Since I was the replacement for K4OJ riding with Kevin N4KM for FQP, I need
to add my few cents also. First, I consider it an honor to be Jim's
replacement although I certainly wish he could have been riding along with
Kevin during the trip as they did have a very special friendship. Both
Kevin and I were touched by all the "OJ" that were in the contest and I
often thought as we moved along how Jim would have felt from all the
recognition and love that was being expressed during our latest FQP.
FQP ------ guys, it's up to us to carry Jim's great contest vision to even
higher heights in the years to come with his memory always on our minds.
http://www.topsusa.com/fcg/K4OJTribute.jpg
is a photo prior to the contest with Kevin and myself posing similar to a
photo of Kevin and Jim in last years FQP. Kevin and I are holding the
photo.
As Kevin had mentioned, the highlight was definitely the demise of the
hamsticks. A photo of the mobile just after the hamsticks had met their
demise.
http://www.topsusa.com/fcg/antallgone.jpg
You'll notice the plastic mount with nothing on top of it. A few minutes
prior to that, there were three antennas (15, 20, 40) on the mount!
http://www.topsusa.com/fcg/K5kgguilty.jpg
Today I drove back down to Broward County looking for evidence. I knew I
wouldn't find the hamsticks because there were cars and trucks running over
them within five seconds of hitting the highway, but lo and behold! Next
to the road was the remnants of the big box that had hit the antennas. Upon
closer inspection, I found a mailing label on the box. When Goerge, K5KG
said he had a secret weapon, he probably never suspected that evidence of
the weapon would remain behind at the scene and make him our number one
"Murphy" er..... ah..... er..... suspect. I'm sure he assumed that he
would completely wipe us out, but we had our backup plan and our
Screwdriver antenna
http://www.topsusa.com/fcg/K5kgguilty.jpg
took a licking and kept on ticking. We were hoping that the kink might work
to generate some JA qsos on 40 meters Sunday morning, but unfortunately it
didn't work.
After we got the Screwdriver antenna stabilized, we continued on looking
for Highway 41 in Miami. Probably because we both had tears in our eyes,
we must have missed a sign somewhere and when we were on Highway one with a
stoplight every block and traffic jams at 2:00 in the afternoon. When we
finally figured out where we were, we were about 6 miles south of 41 and
had to take roads to get back to our route. We must have lost an hour there
and thus the large number of Dade Qsos. If anyone missed Dade, if isn't
our fault! Finally off on rt 41 looking for Monroe county. Here are photos
of Kevin working in Monroe and our setup.
http://www.topsusa.com/fcg/shack.jpg
http://www.topsusa.com/fcg/n4kmop.jpg
As Kevin mentioned, our inverter then went up in smoke (what a wonderful
day when you have the smell of burnt electronic gear in the morning!!) We
replaced the Inverter with a heavier model in Naples but unfortunately it
also created more noise in the receiver. For those who were calling us
Saturday night and thought we the biggest lids you have ever tried to work,
you try and copy through 10 over nine AC noise! We knew there were people
in there, but our laptop battery was down and we had to use inverter. And
because we were so far behind from so many visits by K4KG er...... Murphy,
the contest ended at 10 P.M. and we were still south of Sarasota. Location
for the night was Longwood which is North of Orlando. We got home at about
12:30.
http://www.topsusa.com/fcg/murphyslob1.jpg
In addition to everything else, Murphy is a major SLOB. We were throwing
tools around. One special moment was when we had a brand new bag of Lays
Potato Chips in the back seat that hadn't been opened and I had to lean
behind the back seat to get something not realizing that the bag was between
me and the seat. Suddenly there was this POOOOFFFF and potato chips were
raining from everywhere. From that point on, when we were trying to locate
something in the back seat, we always had a snack to look forward to.
We got to bed a little after 2:00 A.M. (working on getting rid of inverter
noise .... and cleaning up the back seat area!) and got a clean start on
Sunday. I think we were a little tired, but the pileups were unbelievable
especially about 4 to 6 pm. I think Kevin might have been slipping a /P5 at
the end of our call. I haven't had a chance to start into the logs yet, but
hopefully tomorrow evening, I can get some score. At this point we have no
idea how we did. But I do think that George's Secret Weapon did the trick.
