Georgia QSO Party
Call: N5WR
Operator(s): N5WR
Station: N5WR
Class: Rover Single OpCW LP
QTH: GA - 63 counties
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
160:
80: 2
40: 1514
20: 1051
15:
10:
6:
------------------------
Total: 2567 0 CW-Dig Mults = 49 Ph Mults = 0 Total Score = 251,566
Club: Tennessee Contest Group
Comments:
I decided this year to make a solo run, wanting to try out my new radio. I
finally bought a mobile rig a few months ago, an IC-7000. I was pleased with
its performance. It takes up a lot less room too.
My mobile station begins with my car, a 2002 Hyundai Accent that I bought
before medical school because it was cheap and got good gas mileage, and I am
still driving it today for the same reason. It has over 150,000 miles on it,
and many holes have been drilled in it for the sake of mobile contesting. On
the driverâ??s side quarter panel is a Breedlove mount, very sturdy, which
holds a Hi-Q 4/80 screwdriver antenna, with an 8.5â?? whip on top. This antenna
would look huge on any car, but especially on my little hatchback. For this
contest, I also installed a ball mount on the lid of the trunk to put up a 20
meter Hamstick. I have bonded everything together extensively: the tailpipe,
engine, doors, trunk lid, body, exhaustâ?¦all of it with copper grounding
strap. In the passenger seat of the car, I have a 2â??x2â?? piece of plywood. I
have drilled 3 holes on the left side so that I can bolt down my Bencher key.
About 99.9% of the CW is hand sent, with the exception of a few memory buttons.
The IC-7000 is tied down to the plywood with Velcro and tie-wraps, and I also
keep 2 antenna switches to switch between antennas and an MFJ antenna tuner. On
the passenger floorboard the power cables come through the firewall to an N8XJK
Booster, which feeds a RigRunner that everything is connected too. The setup is
not exactly neat, but effective.
On Day 1 I set off from home around noon and started the contest in Pickens
county on 40 meters and conditions seemed decent. I tried 20 meters but
couldnâ??t get much going until around 20Z in Jackson county. I operated
without a stop for the first 6.5 hours before finally stopping for gas. The
first 7 hours were all 100+ with the best hour being 153. My plan was to change
antennas at that time, tuning the screwdriver for 80 and putting up a 40M
Hamstick. When I got back on the road, I realized something was wrong. The SWR
was too high on 80, and the IC-7000 doesnâ??t have an internal tuner, so it was
backing down the power to less than 20 watts. I had to stop and try to
troubleshoot. I ended up stopping twice, and spending about 45 minutes off the
air before finally giving up and just operating on 40. Looks like from the
other scores that I would have been better off to forget 80 altogether. I stuck
it out on 40 which went long, but still had 70-80 Qs the last 3 hours on the way
home. Day 1 totals: 1070 Qs, 30 Counties.
Day 2 was fantastic, with 20 and 40 both in great shape, it seemed like all I
had to do was send my call and instantly I had a pileup. All 10 hours were 100+
and got better throughout the day, with the last 3 hours being 168, 181, and 178
QSOs. Everything worked well, I never changed antennas, I stopped for gas once
and was off the air for only 12 minutes. I changed my route slightly to pick up
a few more counties south of Atlanta and near Columbus because I was making good
time. It shows just how good propagation was that several stations in my Top
Ten list were W6/W7 and EU stations. Day 2 totals: 1497 Qs, 34 counties.
Thanks to SECC and SEDXC for sponsoring the contest and doing a great job
promoting it. I like the special event callsign idea, I think it paid off in
great participation.
Most US QSOs: NT2A (62), AA7V (46), K9YC (45), KV8Q (45), W6OAT (43), W0BH
(43), WX4DSC (41), W8TM (40), KV1E (39), N7XU (39)
Most DX QSOs: OM2VL (47), LZ5R (31), DL3DXX (27), DL3GA (19), OK1AOV (15)
Thanks to all for the QSOs, I had a great time.
73, Erik N5WR
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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