Florida QSO Party
Call: K4OJ
Operator(s): N4BP N4KM K0LUZ NX4N
Station: K4OJ
Class: M/MCW LP
QTH: M/M ROVER CW
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40: 469
20: 2941
15: 1328
10: 320
--------------------
Total: 4942 0 CW Mults = 81 Ph Mults = 0 Total Score = 1,600,000
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
Scores are approx - this was drafted before I obtained final submission
results.
Hi Friends,
Well, well, well - we thought our fun in last years FQP could not be topped,
but that is exactly what happened for the K4OJ 'Suburbanites' team (as NO5W has
dubbed us). Once again we built a Multi-Multi station into my trusty Suburban -
like an overstuffed Calzone of people, equipment, antennas, spares of just
about anything imaginable, and of course plenty of teamwork!
This year our team took a slightly different strategy to try really amp up our
score - it worked beautifully, more on that below.
First, the results and some stats:
4942 cw QSO's
81 Mults
SCORE = 1.6M
Approx Band Breakdown (and comparison to last year):
Band QSO's Mults 2014Q 2014M
40m - 369Q 35M 494Q 45Mults
20m - 2941Q 69M 2460Q 80Mults
15m - 1328Q 69M 909Q 64Mults
10m - 320Q 31M 110Q 27Mults
BEST RATES:
40 and 10 Meters - 689 QSOs (40m = 369; 10m = 320)
K4OJ Max Rates:
- 4.0 per minute (1 minute(s)), 240 per hour by N4KM
- 3.1 per minute (10 minute(s)), 186 per hour by N4KM
- 1.9 per minute (60 minute(s)), 112 per hour by N4KM
20 Meters - 2941 QSOs
K4OJ Max Rates:
- 6.0 per minute (1 minute(s)), 360 per hour by K0LUZ
- 4.3 per minute (10 minute(s)), 258 per hour by K0LUZ
- 3.5 per minute (60 minute(s)), 211 per hour by K0LUZ
15 Meters - 1328 QSOs
K4OJ Max Rates:
- 5.0 per minute (1 minute(s)), 300 per hour by N4BP
- 3.1 per minute (10 minute(s)), 186 per hour by N4BP
- 2.1 per minute (60 minute(s)), 126 per hour by N4BP
NX4N was able to make a hand full of qso's on 10m while Kevin logged for me
(driving + logging = craziness, or perhaps our buddy K4KNQ?)
Our MM station:
2002 Chevrolet Suburban, 2-wheel drive, 345K miles - The NX4N "Sub"
worked flawlessly - again.
BAND OPERATOR RADIO ANTENNA
40m/10m Kevin, N4KM K3 40m Hustler - Roof
mounted; 10m 1/4 wave whip - Roof mounted 48" from 40m ant
20m Red, K0LUZ K3 20m Hustler - Roof
mounted 20" from 40m ant
15m Bob, N4BP K3 15m Hustler - Roof
mounted 30" from 20m ant
Driver, Spare Parts Supplier, Station Engineer, Cheer Leader, Host and Team
Lead - Chris, NX4N
Co-Host, Restaurant and Hotel owner, sandwich/snack/drink provider Lili (NX4N's
A1 wife)
Backup op and driver for September 2014 dry-run road testing - Larry, KR4X
Power - A Honda EU-2000i 2KW generator driving individual switching power
supplies for each station. Generator was mounted with an external fuel tank
and K5YAA-inspired 'plumbers delight' rain cover with vent on a hitch-mount
cargo carrier. E0 ethanol-free premium fuel was used. Fuel consumed over 24
hours of actual run time = 6 gallons.
Other gas consumed includes Regular E85 for the 'Sub' and Sonny's BBQ Baked
Beans for the operators.
RF Compatibility - Inter-Station Interference was the biggest challenge and it
required our perseverance, patience and just plain old dumb luck. It is quite
lengthy but I think a worthy, fun story so I hope you will read on down at the
bottom of this report.
GET READY, GET SET...
Things were looking up and the team optimistic. We had the RFI optimized as
much as possible - no RFI to 40m and 20m, no 15m RFI during the day and 10m RFI
at manageable levels.
The weeks leading up to FQP I started preparing the Suburban for FQP (roughly
40 hours of work to install the stations). Jim K5AUP kindly loaned us his two
K3's (thanks Jim!) so we had 4 total K3's - one for each of three stations plus
a spare. Tons of wires everywhere, radio mechanical and electrical function
checks performed. More than a dozen sandwiches, snack bags and innumerable
drinks that Lili made, packed and/or organized.
