From wd4ahz at gte.net  Wed Apr 23 16:13:32 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Wed Apr 23 14:30:22 2003
Subject: [FQP]Test
Message-ID: <3EA6E5DC.1000001@gte.net>

Testing the new mailing list.

Ron

From wd4ahz at gte.net  Wed Apr 23 16:45:46 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Wed Apr 23 15:02:41 2003
Subject: [FQP]New FQP Mailing List Address
Message-ID: <3EA6ED6A.9050105@gte.net>

Effective immediately, the Florida QSO Party e-mail reflector address 
has changed.  Please address mail to the FQP Reflector to fqp@kkn.net

The list at qsl.net is currently NOT working, and we were going to 
switch over to the new mailing list at some point anyway (to go with the 
new Web site address).  I've switched everyone over and reset everyone's 
"preferences" according to the "old" list.

If you have problems, please let me know.

Again, from now on ... address mail to the FQP Reflector to

fqp@kkn.net


Thanks, Ron


From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Wed Apr 23 18:34:52 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Wed Apr 23 16:51:53 2003
Subject: [FQP]Falsehood being spread on the Internet
Message-ID: <3EA706FC.4020208@tampabay.rr.com>

Many pieces of e-mail have entered my in-box in the past day regarding 
the Love Bug and how it is such a big problem for Florida mobilers in 
the FQP.  Many have said this is due to an experiment gone wrong done at 
the University of Florida.  Supposedly the experiment was to limit the 
mosquito population in Florida, and it was science gone bad.

While I am all in favor of eliminating the mosquito,

THIS IS NOT TRUE and I refer you to this web page for a summary of yet 
another Urban Legend spread over the internet.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/lurkers/lovebugs.htm

(Thanks URL WD4AHZ)

Also, thanks to everyone who has suggested we cover ourselves, I mean 
our cars, with baby oil to avoid the problem of not being able to get 
rid of the dead Love Bug carcasses (carcii?) which soon will adorn our 
FQP mobile team's vehicles.  Interesting idea, but here in FL some use 
baby oil to enhance their tans - yowza!

The mobile teams may be even further encrusted with SK Love Bugs (should 
that be SB for Silent Bugs?) due to the recent addition of yet another 
plaque in the FQP program! N4OX is sponsoring a plaque for Most Counties 
Activated In FQP... Interesting to note that North Florida where N4OX 
lives is sometimes known for speed traps, and that he is an officer of 
the law! "But officer I was only going 40 words per minute!"

Another hot idea has come from W5WMU who has "kicked it up a notch" and 
offered a supply of Louisiana Hot Sauce to the station that works the 
most mobiles!  Thanks, Pat - we mobiles feel this is just what the 
Doctor ordered!

Again, the myth that the Love Bug is a genetic experiment gone bad at 
the University of Florida is untrue - most likely spread by some of the 
Florida State Alumnae!  Nothing like a little in state FL rivalry... 
witness some of that this weekend in the FQP - thanks to you we're 
working everybody!

73,

Jim, K4OJ

Three days (or 368 if you live in WA) until the FQP...now where's that 
repellent?

Web site for the FQP: http://www.floridaqsoparty.org





From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Wed Apr 23 21:39:54 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Wed Apr 23 19:56:20 2003
Subject: [FQP]Falsehood being spread on the Internet
Message-ID: <6e.2d24268d.2bd88c5a@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/23/2003 7:59:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
k4oj@tampabay.rr.com writes:

> The mobile teams may be even further encrusted with SK Love Bugs (should 
> that be SB for Silent Bugs?) 

Not to be confused with Siesta Key Love Bugs !!!

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From K1to at aol.com  Wed Apr 23 21:41:49 2003
From: K1to at aol.com (K1to@aol.com)
Date: Wed Apr 23 19:58:17 2003
Subject: [FQP]Two More Plaques Added for Our VE friends
Message-ID: <a6.36bfed61.2bd88ccd@aol.com>

From:   <A HREF="mailto:Cqtestk4xs@aol.com">Cqtestk4xs@aol.com</A>  
To: <A HREF="mailto:CQ-Contest@contesting.com">CQ-Contest@contesting.com</A>, <A HREF="mailto:fcg@mailman.qth.net">fcg@mailman.qth.net</A>  
Sent from the Internet (Details)    

Ah, you say FQP has lots of plaques...you're right.  Add two last minute ones 

for our VE friends courtersy of K4SXY and K4LOG. 

The FCG will be awarding two more plaques for the boys north of the 
border...Top VE SSB and Top VE CW.  I guess we now have 26 plaques for this 
contest.

See ya'll this weekend.

Bill K4XS  Plaque Coordinator For the FQP



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Wed Apr 23 23:58:57 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Wed Apr 23 22:16:04 2003
Subject: [FQP]For all you FQP entusiasts
Message-ID: <3EA752F1.2030502@tampabay.rr.com>

http://www.eham.net/articles/5306


From jimsmith at shaw.ca  Thu Apr 24 02:34:06 2003
From: jimsmith at shaw.ca (Jim Smith)
Date: Thu Apr 24 03:50:35 2003
Subject: [FQP]Two More Plaques Added for Our VE friends
References: <a6.36bfed61.2bd88ccd@aol.com>
Message-ID: <3EA7A17E.2070205@shaw.ca>

I had a dental appointment today and showed this post to the hygienist.

Now my dentist is really upset with me because the hygienist has decided 
to move to Florida where all the work is.  First time she has ever seen 
plaque referred to in the plural, let alone a jurisdiction which has a 
"plaque coordinator".  "Man," she said, "that stuff must be rampant down 
there.  They really need me.  I'm outa here."

73 de Volusia Escambia 7 Flagler Osceola

k1to@aol.com wrote:

>From:   <A HREF="mailto:Cqtestk4xs@aol.com">Cqtestk4xs@aol.com</A>  
>To: <A HREF="mailto:CQ-Contest@contesting.com">CQ-Contest@contesting.com</A>, <A HREF="mailto:fcg@mailman.qth.net">fcg@mailman.qth.net</A>  
>Sent from the Internet (Details)    
>
>Ah, you say FQP has lots of plaques...you're right.  Add two last minute ones 
>
>for our VE friends courtersy of K4SXY and K4LOG. 
>
>The FCG will be awarding two more plaques for the boys north of the 
>border...Top VE SSB and Top VE CW.  I guess we now have 26 plaques for this 
>contest.
>
>See ya'll this weekend.
>
>Bill K4XS  Plaque Coordinator For the FQP
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>FQP mailing list
>FQP@kkn.net
>http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
>


From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Thu Apr 24 11:12:17 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Thu Apr 24 09:29:41 2003
Subject: [FQP]Two More Plaques Added for Our VE friends
References: <a6.36bfed61.2bd88ccd@aol.com> <3EA7A17E.2070205@shaw.ca>
Message-ID: <3EA7F0C1.4020708@tampabay.rr.com>

...one of FQP's frequent supporters is DDS K3WW - he has won so many 
contest he has a different problem - Plaque Buildup

