Michigan QSO Party - 2023
Call: KD8FS
Operator(s): K0RC
Station: K0RC/M
Class: Mobile LP
QTH: Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 13 0
40: 122 0
20: 313 0
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 448 0 CW Mults = 58 Ph Mults = 0 Total Score = 51,968
Club: Minnesota Wireless Assn
Comments:
Together my brother Al, KD8FS, and I operated the MiQP as a driver/operator
team. This was our first time entering this event as an in-state mobile team.
The plan was to cover 20 counties by driving up Hwy 31 along the western side of
the state, looping around Traverse City, up around Elk Lake, and then back down
toward Kalamazoo. The first 4.5 hours were flawless in navigating and operating,
all the way to Traverse City.
Then it happened! Unknown to either of us, Murphy had jumped into the back seat
somewhere early on and he jerked the DC/DC power adapter out of the lighter
socket. The laptop had been running on battery power until it gave up and
flashed a 6% battery low warning! I thought the charger had "fried" so
we aborted the loop up around Elk Lake and started the drive back to Allegan.
I soon discovered the adapter had not stopped working, rather it had come loose
from the lighter plug. Reconnecting it allowed the battery to start recharging
and the laptop rebooted after about 10 minutes. But we were too far along our
return route to double back so we decided to continue the route from that point
and append KZOO and VANB to the end of our planned route.
Here is our operating route, QSOs, and times gleaned from our submitted log:
Code County Callsign Begin End Seq QSOs Op Time
ALLE Allegan KD8FS/m 12:03 12:40 1 29 0:37
OTTA Ottawa KD8FS/m 12:42 13:17 2 21 0:35
MUSK Muskegon KD8FS/m 13:22 13:43 3 20 0:21
OCEA Oceana KD8FS/m 13:45 14:14 4 26 0:29
MASO Mason KD8FS/m 14:17 14:46 5 27 0:29
MANI Manistee KD8FS/m 14:50 15:23 6 29 0:33
BENZ Benzie KD8FS/m 15:27 15:58 7 23 0:31
LEEL Leelanau KD8FS/m 16:09 16:24 8 10 0:15
GRTR Grand Tr KD8FS/m 16:30 16:36 9 8 0:06
ANTR Antrim - -
CHAR Charlevoix - -
KALK Kalkaska - -
WEXF Wexford KD8FS/m 17:51 17:54 10 3 0:03
OSCE Osceola KD8FS/m 17:56 18:16 11 12 0:20
LAKE Lake KD8FS/m 18:16 18:25 12 13 0:09
NEWA Newaygo KD8FS/m 18:30 18:41 13 13 0:11
MECO Mecosta KD8FS/m 18:44 19:19 14 36 0:35
MCLM Montcalm KD8FS/m 19:20 19:38 15 24 0:18
KENT Kent KD8FS/m 19:42 20:24 16 43 0:42
ALLE Allegan KD8FS/m 20:25 20:49 17 23 0:24
KZOO Kalamazoo KD8FS/m 20:51 21:53 18 59 1:02
VANB VanBuren KD8FS/m 22:56 23:29 19 22 0:33
ALLE Allegan KD8FS/m 23:35 23:58 20 10 0:23
Band conditions did not seem very good. I had expected a higher QSO rate like my
recent experiences in the MN and WI Parties. The majority of the stations I
worked were Q5 but there were a few that I just could not pull out of the noise.
Talking about noise, there were areas where the noise level wiped out the band.
Those were mostly areas when driving through some of the small towns. The
European "regulars" were easily worked on 20 and 40 meters.
The logger is N1MM+ running on Windows 10 Pro on a Dell Precision 1575 laptop.
The radio is a Kenwood TS-690SAT (bought new at the Dayton Hamvention in 1994!
with CW filters), and MFJ Hamstick mobile antenna(s) on a triple mag-mount.
Although the radio has a tuner built-in, I decided to add an LDG autotuner to
eliminate the need to "fiddle" with the radio. My original WinKeyUSB
pounded out all of the CW.
The mobile station is set up in a 2015 Lexus RX350. There was absolutely no
ignition noise and the SUV is a comfortable, quiet vehicle to drive. Other than
the power plug problem everything worked as expected.
The drive from my QTH in Chisago County, MN to my brother's QTH in Allegan
County, MI was a 12-hour journey going there. Driving through Chicago was a
nightmare with all the road construction and congestion. Then we add another 12
hours of contesting and a 10-hour trip back home. This made for a lot of driving
in a few days. We didn't set any records but we both had a great experience and
enjoyed our time together.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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