We're Ready! But Murphy had many tricks up his sleeve for us this year.
GOTTA LOVE THOSE BLUE LITTLE GUYS:
Bob N4BP came up Friday afternoon and we finished installing his K3 for 15m -
ahh, the last station is ready. Operator ergonomics are reasonable but nothing
great (think airline seats). RFI checks sound good. Friday night brings the
restless sleep of all FQP mobile ops - they know two huge long days of much
excitement, pileups and surprises await. How will it go???
Saturday morning Bob, Lili and I share a nervous breakfast of Cherrios, bagels,
cheese and coffee. Hard to enjoy the chow with the butterflies. We leave at
8am for our two hour trip to SEM to meet Kevin and Red at the Publix parking
lot. We're off! But...as we get on I-4 we see a foreboding sign flashing
overhead - "EASTBOUND ACCIDENT AHEAD 10 MILES - ALL LANES CLOSED".
No way! Couldn't Be! I sure hope they're ok, no fatalities, please, saying a
little silent prayer.
I called Lili in a panic - help! I only have 3 more exits before I get to the
closed lanes. Lili was walking our dog Hannah and no where near a computer but
promised to walk quickly home and check out options on line. At this time I am
in full freakout mode - and then I notice the love of my life (besides Lili),
my Precious...
The GPS says to get off at the next exit; I think to myself, why would it take
me off I-4 to get to SEM? Duh? I get it and silently and completely obey it's
every command. We turn north, heading directly on a small bumpy country road
to...what's this?...the Tampa Bay Blueberry Festival. Lots of traffic and I
silently curse this electronic contraption - God must think I'm schizo, prayer
for the accident victims one minute and then cursing a GPS the next. Perhaps I
should have just stayed on I-4 and waited for the accident to clear?
We turn east and follow behind a s-l-o-w tractor-pulled festival shuttle bus
for attendees. Sorry, no little blue guys for us today- we have a contest to
go to! The shuttle turns into a parking lot and we're on our way, then
BUMP...pause...BUMP...pause...BUMP. Oh no, this stupid GPS now has us on
another country road with 12 foot overhanging oak tree branches that subject my
poor antennas to several miles of torture with no place to pull over. I slow to
20MPH (40MPH speed limit), folks behind me on my tail, passing me with dirty
looks - but Bob and I keep going. Finally, Precious tells us to turn south and
go to I-4. We enter the on ramp curve and see - HUGE lineup of totally stopped
cars with drivers outside their vehicles. You stupid @#$%^&!!! GPS!
But wait! Could it be? The accident was juussst before our on ramp, and we
sailed right past it onto an empty I-4! Let the flags fly and the banners
waive - we did it!
That GPS saved our bacon several times as well during FQP when the
over-confident driver got lost.
I now sleep with the GPS under my pillow.
GO! AND WE'RE OFF!
We meet up with Kevin and Red - handshakes and grins are shared and we
immediately start loading up and getting everyone re-familiarized with their
stations. RFI sounds reasonable - nothing like repeatable results to make you
believe good things will happen.
We share a picnic lunch that Lili packed for us and hit the Publix bathrooms
one last time - gonna be along time before we visit one again. 15 minutes
before noon we load up and drive to our starting location in LAK.
CQ FQP! The bell tolls and the QSO's are coming faster than usual on all the
bands. Stations are playing like a symphony and operators are pressing their
best skills into action. As we head North I could tell that Red, Bob and Kevin
were are having fun, the county change signaling system is working well - LAK,
SEM, VOL, FLG and onward we go on plan. I have timing runs for every leg of our
trip so I know if we are hitting our marks. Traffic on I-4 is a pain but I-95
is much more open. Looks like smooth sailing...
MURPHY SNEAK ATTACKS:
Later on as we headed north in CLA, the clouds ahead looked ominous. Sky
getting darker and darker, the rains begin and get quickly very heavy. Much
wind whipping around but thankfully very little lightning.
Red shouts, "UH OH! My swr is high!" My heart sinks...20m - why
20m??? Normally we run with K3 tuners bypassed so if SWR goes bad the rig will
cut back and save the band pass filters from overheating until the op notices
the issue for disposition. There was no way any of us were going outside in
the torrent to fix anything - the ops and radios would be soaked the instant
we open a door. We made a quick decision to engage the K3's tuner and keep
operating. In fact, that was our mantra all weekend - just keep operating. We
drove through some nasty weather and got lost a bit in NAS; emergency lights
alerted us to a pickup truck no less than 30 feet into a retention ditch and
into the wet mucky woods beyond. The 20m SWR got better as we passed through
the rain, but it was just not quite the same the rest of the weekend, with SWR
at 2:1. Normally all of our SWR's are 1.3 or less. But it was usable and Red
was making QSO's so we just kept going.