Far Out

K4OJ


Jim Smith wrote:
> I had a dental appointment today and showed this post to the hygienist.
> 
> Now my dentist is really upset with me because the hygienist has decided 
> to move to Florida where all the work is.  First time she has ever seen 
> plaque referred to in the plural, let alone a jurisdiction which has a 
> "plaque coordinator".  "Man," she said, "that stuff must be rampant down 
> there.  They really need me.  I'm outa here."
> 
> 73 de Volusia Escambia 7 Flagler Osceola
> 
> k1to@aol.com wrote:
> 
>> From:   <A HREF="mailto:Cqtestk4xs@aol.com">Cqtestk4xs@aol.com</A>  
>> To: <A 
>> HREF="mailto:CQ-Contest@contesting.com">CQ-Contest@contesting.com</A>, 
>> <A HREF="mailto:fcg@mailman.qth.net">fcg@mailman.qth.net</A>  Sent 
>> from the Internet (Details)   
>> Ah, you say FQP has lots of plaques...you're right.  Add two last 
>> minute ones
>> for our VE friends courtersy of K4SXY and K4LOG.
>> The FCG will be awarding two more plaques for the boys north of the 
>> border...Top VE SSB and Top VE CW.  I guess we now have 26 plaques for 
>> this contest.
>>
>> See ya'll this weekend.
>>
>> Bill K4XS  Plaque Coordinator For the FQP
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> FQP mailing list
>> FQP@kkn.net
>> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
>>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From K4LOG at comcast.net  Thu Apr 24 19:35:02 2003
From: K4LOG at comcast.net (k4log)
Date: Thu Apr 24 18:02:31 2003
Subject: [FQP]Looking for voice keyer
Message-ID: <05d001c30ab1$bf97ed80$a3b43844@venice01.fl.comcast.net>

Hey Guys and Gals I am looking for a voice keyer for the station.  Before I
buy a new one does anyone have one they would be willing to sell soon (FQP
approaches) would be willing to pick up in SW to Central Florida, I'm in the
Sarasota area. Email me with what you need.

Thx in advance.
Richard / K4LOG

From N3AWS at aol.com  Fri Apr 25 07:06:55 2003
From: N3AWS at aol.com (N3AWS@aol.com)
Date: Fri Apr 25 05:23:57 2003
Subject: [FQP]N3AWS/mobile route under revision
Message-ID: <ae.3e661403.2bda62bf@aol.com>

As the start of the 2003 FQP draws nearer, I'm in the process of finalizing 
my rover plans.  Initially, I was going to concentrate on the NE corner 
counties.  It now appears likely the some panhandle counties could be 
activated, too.  I'll try to post a more up-to-date travel plan this evening.

The May CQ issue has several good articles on mobile antennas.

By now I guess everyone knows CT has been released into the public domain.

73 and hope to work everyone this weekend!

N3AWS  Jim
From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Fri Apr 25 10:45:35 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Fri Apr 25 09:03:36 2003
Subject: [FQP]Noon Saturday, 1600 Zulu, BE THERE! Get something for FREE
Message-ID: <3EA93BFF.3080501@tampabay.rr.com>

It is now Friday morning, April 25, 2003 here in Florida....

By now you might have seen some e-mail mentioning the upcoming Florida 
QSO Party, well... it starts tomorrow, and runs on Sunday, too.

As I type there are Florida stations getting ready for the FQP.  Some 
are mobiles, some are fixed stations - some plan on phone operation, 
some plan cw and some will do both!

Some are checking their oil and kicking the tires - some are checking 
the rotator headings and marking the presets on their rigs.

One thing all these Florida hams have in common is their desire to work 
as many of you as possible this weekend during the Florida QSO Party.

Floridians send RS(T) and County - outside of Florida and in the US or 
VE you send RS(T) and your State/Province or country - DX entries send 
RS(T) and DX.

The FQP starts at noon EST Saturday - that's 1600 Zulu... Please join 
us! Full details are on the FQP web page at  http://www.floridaqsoparty.org

Thanks in advance for the QSOs and I personally appreciate your 
indulgence with all the e-mail from me you have had to endure! I will 
give the keyboard here a rest now as I will be winding my way North to 
team up with my mobile team mate to activate the end of the Florida 
Panhandle and kill us a few Love Bugs - did you know it is actually in a 
different time zone?

IMPORTANT NOTE - The Florida Contest Group - sponsors of the FQP is now 
offering an award for working all Florida counties. Details on it can be 
found at

http://www.qsl.net/fcg/waf.html

The WAF award will start effective with the beginning of the FQP this 
year, and as a special incentive the Florida contest Group will wave the 
entry fees for the WAF if you work all FL counties during this year's 
FQP, that right we will pick up the tab for the first qualifiers!  Go to 
this web site at eHam for details on the kickoff of the WAF

http://www.eham.net/articles/5306

Clean Sweep the 67 Florida Counties in the Florida QSO Party this 
weekend only and you can get the WAF award for FREE!

Good Luck, and thanks from the Florida Contest Group.

73,

Jim, K4OJ

AKA: Spameister OJ

FQP Promotion Manager - It's not just a job, it's and adventure!




From w7sac at juno.com  Fri Apr 25 10:35:30 2003
From: w7sac at juno.com (David S McCallum)
Date: Fri Apr 25 10:41:56 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP, 160M
Message-ID: <20030425.102301.-242637.7.w7sac@juno.com>

I'll be trying some operation on 160m SSB during the FQP is there any
particular freq's to hang out on? I know about the DX Window area but
thought I'd ask about any special areas. Have been on 1.860 area + or _
but move up if it would be better, Thanks Mac

David S. McCallum/USAF Retired/ Chief Mac/w7sac/4
From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Fri Apr 25 12:30:25 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Fri Apr 25 10:47:31 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP, 160M
Message-ID: <11b.219d72b9.2bdaae91@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/25/2003 11:25:34 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
w7sac@juno.com writes:

> I'll be trying some operation on 160m SSB during the FQP is there any
> particular freq's to hang out on? I know about the DX Window area but
> thought I'd ask about any special areas. Have been on 1.860 area + or _
> but move up if it would be better, Thanks Mac
> 

David,

The FQP is 40, 20, 15 and 10 only.  SSB and CW.

73, Geo...

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From n4bp at bellsouth.net  Fri Apr 25 13:54:14 2003
From: n4bp at bellsouth.net (Bob Patten)
Date: Fri Apr 25 12:11:13 2003
Subject: [FQP]N4BP/M
Message-ID: <3EA96836.6090304@bellsouth.net>

Just back from a long wait at the doctor's, and time to call it.
I've got a giant goose-egg on my right leg which could get very 
uncomfortable on a long drive.  I choose to remain at home for this one
and will try to run Broward for what time I am comfortable sitting at 
the operating position.

Sorry Kevin, next year.

-- 
73,     Bob Patten, N4BP                Plantation, FL

E-Mail: n4bp@arrl.net                   Website: http://www.qsl.net/n4bp
QRP ARCI #3412    SOC #1    ARS #799    Whiners #6   FISTS #7871

From n4rs at netpath-rc.net  Fri Apr 25 19:21:17 2003
From: n4rs at netpath-rc.net (Tom Pennebaker)
Date: Fri Apr 25 17:36:50 2003
Subject: [FQP]
Message-ID: <010701c30b78$fe47b840$b0c36bd1@pavilion>

This will show graphically why propagation stinks....

http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/dregion.html

From jimsmith at shaw.ca  Fri Apr 25 18:49:16 2003
From: jimsmith at shaw.ca (Jim Smith)
Date: Fri Apr 25 20:06:23 2003
Subject: [FQP]Newbies at VE7FO
Message-ID: <3EA9D78C.8060206@shaw.ca>

Oops.  Sent this to FCG by mistake

I thought I had cleverly woven contest training around my wife's 
birthday activities.  Sadly, her schedule has totally changed.  Dona e 
mobile.

Consequently, only one trainee on Saturday for a few hours.  He has no 
confidence in his cw skills so he will be SSB only.  If you do hear some 
cw it will be me.

Not likely to be able to get on at all on Sunday.

