Michigan QSO Party
Call: WI9WI/M
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: WI9WI/M
Class: Mobile Solo Op LP
QTH: 6 counties
Operating Time (hrs): 9
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80:
40: 97
20: 28
15:
10:
--------------------
Total: 115 0 CW Mults = 31 Ph Mults = 0 Total Score = 7,130
Club:
Comments:
I did the MIQP mobile for the first time last year, giving out 4 counties in the
UP. This year I wanted to make more of an effort, so I planned to give out 7
counties in the UP and spend more time operating. I left home in Madison and
drove to our cabin in Sawyer county in northwest Wisconsin Friday afternoon.
Saturday morning I headed over to Holmes Lake in Iron county where I planned to
start. The drive was 162 miles and took exactly 3 hours. After a few minutes
setting up the radio and computer I was on the air. In a bit under an hour I
made 32 QSOs on 20 and 40. Conditions seemed fair and activity pretty good. When
things slowed down a bit I moved down the road into Dickinson, where I made 34
more QSOs in a bit under an hour. I was pretty pleased at this time and then
shut down for the hour drive to my next location in Marquette. About 30 minutes
there netted another 15 QSOs. Then down the road a couple of miles to Baraga
where another 17 QSOs were made in about 30 minutes. By this time conditions
seemed to deteriorate and activity had dropped. Now it was another hour drive to
the Ontonagon - Houghton County line area. Starting in Houghton, 30 minutes
yielded only 12 QSOs, signals were weak and activity seemed almost non-existant.
Moving 100 ft into Houghton yielded only 6 more QSOs in 30 minutes. By this
time it was late afternoon and I was very tired and somewhat frustrated. Plus
there were mosquitoes about and I was getting bitten. I have been having
problems loading my new Hi-Sierra antenna on 80, so all QSOs were made on 40 and
20. I also didn't take a mike which I should have done. I had been planning on
activating Gogebic before driving back to the cabin, but decided to bag the
whole thing at this point. It was about 1830 local CDT and the sun would set in
an hour, so I drove to the cabin of some friends near Glidden, WI where they
treated me to dinner. Then I went back to my place near Winter, WI for the night
before driving back to Madison Sunday afternoon.
The bottom line was 115 QSOs in about 3 hours and 50 minutes of air time. Total
time on the road round trip in the UP from my cabin was 15 hours counting the
time spent at my friends' place. Total miles driven were 944....514 round trip
to my cabin, and 430 miles Saturday driving to and from the UP. At 25 mpg in my
Subaru, and $2.75 for a gallon of gas that week this works out to about 90 cents
a QSO for the gas alone. Total time in the car for the weekend was about 22.5
hours, about 12 minutes per QSO. I don't think I'll be doing this again in this
way. Next year I'll concentrate on the 4 or so UP counties nearest my cabin, and
will be able to cut the driving time and milage in the UP by about 40 %.
Thanks for all the QSOs, and thanks to the organizers.
73 Jim WI9WI
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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