Michigan QSO Party
Call: K8MQP
Operator(s): K8CC, K8GL,, K8GL, K8GT, KE8OC, N8NX, W8MJ, WD8S
Station: K8CC
Class: M/M HP
QTH: WASH
Operating Time (hrs): 12:00
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 256 281
40: 264 633
20: 102 542
15: 5 6
10: 1 1
--------------------
Total: 628 1463 CW Mults = 103 Ph Mults = 120 Total Score = 606,337
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
For the past three years, we've been active in MiQP from KN8S's 10 acre QTH up
in Cheboygan County in the northern lower peninsula. When schedule conflicts
precluded operating from there, we decided to operate from the K8CC contest
station on 5 acres in suburban Detroit.
For the past two years, we've successfully had separate stations on 40M CW and
SSB simultaneously using in-line dipoles with about 200' spacing between ends
and older, non-synthesized radios. The existing antenna supports at K8CC would
not allow this, and we wound up with about 100' spacing between ends. With
legal limit power, this was simply insufficient as the SSB rig
(Corsair/4-1000A) would trash the CW rig (C-Line/PT-2500A) and vice versa. The
problem seemed to bother the CW station more than phone. After only 12 QSOs in
the first three hours on 40 CW, we determined something had to be done so we
went out to the far edge of the property and hung a low 40M dipole for receive,
fed with some spare RG-6 coax. This helped some, but did not totally relieve
the problem. We apologize to those stations who tried to work us early on 40
CW, where these receiving problems made us sound like lids.
We had a radio dedicated to 80M from the start, with moderate but decent rates
during the day, and a lot of in-state multipliers worked. We had QSOs on both
CW and phone in every hour of the contest. Thanks to those stations who
switched modes for us.
40 SSB was the real surprise, with by far our largest total ever, and almost as
many QSOs as both modes on 40 combined last year. Most of these QSOs were on a
simple 40' high inverted-V; it was doing so well that the ops didn't switch
over to the 3L yagi until the last two hours. Even the last hour of the
contest netted 71 QSOs on 40 SSB.
20 meters was a lot like last year; a seemingly unending supply of QSOs on SSB
(many appearing to be new callsigns) but CW productive only during the day. We
need to learn to concentrate on CW early, because we missed a few easy western
mults on CW that we worked multiple times on SSB.
15 and 10 meters were again not very productive. With 5/5/5 on both 15 and 10,
we were CQing on those bands at the recommended activity times, but did not work
anyone outside of MI. In fact, most of our QSOs were with in-state stations we
moved there from other bands. These bands will be a lot more fun in a couple
of years.
In the week leading up to the contest, a lot of outside antenna work was
completed, to the detriment of our inside readiness. Were were still finishing
antenna projects the morning of the contest, and as a result we were still
hooking up the 40M rigs when the contest started. We also had problems with
the networking of the logging computers, and making the computer key the old
C-Line (negative grid block keying) on CW.
We had good success working the mobiles this time. We had 14 QSOs with K8IR/m,
followed by 11 apiece with K8BB/m and W3USA/m, 5 with N9NE/m, 4 with W8UE/m, 2
with N8MR/m and 1 with WI9WI/m.
Despite our challenges, the team all had a great time. The activity seemed
very good this year, and propagation gave us somewhat of a break on 40M. Our
best hour (all stations combined) was the first with 194 QSOs, but our worst
hour was still 158 in the next to last hour of the contest. Our score is about
20% above the record from last year, and the first time an MiQP entry has broken
the 2000 QSO barrier.
73,
Dave/K8CC
For the K8MQP Team
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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