It was not until until several hours later that Murphy struck again. Kevin made
the switch as planned from 10m to 40m - what's this? S9+ RFI spikes on 40m from
20m- no way! We never saw this before. Something had changed our setup in that
storm and now it was looking like a l-o-n-g night on 40m when we needed the
rate badly. Kevin the Lion Hearted put up with the QRM for quite a few
counties but we just had to stop and try to fix this before it got too dark to
do so. We stopped at a shopping plaza in MAO(?) where I put together a
complete replacement of the 20m antenna and checked all connections. Ha! I
found the original 20m antenna resonator was loose - likely too many tree limb
hits at the blueberry festival. We put up the new antenna and no more 40m RFI;
man, our we smart, huh?
Until of course we hit 45MPH when it came back - rats!
And it cost me a nasty gash on my leg where in my hurry I bumped against a
sharp edged spare antenna mount on the cargo carrier. Throbbing pain and much
bleeding and cursing ensued as we go down the road with 40m and the driver both
limping along.
But Kevin had just had enough of this wimpy RFI BS. He just puts on his
Man-Face and makes the best of it, making even a higher peak rate on 40m than
last year. I can hear the crackling of 20m RFI from Kevin's headphones - he
wins the K4OJ Man-Face-Operator award this year.
MMM- YUMMY!
The remainder of the trip Saturday went with workman-like efficiency - the logs
showed a first day with significant upticks vs. last year. 40m was a tad behind
but we new that was part of our strategy. We finished the last 8 minutes of FQP
in the driveway at home.
As our reward, we were treated to a Feast of Sonny's Barbecue with all the
fixin's - happy clams all. A brief period of time later John K4BAI, Jeff KU8E
and his two harmonics Andy and Randy (fine young men and very excited to be
part of Dad's trip!) joined us for dinner. We had a great time together; so
glad they could stop by. Before they left for their hotel we snapped a group
photo and then traded tours of each others' mobile setups. Jeff had come up
with quite a nice mount on his wife's minivan, with John sitting in the middle
row operating, Randy in the back row, and Andy helping dad up front with
navigation. Cool station setup too - Jeff told me how well his DX-Engineering
top hat worked well (a new twist for next year?). We parted with team W4AN/m
and then racked out - morning would be coming soon!
YET ANOTHER MURPHY ATTACK:
A sleepy K4OJ team left 5 minutes late but we had time to get to PIN before the
contest started. As we fired up the stations, we noticed the 40m RFI from
yesterday was still there but we only needed that band for about an hour before
the switch to 10m. But we had to stop because 40m now was getting into 15m. We
found a loose 40m resonator (blueberry attack), tightened it and resumed our
chase. Kevin kept running 40m while Bob put up with the QRM on a modestly open
15m.
An hour into the contest, Kevin switched to 10m as planned - HUGE RFI on 10m
from 20m. Oh, come on man! How could this be? We stopped - again - to look
things over and found that the base coil on the 10m antenna had broken (more
Blueberry issues?). Fortunately I had made up a spare coil so in less than 5
minutes we were on the road again. It Worked!
We had *finally* shown Murphy the door and he did not reappear for the
remainder of the highway. Once we hit MON all heck broke loose; the QSO rates
on all bands soared and we never looked back.
IN SUMMARY:
Incredible. Simply incredible.
I can hardly believe we came *very, very* close to a 5K run - that is, nearly
5000 QSO's in 20 hours from 3 mobile stations. At the end, we all were nearly
speechless (especially unusual for me :-) - just Incredible!
I challenged our team to make 4700 QSO's and they ran that gauntlet and keep on
going without looking back. We started the contest better than usual with good
but not super conditions. Between the rain and all of Murphy's shenanigans I
thought that perhaps it was just not our year, but we pressed on from Saturday
morning onward.
By mid-morning Sunday we settled into our saddles and just let the horses run -
I am very lucky to have 3 such talented operators on our team. Red, Bob and
Kevin just tore up the bands, the antennas worked flawlessly and our out of
state friends made our entire trip special, tracking us down on all the bands
over and over again as we switched counties. While I was driving, I could hear
HUGE pileups leaking out from 3 sets of headphones.
I do have to say that the conditions were the best in many years for FQP.