They probably beat us, but that's the only reason they did!!! Hrumpt!
There is always a NEXT YEAR.
I know that Jim would have had some wonderful stories that could have been
woven from our experiences on Saturday. I can see him smiling now and sense
the e-mails flying over the Internet. Rest in Peace Jim, We all miss you
very much.
73
Red K0LUZ
1/2 of N4KM team.
-----Original Message-----
N4KM@aol.com
Well, there are always good stories to tell after FQP, and I think this year
may be the best for me.
First let me say that I knew this year was going to be rough anyway as my
partner for 4 of the last 5 years was Jim K4OJ. Thanks guys for all of the
OJ's,
I thought of past years and my fallen comrade everytime I heard it. It was
great to hear such a fitting tribute to him.
I found a great partner for this year, and after what we went through this
year and remained friends I think Red K0LUZ and I will be operating in many
contests side by side for a long time.
About 5 minutes before the start of the FQP we discovered that we had a
problem with the remote speaker on the radio. To fix this problem I had to
pull the
passenger seat out as the IC-706 is mounted under the passenger seat. Bear
in
mind that Red and I are on the way to our starting point, so we pulled over
into a reality parking lot and proceeded to tear the truck apart. Well, that
problem was solved, but it put us behind enough that there was no way that
we
were going to make it to orange county to start, so we started in seminal
for a
few minutes on the way to orange.
Anyway, the next hour or so was pretty uneventful, good rates, good sigs,
and
we were having a good time, UNTIL, we were rolling down I95 in broward
county. We were following a pickup truck with a big cardboard box in the
back. The
box was the type that you might get a TV in or something like that. Double
corrugated. Just as I was thinking, I need to get out from behind this
#$#%$#%^
person before the #%#$%$#% box flies out of his truck, his box flew out of
the
truck. It flew must have went 30 feet straight up in the air, and for a
split
second I was thinking. We are going to make it under this box before it is
low
enough to do any damage. Unfortunately, it came down before we got past. Red
was busy operating and exclaimed "Where did all the signals go?". I reply
with
something like "They are with our antennas smashed all over the road!!!!!" I
had 15,20,and 40 meter hamsticks on a super modified K4OJ magnet on the top
of
my Exterra and that @$#@$#@$ box had sheared them off at the mount. I 95 in
that area is 4 lanes going both ways and was completely full of traffic.
Needless to say, the hamsticks were pulp as soon as they hit the road. To
make
matters worse, our spare antenna a W6AAU screwdriver had also been it. The
whip on
it was bent, the mount which I had made out of 3/16 think angle iron was
bent
so the antenna was leaning back on about a 30 deg. angle, and several of the
connections to the antenna had been pulled loose.
Well, the Hamsticks were gone. We were able to repair the screwdriver and
get
back on the road. One note that needs to be added here is, in an e-mail
exchange, George K5KG alias K4KG/M told me that he had a secret weapon this
year.
Little did I know that it was a box launcher in the back of a pickup truck!
Thanks Geo!
Murphy was not done yet! We got back on the air through broward, miami-dade,
and collier. We them made a slight turn to the left and headed into monroe
country. We were pulled off to the side of the road when Red exclaimed "Do
you
smell something burning?" Shortly there after the smoke was rolling. It
turned
out to be the DC to AC inverter that was powering the laptop. So we worked
as
long as we could with the laptop battery in monroe. Then it died. We
unfortunately were 200 miles for anywhere to find a replacement, so we sent
and logged
by had for the next couple of hours, until we got into the FT. Myers area
and
Radio Shack to pick one up right before they closed.
All this Murphy business had put us way behind schedule, so I apologize to
anyone who might have missed a sweep due to the counties that we did not get
to
on saturday. Remember, this was still saturday!!!!
There is a silver lining to this story, sunday was a great day. No problems
at all condx were good and a lot of stations to work in each county.
The pileups were incredible as we passed into a new county. Thanks to all
who
worked us, especially the dx stations who had to wait till we worked the
stateside guys so we could hear them. Some notables were GM3POI ( Clive
worked us
at times of the day I would not have thought he would have made it) ,
DL6KVA,
LY3BA, G4BUO, and many others.
Thanks everybody for making it a great FQP inspite of all the problems.
OJ!
73,
Kevin
N4KM
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