I guess there'll be no,
Plaque for FO.

73 and good luck to everyone

Jim Smith    VE7FO

From nf4a at knology.net  Fri Apr 25 21:52:34 2003
From: nf4a at knology.net (NF4A)
Date: Fri Apr 25 21:09:44 2003
Subject: [FQP]Gentlemen, Start Your Engines (Ladies too)
Message-ID: <NEBBKJEIHCNOJGJPHIDLIENEGJAA.nf4a@knology.net>


OK....I have dodged Murphy all day and everything is ready to go....in fact,
things went too well today getting the Blazer ready for the weekend....that
is kinda scary.... I will be meeting K4OJ, N4KM and N4OX for brunch in the
morning in Pensacola (ESC) before the start of the FQP.

I will run from ESC eastward on I-10 as far as I can get on Saturday, then
on Sunday, I will drop  down one tier of counties and go back west,
hopefully ending up in BAY on Sunday afternoon at the end of the contest.

Cell phone number is 850-819-0450.

ALL MOBILES MEET ON 7260 KHZ SATURDAY NIGHT AFTER THE END OF THE FIRST HALF
OF THE CONTEST TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE COVERED WHERE THEY SAID WOULD....IF
THERE ARE UNCOVERED COUNTIES, MAYBE WE CAN MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO OUR ROUTES TO
MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS RUN.

I will be on 40 thru 10 CW and SSB, BUT, 40 SSB will require a quick
adjustment so it will always be the last mode/band to run....

I will run each county in all modes and bands in the following order:

20 CW
15 CW
10 CW
40 CW
20 SSB
15 SSB
10 SSB
40 SSB

Charlie
NF4A/M






From frenaye at direcway.com  Fri Apr 25 22:59:55 2003
From: frenaye at direcway.com (Tom Frenaye)
Date: Fri Apr 25 21:17:27 2003
Subject: [FQP]Gentlemen, Start Your Engines (Ladies too)
In-Reply-To: <NEBBKJEIHCNOJGJPHIDLIENEGJAA.nf4a@knology.net>
Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.2.20030425215803.03260910@pop3.direcway.com>


FQP mobiles might add their trip itineraries to the "county hunter web list of planned trips" at http://www.cquest.com/cgi-bin/flynn/trips.bat   It might generate some extra QSOs...

                73 -- Tom/K1KI


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New England QSO Party - May 3-4, 2003   http://www.neqp.org 


From wd4ahz at gte.net  Fri Apr 25 23:15:31 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Fri Apr 25 21:33:14 2003
Subject: [FQP]Stations On The Air
Message-ID: <3EA9EBC3.20604@gte.net>

Just did an update of the "Counties On The Air" listings on 
www.floridaqsoparty.org  (there were several stacked up that hadn't been 
added since the 15th).

Will be able to post anymore "plans" that come in within the next hour 
or so ... and maybe some early tomorrow morning.  Will be going mobile 
after that, so anything that comes in after we're on the road, won't get 
posted.

Sounds like a SID hit this afternoon ... no signals at all on the bands 
for several hours.  Once the bands came back, worked an S51 on 20 SSB 
from the mobile - who said "Hope to see you in the QSO Party tomorrow". 
  Heard him then work NF4A/M!

73 & Have Fun!

Ron, WD4AHZ

(part of the NJ4M/Mobile effort.  Magnets?  We don't need no stinkin' 
magnets ... where's the drill?  Pix?  We got pix!)

From N3AWS at aol.com  Sat Apr 26 06:56:38 2003
From: N3AWS at aol.com (N3AWS@aol.com)
Date: Sat Apr 26 05:14:10 2003
Subject: [FQP]Stations On The Air
Message-ID: <153.1ea15746.2bdbb1d6@aol.com>

My route should be:

SAT:
NAS, DUV, CLA, BRA, ALC, GIL, DIX, TAY, JEF, WAK, FRA, GUL, BAY

SUN:
BAY, WAS, JAC, GAD, LEO, JEF, MAD, SUW, COL, BAK, DUV

Look for me on 21.335, 14.260, 7.260 +/- QRM.  Not certain if I'll be 
operating in motion or only while parked.  Will probably favor the highest 
open band.

73,  Jim N3AWS
From wd4ahz at gte.net  Sat Apr 26 08:56:43 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Sat Apr 26 07:14:35 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP Weather
Message-ID: <3EAA73FB.1060104@gte.net>

Well ... looks like the Southern part of the State will be seeing a fair 
amount of rain for at least part of the day.

Some "local" Forecasts:

COASTAL VOLUSIA-COCOA BEACH TO JUPITER INLET 20 NM TO 60 NM OFFSHORE-
FLAGLER BEACH TO COCOA BEACH 20 NM TO 60 NM OFFSHORE-
FLAGLER BEACH TO COCOA BEACH OUT TO 20 NM-INDIAN RIVER-
INLAND VOLUSIA-MARTIN-NORTHERN BREVARD-NORTHERN LAKE-OKEECHOBEE-
ORANGE-OSCEOLA-SEMINOLE-SOUTHERN BREVARD-SOUTHERN LAKE-ST. LUCIE-

.NOW...
THROUGH MID MORNING...WIDESPREAD LIGHT TO OCCASIONALLY MODERATE
RAIN...AND A FEW RUMBLES OF THUNDER...WILL MOVE EAST ACROSS EAST
CENTRAL FLORIDA AND THE ADJACENT COASTAL WATERS. MOST OF THE RAIN
WILL OCCUR FROM METRO ORLANDO AND CAPE CANAVERAL SOUTHWARD.



GLADES-HENDRY-LAKE OKEECHOBEE-PALM BEACH EASTERN-PALM BEACH WESTERN-
712 AM EDT SAT APR 26 2003

.NOW...
THROUGH 900 AM...SHOWERS AND A FEW THUNDERSTORMS...SOME WITH HEAVY 
RAIN...WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE SOUTH AT 10 TO 15 MPH ACROSS PALM 
BEACH...HENDRY AND GLADES COUNTY...INCLUDING LAKE OKEECHOBEE. RAINFALL 
AMOUNTS OF ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF INCH ARE LIKELY WITH LOCALLY ONE INCH 
OR MORE.


BONITA BEACH TO ENGLEWOOD OUT TO 20 NM-CHARLOTTE-DESOTO-
ENGLEWOOD TO TARPON SPRINGS OUT TO 20 NM-HARDEE-HIGHLANDS-LEE-
MANATEE-SARASOTA-
627 AM EDT SAT APR 26 2003

.NOW...
A BAND SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS THAT HAS BEEN AFFECTING MOST OF
THE FLORIDA GULF COAST OVERNIGHT...HAS SHIFTED SOUTH EARLY THIS
MORNING. HEAVY RAIN...FREQUENT LIGHTNING AND SMALL HAIL WILL AFFECT
THE COASTAL AREAS OF SOUTHERN MANATEE...ALL OF SARASOTA...CHARLOTTE
AND LEE COUNTIES THROUGH 730 AM. THE HEAVIEST ACTIVITY WILL PASS EAST
THROUGH SOUTHERN SARASOTA COUNTY FROM VENICE TO ENGLEWOOD...SOUTH
THROUGH PUNTA GORDA...CAPTIVA...SANIBEL...FORT MYERS AND CAPE
CORAL. HEAVY RAINFALL WILL CAUSE MINOR FLOODING OF STREETS AND
ROADS AS WELL AS LOW LYING AREAS. THE STRONGER STORMS WILL BE
ACCOMPANIED BY SMALL HAIL. THESE STORMS WILL MOVE INLAND ACROSS
MOST OF LEE AND CHARLOTTE COUNTIES. STORMS OF LESSER INTENSITY WILL
AFFECT HARDEE...DESOTO AND HIGHLANDS COUNTY. MOVEMENT WAS EAST AT
35 MPH.