Saturday was good and Sunday was exceptional. Worked a JA on 15m at 2pm local
FL time! EU and JA on 40m. 10m was alive with nice replies from EU/SA/KH6 -
fantastic. The roof hard-mounted Hustlers gave us a big signal feeling on all
bands - each op remarked that we had FB signals on their band(s)
MANY THANKS to all of the folks who worked us on all the bands and counties.
Top 25 QSO partners include:
CALL # of QSOs
K5YAA 96
SP9LJD 87
WJ9B 84
K6LA 76
WI9WI 73
NT2A 68
K9CT 67
K9NW 67
N5DO 66
W7YAQ 64
K0HC 61
VA3DF 60
N9CK 59
NA8V 59
AA7V 57
K3WW 53
NS9I 52
VE3KZ 45
K7SV 43
WA3HAE 43
K2DSW 41
K9CW 40
K9PG 40
K0RC 39
KI0I 38
Our team had a great time working you all! We also truly enjoyed each others
company on this most unusual endeavor - a journey we will not soon forget.
We would like to thank FCG leaders Dan, Ron, Chris, Eric, George, Fred, Steve
and many others who make the FQP the very best QSO Party around. Sincere tnx
and 88 to my FB fun-loving wife Lili - she cooked dinners and breakfasts,
packed our lunch/snack bags/drinks and was a full team member in every respect!
No ham could have a more supportive spouse.
Big thanks also to Bob K0RC for his amazing tracking sheets; they were
revamped this year with super cool "find my counties" search macros
that made chasing the mobile mults even easier. Great thanks as well to Chuck
NO5W with his FB CQ/x contest software and county tracking tools as well. Both
of you guys are A1 in my book - we are very lucky to have your terrific support.
Thanks again!
To our fellow road warriors - well done! Each of your results and write ups is
eagerly awaited and just fantastic to read...CU on on the road!
As always, then biggest appreciation is reserved for our many, many friends
both in and out of state who tracked and worked us (or tried) repeatedly, put
up with our QRX, QSY, QRQ, QRS, QRDeaf and QLF -
THANK YOU ALL FOR THE MANY QSOs!
Finally, sincere thanks to my vy FB teammates Kevin, Red, Bob, Larry - guys,
let's see if we can do this again next year! The challenge has been set - we
shall see. And of course many thanks to my ever-lovin' wife Lili; I am truly
blessed with her by my side supporting all this craziness.
Jim K4OJ - dear FQP friend, we hope this little escapade of insanity made you
smile yet again! :-)
vy 73/OJ,
Chris, NX4N team lead
K4OJ Multi-Multi-Mobile
A POST REPORT "TAIL":
Ye Old RFI War - A Tiger by the Tail -
Needless to say, interstation Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is the
toughest challenge in any Multi-Multi station, but it can be a real Bengal
Tiger with vertical antennas mounted this close together over an undersized
ground plane such as a car/van roof. Our team has been mauled by this 'tiger'
many times; we spent literally days of both stationary and on-road empirical
testing to either minimize the beast, and just as often lost the battle and had
to lick our wounds and change tactics many times over. And the battle still
rages on...but we have made *significant* progress.
Below are some of the more interesting descriptions and moments that have
happened since 2014 FQP. All I can say is that RFI is like babies - one is a
lot of work to pacify, but twins/triplets/quadruplets (stations, that is) is a
whole other paradigm!
THE BATTLE GEAR:
The car was well bonded with RF braid on all doors, engine and tailpipe. We
started with a single point ground (the roof) to try to snare any wayward
ground loops. Our Heavy Artillery included 3 W3NQN Band Pass Filters and Coax
Stubs (sometimes double stubs) for each band, each strategically spaced and
placed between each Radio and Antenna. W2JVN gave great insight into optimal
stub spacing.
Supplementing this were no less than 20 Ferrite chokes at various RF Hot Spots.
PC's and switching power supplies can be particularly problematic so special
focus was placed there accordingly. And we had a bucket of more ferrite
available which was later needed during FQP. For example, early after the
contest start the 20m station shut down but placing a quick choke on the power
supply output remedied it; all done while driving and continuing to operate of
course. Our mantra - keep operating.
EARLY PREPARATION/TESTING IS KEY:
A FIRST SWITCH IN STRATEGY- CRASH AND BURN:
Upon completion of 2014 FQP, the team(Bob, Kevin, Red, Lu, Chris and Larry KR4X
had agreed that something must be done to improve the RFI or we would not try
the MM/m thing again. So we got together in September 2014 for a road test to
eliminate the RFI.
