Colorado QSO Party
Call: K0EU
Operator(s): K0EU,K0MF
Station: K0EU
Class: M/SMixed LP
QTH: co
Operating Time (hrs): 15.5
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
6:
2:
222:
432:
----------------------------
Total: 419 323 0 CW Mults = 74 Ph Mults = 48 Dig Mults = 0 Total
Score = 49,448
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Comments:
K0MF joined me in an adventure through the rockies of Colorado. We started in
Silt Colorado at the QTH of Phil, N0KE at 6AM. We finished in a parking lot
north of Denver in Adams county, 16 hours later. Got to see some incredible
scenery along the way, and we were pleasantly surprised at how good the
propagation could be from down deep in some of the mountain canyons.
Because of the way scoring is calculated for mobiles that cover a bunch of
counties, our score will seem really low, but rules are rules. Our goal was to
activate a lot of counties, and provide a good balance of CW and SSB QSO's. If
we calculate our score as if we were a fixed station, it would be 156,904
points!
VE7CV gets the top QSO award with 24, closely followed by KI0I at 23, and N0KE
and W7GKS tied at 22. Thanks also to WA6KHK with 16 and N6MU who worked us 17
times all on CW and from all 13 counties. You guys that rode along with us on
our journey made it all the more fun for us.
Only a few glitches. First, the Toshiba laptop had it's disk drive protection
setting on maximum sensitivity, which meant that it would shut down at the
slightest of bumps. I have since learned how to change the setting so it won't
be a problem for next year. We had a ton of QLF moments due to the computer
freezing up on us anytime we were mobile in motion. We finally gave up and used
paper logging for about 220 of the QSO's, mostly on SSB. Secondly, the charge
line I had hooked up via the 12V accessory plug in the truck quit working about
3 hours in. Turns out that there was an internal fuse that blew. I didn't know
there was a fuse inside the thing, so I gerry rigged a direct line to the 12V RV
battery we were using as the power source. That took about 30 minutes of time.
The most exciting time of the trip happened when we were finishing up in Adams
county. I closed the door of the truck, and the door somehow sliced through
the gerry rigged 12V line. The wire burned to a crisp in a matter of seconds,
creating a nice puff of white smoke! I had told Mike that if the wire shorted,
it would act as a fuse and burn up...fortunately, I was right. A dumb move on
my part...I don't recommend doing what I did, but it was all I could come up
with in the heat of the contest.
Other than that, the K-3 worked great, and the two roof mounted with mag mounts
MFJ hamsticks for 40 and 20 meters kicked butt. We also made use of a third
trailer hitch mounted hustler for 15 meters.
Thanks for all the QSO's. Hope to see you next year, and hopefully the
conflict with CW Ops open will be solved by then. There was a noticeable slow
down in QSO's during the two four hour CW Ops sessions.
73
Randy K0EU
Mike K0MF
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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