Florida QSO Party
Call: K0RC
Operator(s): K0RC
Station: K0RC
Class: SOABMixed LP
QTH: MN
Operating Time (hrs): 16
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40: 45 15
20: 229 129
15: 3 0
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 277 144 CW Mults = 67 Ph Mults = 45 Total Score = 159,936
Club: Minnesota Wireless Association
Comments:
I heard complaints about lousy propagation but you couldn't sell me
that story! There were S9 +60dB signals on 20m both afternoons that required me
to turn
on the attenuator. I started out as an enthusiastic out-of-state participant
and ended up
with a claimed sweep of all 67 counties. This was my first time participating
in the FLQP.
At the close of the first half, Saturday evening, only 6 counties eluded my
log. Those
were Gadsden, Hamilton, Hardee, Holmes, Lafayette, and Leon. Saturday night I
got more
serious and printed out a Florida county map and reviewed the mobile station
itineraries.
A clean sweep looked like a slam dunk. Fast forward to Sunday afternoon with 45
minutes
to go with Hamilton and Holmes still holding out. It was looking like a slam
miss at
that point!
I spent Sunday afternoon in a frenzy of looking at maps, routes, and creating
Post-It!
notes to keep track of all the mobile stations. When I worked a new county some
of the
notes would be retired while others needed updating. Slowly a system developed
where I
began to use my transceiver memories to keep track of mobile stations. This
worked
extremely well. At one point I had 13 different memories programmed. As long as
the
mobiles didn't get pushed off their run frequency, it was easy to go up and
down the
channels to check the progress of each stattion. I wish I had thought of that
system
on Saturday!
Mobile station KC4HW had Holmes second to the last on his Sunday route. I
watched over him
like a hawk. I was among his first Holmes contacts at 21:22. The remaining
county I needed
was HAM. How appropriate! My only chance was W4AN who had this county as 6th
from the last
on his list. With less than 40 minutes to go I was starting rehearse my line
"yeah, I worked
them all except 'HAM'".
I worked W4AN six times Sunday afternoon but the counties did not appear to be
activated in
the same order posted on the website. I feared I had already missed the ham in
HAM. But then
I also had the wild thought "well he might be fullfilling requests"!
I queried him when he was in Union or Baker, letting him know I needed Holmes
and Hamilton.
He said they were headed west toward Hamilton but Holmes wasn't in the cards.
In the last
hour he activated BRA, UNI, BAK, CLM, and with 15 minutes to spare, HAM!
I recently participated in a Multi-Multi mobile effort in the Wisconsin QSO
Party. This was
the first time I operated HF mobile in 30+ years. I've already aquired a
screwdriver antenna
and looking to drill some holes in my wife's Explorer. Wish me luck!
If you're interested in reading about that adventure, it's published online in
the Gray Line
newsletter of the Twin Cities DX Assocation. Check their website at
http://www.tcdxa.org
73 de Bob - KÃ?RC in MN
http://k0rc.spaces.live.com
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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