We spent much of the day in frustration in the hot summer sun trying to beat
down the RFI beast, but to no avail. 40m got into 15m in a big way, and 10m
was getting killed by 20m. Oh my. Team cheerleader NX4N was thoroughly
disheartened but the rest of the team stayed positive with promises to come
back for another shot. We just *had* to figure out a way to get this Tiger
back in it's cage!
After this crash and burn event I suggested that we try a different approach.
Why not switch to a tripband vertical with a triplexer? This has worked at
plenty of home and Field Day stations, so perhaps it would help us at least
eliminate the 10m RFI.
Our 2nd road test was held in March, this time with a new triband hustler
arrangement for 20/15/10 along with a triplexer from VA6AM. Testing in the
driveway looked tantalizing - no RFI between the 10m, 15m and 20m stations and
somewhat reduced RFI from 40m as well! Joy!
Road Testing was next; the team piled into the SUV with Larry KR4X at the wheel
so I could man the 10m station. We left the subdivision and started up the
Suncoast Parkway; operating commenced at that time. Our joy quickly switched
to dismay as N4BP announced that he had S9 RFI; while continuing to drive we
determined 20m was the culprit - this had never happened before. We already
had passed the nearest exit, so it was a long, dejecting ride home in
alternating fits of silence and brainstorming.
RED's RIDING SHOTGUN:
As we sat seriously frustrated back in the driveway we started planning ways to
figure out why we hadn't heard the 15m RFI in the Driveway, but humongous
buckets of it on the road. I got out of the vehicle to check that all antenna
and coax connections (more than 20 per band!) were secure - yep, all tight. We
sat in the driveway and retested - NO RFI! WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?
Then I had a thought - could it be? Really? Really?
While in the the driveway we had been performing all our testing with the car
doors open. As the guys operated I went over to the front passenger door - this
is where Red sits to man the 20m station. Sure enough, as I began to close is
door, Bob said the RFI went from under S1 to S9! I opened the door- and Bob
heard no RFI again - magic!
Further revolving door experiments showed a minor amount of RFI when closing
the rear right door and all other doors/opening had no effect. We spent the
next two hours trying to cut the door RF bonding, replacing the bonding with
new braid material, tightening connections in the door, etc. Someone suggested
that we simply remove the door for the contest so Red rides true
country-style-shotgun; Red quickly nixed this solution.
In the end, another savage attack by the RFI Tiger. Each solution offered only
bite and claw marks in return. The team made the decision to return to the
monobanders; at least we did not see Door-Magic in this configuration. The
team went home both laughing and crying a bit, with two problems still
remaining (15m RFI from 40m, and 10m RFI from 20m). Only 6 weeks until FQP -
yikes!
ACHIEVING A ZEN STATE - JUST GO WITH THE FLOW:
I manage a couple of EMI Test labs (not an expert, just the manager) so I have
enough background to know that RFI can be eliminated several overall ways. RFI
has three basic components - an offender (tx), a conduit for the RFI (ex- ground
loop, antenna coupling, etc.), and a victim (rx). As ham 'techies' we focus
nearly always on the conduit and that is what our team had done since 2013 when
the dream for this craziness began. I started thinking about our days (daze?)
of testing with some but not sufficient mitigation of the RFI. So I had a
thought - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Perhaps we could just
eliminate/minimize the offender- a true 'AHA!' moment.
I looked at our 2014 40m log and noticed that we made 165 QSO's during all
daylight hours. That is not bad, but we missed hundred more QSO's on 15m
because we could not hear through the RFI. Clearly, during the day our 40m
offender was hurting our 15m victim more than it contributed to our score. At
night, 40m is king and 15m is a whisper. Could it be that simple?
So I proposed, and the team agreed, that we eliminate the 4th station and
combine one station to run 40m at night and 10m during the day. Voila! The
Tiger was largely put back in its cage; this was a key strategic move that
directly led to our much improved score on 15m (400 more QSOs!).
KEVIN - THE HEART OF A LION:
Now, the remaining issue was the 10m RFI caused by 20m. Last year, our poor
10m op Lu W4LT had to put up with S5 to 10-over-S9 RFI- ouch! The signals are
so quiet and the need for a preamp so great on 10m that eliminating RFI
altogether had little chance for success. However, during our experiments we
did manage to reduce the RFI to S2-3 without the preamp and S5-6 with it on;
not great but usable. This is as good as we could make it, and Kevin stepped up
to the challenge and worked 300+ stations this year through the RFI. Well done,
sir.
In summary, taming RFI take a lot of planning, even more testing and a bit of
luck too; fortunately, we managed to make it work. Watch out for Voodoo Doors.
We have more improvement plans in the works... so see you next year for another
update! 73, Chris :-)
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