2007 FQP - Pat and Jeff's Excellent Adventure
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W4AN/M Jeff, KU8E and Pat, N8VW Operators
It was fun to operate mobile in the FQP again after a two year
absence. The W4AN/m setup was the following:
Icom 756PRO
40 meters -Hustler RM20 with DX Engineering Hot Rodz capacitance hat
20 meters -Hustler RM15 with DX Engineering Hot Rodz capacitance hat
These were on the 4.5 foot MO-2 mast which was mounted on truck.
20/15/10 meters - Hustler MO-4 (22 inch) Mast with VP-1 triband adapter - Had
RM20s, RM15
and RM-10 resonators. On truck lip mount of my Toyota Avalon.
We had a laptop an used a Linux program that worked like TRLog. It had
radio control and radio keying.
Also had K4BAI's Alinco DX-70 as a backup radio. Also had his MFJ tuner to
tune the 40 meter antenna to SSB. The 20 meter antenna with the Hot-Rodz
had a SWR below 2:1 from CW all the way to about 14.300.
Saturday
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We left my QTH around 8:30 AM and drove to Dothan, AL. Had lunch there
before the contest started at noon. We started the FQP at the Florida
welcome station just south of Madrid, AL (at the AL/FL border) First county was
Jackson county. At the start it was apparent the propagation from N FLA was not
very good to anywhere. We had many unanswered CQ's. At that time we decided to
alter
our planned route and head south towards the Gulf coast. Headed toward the St
George
Island area. We drove across the causeway over to the island so I could show Pat
where N4PN's house was. It was interesting that the signals peaked when we were
on the
causeway (over the salt water) and when on the island. The condx were much
better this
far south. 20 meters died very early - around 2230Z or so and did mostly 40
meters
after that. We headed east on US 98 from St George toward Perry. From Perry
south on US 19
towards Fanning Springs. Went over to I-75 and ended day one in Kissimmee, FL.
We ended day
one driving around 600 miles (414 of those in Florida) 800 somethig QSO's in
the log and about
14 counties at the end of day 1.
Sunday
After a good nights rest at the Best Western in Kissimmee we started out at
8:00 AM sharp. Took
US 192 over to the Florida Turnpike and headed southeast toward Ft Pierce.
First hour only
40 meters was open. We were working W6 and W7's on 40 almost a couple hours
after our sunrise.
20 meters finally opened around 9:00 AM. We spent the morning hours switching
between 20 and 40.
After about noon we were mostly on 20 meters where the conditions were much
better than they
were on Saturday.
We had decided before hand that since there were so many mobiles on and most of
them would cover all the counties that we would not rush to get from county to
county. Driving north from Ft Pierce we spent alot of time on Florida A1A. I am
thinking being close to the sea water might of enhanced our signal. We stayed
on A1A from Ft Pierce to Coca Beach. We bypassed Daytona Beach and headed back
over to I-95 and then back over to A1A around Ormand Beach. Stayed on A1A all
the way to St Augustine. We then cut back over to I-95 towards Jacksonville and
then west on I-10. We ended tho FQP in Baker county. Day 2 yielded about 800
somthing more QSO's and about 12 counties.
Hopefully Pat, N8VW had fun in his first FQP from Florida. We got to see some
places in Fla
that we had never been to before. The conditions were not very good by FQP
standards but still
we had a good time. Pat is on his way back to Ohio this morning and should have
our score
posted to 3830 in a day or so. Thanks everyone for all the QSO's.
Some Statistics:
About 1250 miles driving during the weekend. (about 900 miles of that in
Florida)
5 tanks of gas - It was around $3.00/gallon in most of Fla. I can't imagine what
you guys in those big SUV / Pickup trucks spent for gas !!!
Other Mobiles spotted : We had KK4TA drive by us in Levy county. I think we
were on Alt 27 at the time.
Hope to be back (with K4BAI !!!) next year....
73, Jeff KU8E
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