BROWARD METROPOLITAN-BROWARD WESTERN-EASTERN COLLIER-MAINLAND 
MONROE-MIAMI-DADE METROPOLITAN-WESTERN COLLIER-WESTERN MIAMI-DADE-
712 AM EDT SAT APR 26 2003

.NOW...
THROUGH 900 AM...SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WITH FREQUENT 
LIGHTNING  LIGHTNING...WILL MOVE SOUTH AT 10 TO 15 MPH THROUGH INTERIOR 
AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA. LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN IS POSSIBLE. RAINFALL AMOUNTS 
WILL AVERAGE ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF INCH BUT LOCAL AMOUNTS OF ONE INCH 
OR MORE ARE POSSIBLE.


BISCAYNE BAY-CHOKOLOSKEE TO BONITA BEACH 20 TO 60 NM OUT-
CHOKOLOSKEE TO BONITA BEACH OUT 20 NM-
DEERFIELD BEACH TO OCEAN REEF 20 TO 60 NM OUT-
DEERFIELD BEACH TO OCEAN REEF OUT 20 NM-
EAST CAPE SABLE TO CHOKOLOSKEE OUT 20 NM-
JUPITER INLET TO DEERFIELD BEACH 20 TO 60 NM OUT-
JUPITER INLET TO DEERFIELD BEACH OUT 20 NM-
712 AM EDT SAT APR 26 2003

.NOW...
THROUGH 900 AM...SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS...ACCOMPANIED BY 
LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN...WILL MOVE THROUGH BROWARD COUNTY AND INTO 
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AT 10 TO 15 MPH. RAINFALL AMOUNTS WILL AVERAGE ONE 
QUARTER TO ONE HALF INCH WITH LOCAL AMOUNTS OF ONE INCH OR MORE. DEADLY 
LIGHTNING WILL ALSO OCCUR AND THOSE OUTDOORS SHOULD BE PREPARED TO MOVE 
QUICKLY INDOORS IF THUNDERSTORMS APPROACH.


Local Radar shows heavy rain in the Gulf of Mexico coming onshore South 
of Sarasota with clearing North.  Looks like things might let up on the 
West Coast once the heavy stuff passes ... but could be a while before 
if clears off the East Coast.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/latest/DS.p20-r/si.ktbw.shtml

Mobiles ... Drive Safe!  Everyone else ... Have fun!

Ron





From K1to at aol.com  Sun Apr 27 00:30:35 2003
From: K1to at aol.com (K1to@aol.com)
Date: Sat Apr 26 22:48:25 2003
Subject: [FQP]N4TO/m day one
Message-ID: <1e2.7a6bcf1.2bdca8db@aol.com>

Wild, up and down day for us.  Started with very heavy traffic in Orlando and 
we got behind schedule right off the bat.  Made two navigation errors that 
cost us lots of time, but the cop that kicked us off the I-10 shoulder in 
NASsau gave us back some time against the plan.  ;<)  Struggling with an 
antenna that does not work at all on 15, so we made zero Qs there.  And the 
new auto ant tuner does not really help at all - in fact, it has cost us time 
so far.  Despite all of that...

... we hit all 27 counties planned (only 4 minutes at the end in PIN) and it 
looks like we have 1059 QSOs, only 2 on SSB.  (We probably won't make any 
more SSB QSOs tomorrow - sorry, folks.)  

Out-of-staters:
PLEASE post your county needs here so that the mobiles can adjust their plans 
if necessary.  There will be at least 3 major mobile groups in SFL tmw, so 
counties like HAR, OKE, MON and GLA should be available.

73, Dan, 1/2 of Team TOad, N4TO/m
From wd4ahz at gte.net  Sun Apr 27 01:39:14 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Sat Apr 26 23:57:21 2003
Subject: [FQP]NJ4M/M Saturday
Message-ID: <3EAB5EF2.6060503@gte.net>

Hey Gang ...

What a day!  Hit MTE, HAR, HIG, OKE, GLA, HEN, PAL pretty much on schedule.

Made a side trip to visit N4BP in BRO and lost some time there (but the 
chat and the stretch was good!).  Finished BRO and then DAD.

Got onto the road into MON (we think) but the road (Route Number) was 
not marked as per the map, there was no County Line sign and we didn't 
know the exact mileage from our turnoff to the county line ... so we 
were uncertain as to exactly where we were, so turned around (losing 
more time) and couldn't activate MON on our first opportunity.  Wanted 
to try a second entry point into MON, but by that time it was pitch dark 
and the road was wet ... and we ended up passing the "dirt road" (again, 
the Route number was not marked) into MON.  Sorry we couldn't help out 
the masses on that one.

We continued with CLR (seems like a BIG County!), LEE, and ended the 
contest in CHA.  Since we fell behind, we didn't have time to make it 
into DES.

We were "Mixed Mode" and attempted SSB QSO's from all but LEE and CHA 
(the CW pileups were tremendous on 40 from LEE and CHA!) ... but the SSB 
QSO numbers were rather disappointing.  A few of the guys we did work, 
said "nice signal" ... so where was everyone?  Couldn't get anything 
going at all.

Getting ready to put the home station back together to get on the air 
from (SAR) Sunday.  Look for WD4AHZ on CW and K4LOG (possibly along with 
K4SXY) working Mixed from SAR tomorrow.

Only hit rain in BRO, had a couple nice lightning flashes in Western 
DAD, and the cooler WX kept the Love Bugs off the roads (or was it all 
our RF?)

All in all, K4LOG and I had a great time!  Thanks for the Q's and hope 
we helped giving out a few needed mults.

73, Ron

From JonHamlet at comcast.net  Sun Apr 27 19:26:30 2003
From: JonHamlet at comcast.net (JonHamlet)
Date: Sun Apr 27 17:42:16 2003
Subject: [FQP]W4ZW FQP Score
Message-ID: <000e01c30d0c$0d8ba4d0$0400005a@PL1000>


      FLORIDA QSO PARTY SUMMARY SHEET


    Contest Dates : 26-Apr-03, 27-Apr-03


    Callsign Used : W4ZW
         Operator : W4ZW

          Category : 	SOAB/HP/Mixed
Hours Operated:	4:30
 Default Exchange : 	59(9) SAR

             Name : Jon Hamlet
 
        Team/Club : Florida Contest Group


   BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points   Mults   
 __________________________________________________

   40CW       12            12          24        0 
   20CW      160         157        314      35 
   20SSB       76           76          76      21 
   15CW      118         117        234      10 
 __________________________________________________

 Totals      366         362        648      66 


    Final Score = 42,768 points.

Soapbox: Got in a bit here and there in between kids'
activities. Seemed like 20M was the only band on Sat,
and then 15 was open a bit on Sunday. Great to hear
so many FL stations on the air!



Jon Hamlet,  W4ZW
Casey Key Island, FL

"A little bit of Paradise in the Gulf of Mexico"




From w1yl at tampabay.rr.com  Sun Apr 27 19:36:58 2003
From: w1yl at tampabay.rr.com (Ellen White)
Date: Sun Apr 27 17:55:48 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: W1YL FQP
References: <000e01c30d0c$0d8ba4d0$0400005a@PL1000>
Message-ID: <001101c30d0d$85384820$c8e62341@tampabay.rr.com>

First time computer operating 'solo' in a somewhat major way - going to need
K4OJ's assistance in doctoring my many keyboarding errors to figure the
score.  QSO total around 400 and now I really am sold on this being the only
way to go.

