on their part to let us know
but the only one that worked for me was, e.g., W8ABC/FL. This obviously isn't a
mobile as all the counties have 3 letter abbreviations. Could this be suggested
in the Rules next year?
That was a hilarious ending with the W4OV pileup making it sound like he was on
Ducie Is. We tried to crack it a number of times with no luck. It was pretty
well impossible to tell who he came back to. Maybe he should have sat on 14050
and said "Up, up". My newbie cw op was mightily impressed. Imagine a mobile in
a State party generating that kind of activity. Way outside my experience.
Must have been frustrating (or maybe terrifying) for them as I would think the
rate would really suffer.
Many thanks to the mobiles. You're what make the whole thing work.
73 de Jim Smith VE7FO
OJ
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