West Virginia QSO Party - 2022
Call: W4GO/M
Operator(s): W4GO
Station: W4GO
Class: Mobile HP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 8:37
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80:
40: 556
20: 92 135
15:
10:
----------------------------
Total: 92 691 0 Mults = 66 Total Score = 59,512
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
This was an all-remote, autonomous-vehicle mobile operation. I was lounging
comfortably on a beach, tablet in one hand, cold drink in the other, operating
the radio remotely through the cellular hot spot in my Tesla which was driving
my contest route on auto-pilot. The vehicle was simultaneously generating income
by carrying Uber passengers for part of the route. Welcome to QSO parties in the
year 2022!
Just kidding. This was my first time mobiling in the WV QSO Party and it was
good, very good, to be there. Thanks for the QSOs and the friendly encouragement
to press onward over hill, and hill, and yet another hill. (And I was not
driving a six-figure golf cart!)
The weather was great, the mountain scenery out of a post card, and the HF
conditions were decent too. Being walled in by close mountains does indeed
impair low-angle radiation. 40 m NVIS was the solution to this problem.
Fortunately, 20 m worked well early in the contest when I was traversing the
somewhat more open valleys of the eastern region of the state. Perhaps it helped
that 20 m was exhibiting short skip during this period, with strong signals from
as close as PA, NJ, and OH.
My regular chasers know that I'm no stranger to cranking through large SSB
pile-ups on the road. In six years of mobile QP operation, this was the first
time the pile reached such a size that I consistently could not make out a
distinguishing letter or number (without letting people call endlessly, which is
a total rate killer). So I tried something different and worked callers by the
numbers for a while.
It worked well. My highest-rate hour, with 139 QSOs, included most of the spell
that I was running by the numbers. That's a respectable one-hour sustained rate
for a single-op mobile station in a state QSO party and happens to be my best
ever as a mobile.
Better still, during this time, I pulled in four WV county mults not otherwise
worked during the contest. They were from weaker stations that likely would not
have gotten through if I wasn't working by the numbers. In future mobile QP
runs, I will likely continue the practice when the size of the pile-up justifies
it.
The more skillful callers will gain experience at using their dual VFO to keep
tabs on which number I am working while they bag other Qs and mults.
Miscellaneous stats:
Total QSOs: 783
Mobile-to-mobile QSOs: 7
Stations worked: 409
Stations worked five or more times: 34
WV counties activated: 13
WV counties worked: 19
States & provinces worked: 43
DX entities worked: 4
Contest miles: 337
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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