I'm pretty sure it was fun (!) - now for the Excedrin.


Ellen, W1YL "ln"
w1yl@tampabay.rr.com
-------------------------------------------------
The Florida Contest Group:   http://www.fcg.club



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.473 / Virus Database: 271 - Release Date: 4/17/03

From K1to at aol.com  Sun Apr 27 23:23:44 2003
From: K1to at aol.com (K1to@aol.com)
Date: Sun Apr 27 21:41:51 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP 2003 comments
Message-ID: <b6.1c115d96.2bddeab0@aol.com>

Looks like the activity level was just terrific!  All the reports I've heard 
and seen indicate increased QSO totals from many areas, despite worse condx 
than last year.  

Sweeps will likely be prevalent.  Who will be the first to win the WAF award 
and the FQP plaque that goes with it?  Stay tuned!

There is still no automated robot at FLQSOPARTY@AOL.COM - it's just me.  If 
you send an e-log there, watch for your call to appear on the Logs RX page on 
the web site at FLORIDAQSOPARTY.ORG  If your call does not appear there, and 
you do not get a personal  e-mail acknowledgment within 2 days, pse send me 
an e-mail.  There was at least one person who thought they sent in a log last 
year, but we never received anything on this end.  After all, it is AOL and 
strange things happen...  ;<)

Thanks, everyone, for getting on and making this a very fun weekend!!

vy 73, Dan, 1/2 of Team TOad with N4TO
K1TO at arrl.net
From K1to at aol.com  Sun Apr 27 23:23:51 2003
From: K1to at aol.com (K1to@aol.com)
Date: Sun Apr 27 21:41:57 2003
Subject: [FQP]N4TO/m
Message-ID: <159.1ebd71a2.2bddeab7@aol.com>

-  Hit all planned 44 counties and made 2226 QSOs (only 3 on SSB).  
-  Logged and sent by hand - sorry for the sloppy CW at times.  
-  No 15M, due to an antenna problem.  
-  Persistent chirp resulted from what we think is a bad alternator - it was 
worse when we were stopped.  (It was not a ploy to draw attention to us!)  
-  New automatic antenna tuner did not help; in fact, it cost us time.  
-  Two navigational errors on Saturday.  
-  One paddle died at the start on Sunday - good thing we had a "hot spare".  

-  Although we were kicked off the I-10 shoulder in NASsau on Saturday, no 
repeat performance on Sunday.  
-  We are in strong contention for the Love Bug award - I have a few pix of 
the TOadmobile just afterward - impressive!

vy 73, Dan, 1/2 of Team TOad with N4TO
From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Mon Apr 28 00:11:31 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Sun Apr 27 22:30:11 2003
Subject: [FQP]W4ZW FQP Score
References: <000e01c30d0c$0d8ba4d0$0400005a@PL1000>
Message-ID: <3EAC9BE3.7060604@tampabay.rr.com>

Jon, you were gawd awful loud on 20 at the beginning of the contest when 
we were in the Panhandle - path was all over Salt Water! - I swear you 
musta been 60 over s9...

73,

Jim, K4OJ
(K3FCG/M)




JonHamlet wrote:
>       FLORIDA QSO PARTY SUMMARY SHEET
> 
> 
>     Contest Dates : 26-Apr-03, 27-Apr-03
> 
> 
>     Callsign Used : W4ZW
>          Operator : W4ZW
> 
>           Category : 	SOAB/HP/Mixed
> Hours Operated:	4:30
>  Default Exchange : 	59(9) SAR
> 
>              Name : Jon Hamlet
>  
>         Team/Club : Florida Contest Group
> 
> 
>    BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points   Mults   
>  __________________________________________________
> 
>    40CW       12            12          24        0 
>    20CW      160         157        314      35 
>    20SSB       76           76          76      21 
>    15CW      118         117        234      10 
>  __________________________________________________
> 
>  Totals      366         362        648      66 
> 
> 
>     Final Score = 42,768 points.
> 
> Soapbox: Got in a bit here and there in between kids'
> activities. Seemed like 20M was the only band on Sat,
> and then 15 was open a bit on Sunday. Great to hear
> so many FL stations on the air!
> 
> 
> 
> Jon Hamlet,  W4ZW
> Casey Key Island, FL
> 
> "A little bit of Paradise in the Gulf of Mexico"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Mon Apr 28 00:17:09 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Sun Apr 27 22:35:49 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: W1YL FQP
References: <000e01c30d0c$0d8ba4d0$0400005a@PL1000>
	<001101c30d0d$85384820$c8e62341@tampabay.rr.com>
Message-ID: <3EAC9D35.4090305@tampabay.rr.com>

Heah, that's my Mom!

Way to go Mom!

I promise I will cleanse your snaffus...when I wake up about mid week!

So, Mom... what are you doing in the upcoming DX Contest season?

73 (and a special 88)

K4OJ



Ellen White wrote:
> First time computer operating 'solo' in a somewhat major way - going to need
> K4OJ's assistance in doctoring my many keyboarding errors to figure the
> score.  QSO total around 400 and now I really am sold on this being the only
> way to go.
> 
> I'm pretty sure it was fun (!) - now for the Excedrin.
> 
> 
> Ellen, W1YL "ln"
> w1yl@tampabay.rr.com
> -------------------------------------------------
> The Florida Contest Group:   http://www.fcg.club
> 
> 
> 
> ---
> Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.473 / Virus Database: 271 - Release Date: 4/17/03
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Mon Apr 28 00:27:36 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Sun Apr 27 22:46:16 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [3830] FlQP K8CC SOABMixed HP
References: <200304272337.h3RNbna29452@b4h.net>
Message-ID: <3EAC9FA8.1030906@tampabay.rr.com>

tnx QSos - NA worked almost flawless, occasionally when we went to SSB 
the mode would change but the rs(t) still wanted 3 digits, no big deal, 
2000 QSOs over roughly 1200 miles in 41 counties an no crashes - NA RULES!

- cu Dayton -

Jim, K4OJ




webform@b4h.net wrote:
>                     Florida QSO Party
> 
> Call: K8CC
> Operator(s): K8CC
> Station: K8CC
> 
> Class: SOABMixed HP
> QTH: MI
> Operating Time (hrs): 02:32
> 
> Summary:
>  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
> --------------------
>    40:   15      5
>    20:   69     39
>    15:   10      2
>    10:    0      0
> --------------------
> Total:   94     46  CW Mults = 46  Ph Mults = 27  Total Score = 17,082
> 
> Club: Mad River Radio Club
> 
> Comments:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>     The world's top contesters battle it out in Finland!
> THE OFFICIAL FILM of WRTC 2002 now on professional DVD and VHS!
>        http://home1.pacific.net.sg/~jamesb/
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 3830 mailing list
> 3830@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
> 



From nf4a at knology.net  Sun Apr 27 23:36:06 2003
From: nf4a at knology.net (NF4A)
Date: Sun Apr 27 22:54:11 2003
Subject: [FQP]NF4A 2003 FQP Single Op and Driver ABLP Rover... LOOOOONG
Message-ID: <NEBBKJEIHCNOJGJPHIDLEEPJGJAA.nf4a@knology.net>

This is probably more than most people would want to know:

    
Escambia (ESC)
     Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          1         4           0         0
      20         26       104           1         2
      15          5        20           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       32       128           1         2
 
