Florida QSO Party
Call: N4EEB
Operator(s): N4EEB
Station: N4EEB
Class: SO Mobile+DriverCW LP
QTH: NFL
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40: 270 0
20: 1925 0
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 2195 0 CW Mults = 66 Ph Mults = 0 Total Score = 289,740
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
A business appointment brought my team and I to the panhandle on Friday evening,
so it made sense to start there. The appointment cancelled at the last minute,
so it was cool that we were there for a reason anyway. A very sinister reason,
to poach as many QSOs as possible from the fixed stations who were unfortunate
enough to be located along my route. Just kidding, it doesn't work that way.
Our category was Mobile - Single Op + Driver. My driver was "Bruce",
my girlfriend Mari's son. Mari (short for Marilsa), navigated with a paper map
from the back seat. This was their first exposure to ham radio contesting, and
they said that they had fun. Bruce had a bad cold both days, but he sure came
through for me. We put about 1100 miles or so on the odometer. I could not
have done this without them. Thank you.
This was the first time that I assembled the station at the last minute without
prior testing. This activity took place in the parking lot of the Crestview
Hampton Inn. I pulled the Toyota 4Runner under the hotel canopy in the cool of
the early morning and went to work. Bringing a large step platform was the best
idea ever, and it made installing the three Hamsticks a piece of cake. One
passerby asked me if I was a "storm chaser". Another asked what I
was doing. I looked at her with a straight face and politely told her that I
wasn't allowed to talk about it.
After everything was all put together, I realized that something was very
different, very wrong, almost creepy, about this FQP. First off, none of my
body parts were infected. The teeth were all fine, my double ear infection had
concluded by the first week in April, and the Shingles on my thigh cleared up on
the 20th. I felt healthy and rested, which is not what I'm used to. On a side
note, the Hampton in Crestview is simply beautiful. We'll be back.
The second thing that went wrong is that all the gear worked. I even
remembered to close the master 50-Amp FQP circuit breaker permanently installed
under the hood, (this charges the deep cycle marine battery in the cargo hold --
The FQP goes smoother when the transceiver stays on). I remembered to turn on
the battery booster, and to turn off the notch filter on the radio. When I put
RF to the sticks, they were all flat on my operating frequency. There was
absolutely nothing wrong with me or the equipment, and this is a scary way to
start off the FQP in my world let me tell ya.
After the green flag, the first and only gremlin showed its head and stayed
there for 20-hours. After several hours of hair pulling, I found a workaround,
but as of this writing I still do not know the cause of the problem or how to
fix it. If I entered a WA WB WD, or a few other specific callsigns into the
log, the Computer/Winkeyer changed the second character of the callsign to
something random. This cost me serious time for a few hours as stations kept
repeating their callsign thinking I had entered it wrong. I finally got good at
anticipating the error and sending those QSO's by hand (The horror!) I have to
find time to figure this all out.
I kinda figured that this would be a 20/40 FQP, but I put up the 15 stick just
in case. 15 was dead. What I didn't expect was my ratio of 20 vs. 40. Only
12% of my QSOs were on 40-meters. 20 stayed late and woke up early.
I found QRN on 20 and 40 to be low, and my station was electrically quiet.
20-meters was either good or poor due to QSB. Even when it was poor, I could
still run, it just became a lot of work. 40M was always awesome, although it
went long quick and early. 20 opened earlier for me on Sunday morning, so I
opted to leave 40 early.
I didn't get the typical Hardee County pileup this year. Instead, it shifted
to other counties that I would have never expected like Hillsborough and St.
Lucie.
The most aggravating thing this year was the amount of dupe callers during the
pileups late Sunday afternoon. I don't recall ever noticing this in prior
years, and it cost me a lot of points. My pileups were fierce, and the dupes
were usually loud and aggressive. You had to work them again just to get them
out of the pile.
I only averaged 110 QSOs/Hr this time out, which is about an 8% or so decrease
from prior years. I think this was mainly due to conditions and the
difficulty I had managing some of the larger pileups on Sunday afternoon. The
callsign sending glitch slowed me down too until I became more proficient at
the workaround.
Overall the participants were FANTASTIC operators. I enjoyed sending OJ's to
several. Even though I made an effort to sign my call at least every 3 or 4
QSOs, I still had my share of stations sending ?? or Call? Call? during huge
pileups. This slowed things down too, because, of course, they were always the
extremely strong stations.
I didn't pass any mobiles on my route. I came close enough to one in Brevard
County on Sunday afternoon that caused me to turn off my 20m preamp, but I
don't know who it was.
I don't have any pictures to share this year except for the rear equipment deck
and the operating position. I'll post a link later. Someone told me they saw a
custom paint job on a Toyota 4Runner with antennas on the top that said,
"Spot Me!" on both sides, but I don't know anything about that. It
wasn't me.
I'd like to say thank you to all the loyal followers that seemed to always been
there at every county line. I feel like I know you guys personally. And
Canada, I love you guys! ON was the #1 worked QSO in my log.
A big thanks to K1TO, WF3C, NX4N, and I'm sure I missed a few, for making this
a great event. Fun was had by all!
73 John N4EEB
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