 
     ( 130 ) QSO points  X  ( 18 ) Multipliers  =  2,340 points

Santa Rosa (SAN)
      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          5        20           0         0
      20         36       144           1         2
      15         10        40           2         4
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       51       204           3         6
 
 
     ( 210 ) QSO points  X  ( 30 ) Multipliers  =  6,300 points

Okaloosa (OKA)
      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          8        32           0         0
      20         37       148           9        18
      15          4        16           3         6
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       49       196          12        24
 
 
     ( 220 ) QSO points  X  ( 30 ) Multipliers  =  6,600 points

Walton (WAL)

     Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40         12        48           0         0
      20         28       112           5        10
      15          2         8           5        10
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       42       168          10        20
 
 
     ( 188 ) QSO points  X  ( 31 ) Multipliers  =  5,828 points

Holmes (HOL)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          4        16           0         0
      20         34       136          12        24
      15          4        16           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       42       168          12        24
 
 
     ( 192 ) QSO points  X  ( 29 ) Multipliers  =  5,568 points

Washington (WAG)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40         11        44           0         0
      20         17        68           3         6
      15          0         0           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       28       112           3         6
 
 
     ( 118 ) QSO points  X  ( 18 ) Multipliers  =  2,124 points

Jackson (JAC)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40         16        64           0         0
      20         22        88           2         4
      15          1         4           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       39       156           2         4
 
 
     ( 160 ) QSO points  X  ( 23 ) Multipliers  =  3,680 points

Calhoun (CAH)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40         35       140          16        32
      20          9        36           2         4
      15          0         0           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       44       176          18        36
 
 
     ( 212 ) QSO points  X  ( 36 ) Multipliers  =  7,632 points

Gulf (GUF)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40         39       156           4         8
      20          0         0           0         0
      15          0         0           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       39       156           4         8
 
 
     ( 164 ) QSO points  X  ( 26 ) Multipliers  =  4,264 points

Bay (BAY)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40         19        76           0         0
      20         10        40           3         6
      15          1         4           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       30       120           3         6
 
 
     ( 126 ) QSO points  X  ( 21 ) Multipliers  =  2,646 points

Liberty (LIB)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40         38       152          12        24
      20         36       144          14        28
      15          1         4           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       75       300          26        52
 
 
     ( 352 ) QSO points  X  ( 43 ) Multipliers  =  15,136 points

Gadsden (GAD)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          4        16           0         0
      20         14        56           4         8
      15          0         0           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       18        72           4         8
 
 
     ( 80 ) QSO points  X  ( 18 ) Multipliers  =  1,440 points

Leon (LEO)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          4        16           0         0
      20         35       140           4         8
      15          1         4           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       40       160           4         8
 
 
     ( 168 ) QSO points  X  ( 27 ) Multipliers  =  4,536 points

Wakulla (WAK)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          3        12           0         0
      20         46       184          17        34
      15          2         8           1         2
      10          0         0           1         2
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       51       204          19        38
 
 
     ( 242 ) QSO points  X  ( 33 ) Multipliers  =  7,986 points

Jefferson (JEF)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          2         8           0         0
      20         37       148          36        72
      15          0         0           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       39       156          36        72
 
 
     ( 228 ) QSO points  X  ( 44 ) Multipliers  =  10,032 points

Taylor (TAY)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          1         4           0         0
      20         44       176          21        42
      15          1         4           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       46       184          21        42
 
 
     ( 226 ) QSO points  X  ( 40 ) Multipliers  =  9,040 points

Lafayette (LAF)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          0         0           0         0
      20         35       140          10        20
      15         18        72           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       53       212          10        20
 
 
     ( 232 ) QSO points  X  ( 35 ) Multipliers  =  8,120 points

Suwanee (SUW)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          0         0           0         0
      20         39       156           5        10
      15          8        32           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       47       188           5        10
 
 
     ( 198 ) QSO points  X  ( 30 ) Multipliers  =  5,940 points

Gilchrist (GIL)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          0         0           0         0
      20         35       140           4         8
      15          7        28           1         2
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       42       168           5        10
 
 
     ( 178 ) QSO points  X  ( 25 ) Multipliers  =  4,450 points

Hamilton (HAM)

      Band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
     ----------------------------------------------
      40          0         0           0         0
      20         19        76           5        10
      15          0         0           0         0
      10          0         0           0         0
     ----------------------------------------------
     TOTAL       19        76           5        10
 
 
     ( 86 ) QSO points  X  ( 19 ) Multipliers  =  1,634 points



TOTALS:  CW QSOs: 787  SSB QSOs: 167  Mults: 536  
         TOTAL POINTS:  108,264

I ran everything I expected to run and then a few more except
for FRA, but I think N4PN had that one under control.

Had a blast !

Only 364 days left to FCG 2004!

NF4A


From JonHamlet at comcast.net  Sun Apr 27 19:25:00 2003
From: JonHamlet at comcast.net (JonHamlet)
Date: Mon Apr 28 08:11:15 2003
Subject: [FQP]W4ZW FQP Score
Message-ID: <000d01c30d0b$d837c200$0400005a@PL1000>


      FLORIDA QSO PARTY SUMMARY SHEET


    Contest Dates : 26-Apr-03, 27-Apr-03


    Callsign Used : W4ZW
         Operator : W4ZW

          Category : 	SOAB/HP/Mixed
Hours Operated:	4:30
 Default Exchange : 	59(9) SAR

             Name : Jon Hamlet
 
        Team/Club : Florida Contest Group


   BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points   Mults   
 __________________________________________________

   40CW       12            12          24        0 
   20CW      160         157        314      35 
   20SSB       76           76          76      21 
   15CW      118         117        234      10 
 __________________________________________________

 Totals      366         362        648      66 


    Final Score = 42,768 points.

Soapbox: Got in a bit here and there in between kids'
activities. Seemed like 20M was the only band on Sat,
and then 15 was open a bit on Sunday. Great to hear
so many FL stations on the air!



Jon Hamlet,  W4ZW
Casey Key Island, FL

"A little bit of Paradise in the Gulf of Mexico"




From wd4ahz at gte.net  Mon Apr 28 10:25:02 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Mon Apr 28 08:43:44 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP  WD4AHZ  SOABCW LP
Message-ID: <3EAD2BAE.8060302@gte.net>

                     Florida QSO Party

Call: WD4AHZ
Operator(s): WD4AHZ
Station: WD4AHZ

Class: SOABCW LP
QTH: SAR
Operating Time (hrs): 10

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:   50     0
    20:  242     0
    15:  118     0
    10:   21     0
--------------------
Total:  431     0  CW Mults = 70  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score = 120,680

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

Only operated from home on Sunday, since I was mobile on Saturday 
(scores to follow).  Conditions not the best at times, but seemed like 
there were always folks to work.  Worked HA7UG for my only EU QSO on 10.

Thanks to all the out-of-staters for their support of the FQP ... which 
makes it fun for us to get on and keep giving you the Q's!  I know there 
sometimes seems to be a lack of home stations to work ... we're trying 
to get the "casual" folks to get on (hitting other Florida mailing lists 
with FQP "promotions" and contacting all the Florida clubs to help 
spread the word).  Those who are interested, get on ... the others 
couldn't care less.


Station:
FT-1000MP @ 100W
Cushcraft A4 @ 37'
Center Fed Zepp @40'
NA logging software


73, Ron

From ku8e at bellsouth.net  Mon Apr 28 11:47:36 2003
From: ku8e at bellsouth.net (ku8e@bellsouth.net)
Date: Mon Apr 28 10:03:31 2003
Subject: [FQP][Fwd: KU8E/M FQP - Rover CW Only]
Message-ID: <20030428144736.RANU14996.imf41bis.bellsouth.net@mail.bellsouth.net>


> 
> From: <ku8e@bellsouth.net>
> Date: 2003/04/28 Mon AM 10:39:21 EDT
> To: fcg@mailman.qth.net
> CC: secc@contesting.com, mrrc@contesting.com
> Subject: KU8E/M FQP - Rover CW Only
> 
> 
>  Hi All...
> 
>  Here are some preliminary numbers for the KU8E/M team (KU8E,W8UE ops) :
> 
> 
> County	40	20	15	10
> -------------------------------------
> HAM	1	21		
> SUW		44	1	
> MAD	2	29		
> JEF		26		
> LEO		41		
> WAK		25		
> TAY		44		
> LAF	2	32	1	
> DIX		37		
> LEV	3	17	1	
> GIL	1	51		
> CLM	2	69	5	
> UNI	5	37		
> BAK	2	14		
> NAS	5	13		
> DUV	3	16		
> CLA	14	7		
> BRA	12	6		
> PUT		12	1	
> STJ		23		
> FLG		37		
> VOL		48	5	
> SEM		34	2	
> ORA		44	23	
> OSC		33	14	
> POL		41	21	
> HIL		25	5	1
> PAS		43	3	
> HER		40	9	
> CIT		44	9	
> SUM		18	9	
> LAK		39	16	
> MAO		65	9	
> ALC		51	7	
> 
> Totals	52	1126	141	1
> 
> 
> Total QSO's	1320	
> 
> 
>  We ended up doing CW only. It was too time consuming to QSY to SSB with the way the antennas were tuned. Maybe we can figure this all out by next year.
> 
> 
>  Condx were bad the first day for us. It improved on Sunday and really picked up when we got further south in the state down by Orlando. We really didn't make many 15 meter QSO's until late Sunday afternoon.
> 
> Most interesting moment was passing K4FCG/m on I-4 in the Tampa area. We acually spotted each other going in opposite directions !!! We then worked each other on 20/15/10 real quick...  I though we passed someone else in a black SUV
> with a bunch of antennas up in the panhandle as well ????
> 
> This was definitely a learning experience for us this time. (learning the propagation etc...) Ted and I really had fun and this will probably be a yearly thing for me from now on !!!
> 
> BTW ... congrats to the N4TO and K4FCG teams.... great numbers from those guys !!!
> 
>                           73's Jeff KU8E
> 
> 	
> 
> 
> 

From wd4ahz at gte.net  Mon Apr 28 12:03:02 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Mon Apr 28 10:21:47 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP NJ4M/M  M/SABMixed (sometimes) LP Summary 
Message-ID: <3EAD42A6.5010800@gte.net>

Call: NJ4M  (mobile Saturday only)
Operator(s): K4LOG, WD4AHZ
Station: K4LOG/M

QTH: MTE

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:    0     0
    20:   30    10
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   30    10  CW Mults = 17  Ph Mults = 7  Total Score = 3,360


QTH: HAR

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:    0     0
    20:   47     6
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   47     6  CW Mults = 19  Ph Mults = 6  Total Score = 5,000


QTH: HIG

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:    0     0
    20:   20     0
    15:    1     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   21     0  CW Mults = 13  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score = 1,092


QTH: OKE

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:    0     0
    20:   36     7
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   36     7  CW Mults = 20  Ph Mults = 7  Total Score = 4,266


QTH: GLA

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:    0     0
    20:   38     7
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   38     7  CW Mults = 21  Ph Mults = 6  Total Score = 4,482


QTH: HEN

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:    0     0
    20:   37     7
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   37     7  CW Mults = 21  Ph Mults = 5  Total Score = 4,212


QTH: PAL

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:    0     0
    20:   19     4
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   19     4  CW Mults = 15  Ph Mults = 3  Total Score = 1,512


QTH: BRO

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:    0     0
    20:   37     0
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   37     0  CW Mults = 25  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score = 3,700


QTH: DAD

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:    0     0
    20:   41     6
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   41     6  CW Mults = 17  Ph Mults = 4  Total Score = 3,696


QTH: CLR

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:   30     0
    20:   50    17
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   80    17  CW Mults = 33  Ph Mults = 9  Total Score = 14,868


QTH: LEE

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:   60     0
    20:    0     0
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   60     0  CW Mults = 30  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score = 7,200


QTH: CHA

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    40:   33     0
    20:    0     0
    15:    0     0
    10:    0     0
--------------------
Total:   33     0  CW Mults = 20  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score = 2,640


Total CW QSO's = 479
Total SSB QSO's = 64

Total QSO's = 543


Well, that was fun!!!  Must have been the conditions Saturday afternoon, 
but things were pretty slow at times (especially on SSB).  Didn't 
experience the "massive" pileups as we changed counties ... until we hit 
LEE and then CHA ... WOW ... from a mobile, on 40!!  I can't even do 
that well from home!

Sorry we missed the dirt road turnoff into MON (it's dark in the 
Everglades at night!) and ran out out time before we could make it to 
DES.  Some of the comments I've seen, made it sound like they were in 
demand ... but glad others were able to pick up our "slack"!

We decided to work Mixed Mode, to help out the SSB guys ... who always 
seem to lose out, when it comes to the mobile activity.  We worked guys 
on SSB ... even weak ones ... and got a few "nice signal" reports ... 
but yet, we were unable to generate any kind of a decent run!  Sometimes 
we QSY'ed from CW to SSB when asked - other times we had a little run 
going on CW, and didn't want to quit at that moment ... but we did move 
when things slowed down.  The only counties we didn't even attempt SSB 
were LEE and CHA.  But in the end ... there was still a huge difference 
between the number of SSB and CW QSO's.  I can understand why the 
mobiles concentrate on CW ... and only QSY to SSB when asked.  The SSB 
activity (or difficulty in generating activity) just doesn't seem worth 
the effort ... but hope we helped some.

K4LOG and I threw our mobile station together in about 4 hours, spent 
over 2 days (and a few minutes here and there).  The rest of the time, 
we spent shaking our heads and grinning over our "handy work"!  It 
wasn't the prettiest looking FQP mobile on the road, but other than 
having the cable from our keyer to the rig fail (after that, had to send 
all CW via the keyboard) ... everything played and worked well!  We've 
got some photos ... and hope to get those posted on-line for all to enjoy!

We had a blast and we're already thinking about the "possibilities" for 
next year's mobile effort!  (Hey, isn't the County Hunter's CW Contest 
next weekend?  Hmmm ... )

73, Ron  WD4AHZ
     Rich K4LOG (1st FQP!)
a.k.a. NJ4M/M

From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Mon Apr 28 12:27:46 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Mon Apr 28 10:46:44 2003
Subject: [FQP][Fwd: KU8E/M FQP - Rover CW Only]
References: <20030428144736.RANU14996.imf41bis.bellsouth.net@mail.bellsouth.net>
Message-ID: <3EAD4872.1030602@tampabay.rr.com>

I don't know why I didn't ask you to go to 40 meter, too.... a wet 
noodle woulda worked jus fine!

NF4A was in a dark green SUV in the Panhandle - if you saw one pulled 
over to the side it was probably Charlie the one man mobile team packing 
in the Redman and runnin the Panhandle!

OJ





ku8e@bellsouth.net wrote:
>>From: <ku8e@bellsouth.net>
>>Date: 2003/04/28 Mon AM 10:39:21 EDT
>>To: fcg@mailman.qth.net
>>CC: secc@contesting.com, mrrc@contesting.com
>>Subject: KU8E/M FQP - Rover CW Only
>>
>>
>> Hi All...
>>
>> Here are some preliminary numbers for the KU8E/M team (KU8E,W8UE ops) :
>>
>>
>>County	40	20	15	10
>>-------------------------------------
>>HAM	1	21		
>>SUW		44	1	
>>MAD	2	29		
>>JEF		26		
>>LEO		41		
>>WAK		25		
>>TAY		44		
>>LAF	2	32	1	
>>DIX		37		
>>LEV	3	17	1	
>>GIL	1	51		
>>CLM	2	69	5	
>>UNI	5	37		
>>BAK	2	14		
>>NAS	5	13		
>>DUV	3	16		
>>CLA	14	7		
>>BRA	12	6		
>>PUT		12	1	
>>STJ		23		
>>FLG		37		
>>VOL		48	5	
>>SEM		34	2	
>>ORA		44	23	
>>OSC		33	14	
>>POL		41	21	
>>HIL		25	5	1
>>PAS		43	3	
>>HER		40	9	
>>CIT		44	9	
>>SUM		18	9	
>>LAK		39	16	
>>MAO		65	9	
>>ALC		51	7	
>>
>>Totals	52	1126	141	1
>>
>>
>>Total QSO's	1320	
>>
>>
>> We ended up doing CW only. It was too time consuming to QSY to SSB with the way the antennas were tuned. Maybe we can figure this all out by next year.
>>
>>
>> Condx were bad the first day for us. It improved on Sunday and really picked up when we got further south in the state down by Orlando. We really didn't make many 15 meter QSO's until late Sunday afternoon.
>>
>>Most interesting moment was passing K4FCG/m on I-4 in the Tampa area. We acually spotted each other going in opposite directions !!! We then worked each other on 20/15/10 real quick...  I though we passed someone else in a black SUV
>>with a bunch of antennas up in the panhandle as well ????
>>
>>This was definitely a learning experience for us this time. (learning the propagation etc...) Ted and I really had fun and this will probably be a yearly thing for me from now on !!!
>>
>>BTW ... congrats to the N4TO and K4FCG teams.... great numbers from those guys !!!
>>
>>                          73's Jeff KU8E
>>
>>	
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Mon Apr 28 12:29:40 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Mon Apr 28 10:47:49 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [FCG] FQP NJ4M/M  M/SABMixed (sometimes) LP Summary
Message-ID: <196.197dea34.2bdea2e4@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/28/2003 11:08:37 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
wd4ahz@gte.net writes:

> Sorry we missed the dirt road turnoff into MON (it's dark in the 
> Everglades at night!) and ran out out time before we could make it to 
> DES.  Some of the comments I've seen, made it sound like they were in 
> demand ... but glad others were able to pick up our "slack"!
> 

Don't be sorry.  We finally found that lane into MON and went down it until 
we ran out of road without removing antennas (due to overgrowth).  Jim was 
driving and had to stop to chase an alligator off the road...er, uh was it 
the other way around?  At that point there were two more by my back door, so 
I dared not get out else get eaten.

And speaking of being eaten...you ain't seen so many mean flying things as 
are down there.  

Jim finally managed (carefully) to back the car out and back to safety.  What 
a trip!

Geo + Jim

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Mon Apr 28 12:46:36 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Mon Apr 28 11:05:04 2003
Subject: [FQP]K4FQP/m Prelim Results
Message-ID: <195.196e1fea.2bdea6dc@aol.com>

Here are the prelim numbers from the FQPmobile:

Total counties = 40

Total mixed QSOs = 1796

CW mults = 66
SSB mults = 41

Close calls = one dog + one head on + countless alligators!

Story and details to follow...now back to those damn SK Love Bugs!

Safe and sound and back home.  

73, Geo & Jim

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Mon Apr 28 13:18:07 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Mon Apr 28 11:36:18 2003
Subject: [FQP]K4FQP/m Prelim Results
Message-ID: <1a1.13fd3cac.2bdeae3f@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/28/2003 12:05:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
w4zw@comcast.net writes:

> Was the inverter silent and reliable?
> 
No, I had two different inverters (PV 150 Tripp Lite and Intelligent 300w), 
and they were both too noisy (S9+ broadband spikes) to be of any use.  I 
ended up using a 70w. DC/DC converter made for laptops.  It was ok on 40 and 
20, but had S6 hash on 15 and 10.  We ended up unplugging it when we went to 
15 and 10.  Laptop battery was good for 1.5 hours, so that got us by.  

Ran the laptop, Timewave dsp and swr meter lamp from two deep cycle marine 
batteries strapped together on front floor of the car.  After 10 hours of 
operation, the voltage only dropped from 12.9 vdc to 12.4 vdc. Plugged in 
charger overnight at the motel on Saturday night.   Worked like a champ.

I will return the inverters for my $ back....geo

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From w4wlc at bellsouth.net  Mon Apr 28 13:05:11 2003
From: w4wlc at bellsouth.net (Dave)
Date: Mon Apr 28 12:23:19 2003
Subject: [FQP]W4WLC unoffical results....
Message-ID: <000d01c30da8$5458fa10$6401a8c0@deh1>

This was first contest I have ever worked.  I took a lot of breaks, had a
lot of fun especially during the runs.  I worked all SSB with a G5RV at 28
feet.  The ICOM 756 Pro II worked great.  I guess I need get back into CW,
haven't worked any in 20 years.  Looking forward to next year.

Call:      W4WLC
      Category:  Single Operator
      Power:     Low Power
      Band:      All Band
      Mode:      SSB
      County:    BAY

      MODE      QSO    QSO PTS  MULTS


       CW        0        0        0
      SSB      325      325       52
      -----------------------------------------

      Totals   325      325       52

      Power Multiplier = 2  Final Score = 33,800

Dave
W4WLC
Lynn Haven, FL

From wd4ahz at gte.net  Mon Apr 28 15:06:55 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Mon Apr 28 13:25:43 2003
Subject: [FQP]W4WLC unoffical results....
References: <000d01c30da8$5458fa10$6401a8c0@deh1>
Message-ID: <3EAD6DBF.60902@gte.net>

Dave wrote:
 > This was first contest I have ever worked.  I took a lot of breaks,
 > had a lot of fun especially during the runs.

Fantastic!  Thanks for getting on, and glad your first contest 
experience was a good one!  That's why most folks contest in the first 
place ... because we enjoy it!

 > Looking forward to next year.

Sounds like you're hooked!

73, Ron  WD4AHZ

From Axel.Schernikau at siv.de  Mon Apr 28 19:15:50 2003
From: Axel.Schernikau at siv.de (Axel.Schernikau)
Date: Mon Apr 28 13:34:21 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP 2003
Message-ID: <3EAD6FD6.2070208@siv.de>

Hello everybody,

thanks a lot for all activity during the recent FQP especially to all 
the very active Mobiles who looked often for open EU pathes on 
20/15m.Several of them I was able to work 18-20 times.

In spite of bad condx the activity was great and I managed to work 58 
counties leaving now 3 counties not worked in FL at all (Calhoun, Gulf, 
Liberty) but they will be worked in next years for sure :-)

73 & cu all in CH-CW-Contest next weekend, hopefully with better condx.

Axel Schernikau, DL6KVA
dl6kva@qsl.net


From wd4ahz at gte.net  Mon Apr 28 16:18:56 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Mon Apr 28 14:37:40 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP Web Site
Message-ID: <3EAD7EA0.1050302@gte.net>

Since the 2003 running of the FQP is now history, the "old" FQP Web Site 
address  www.qsl.net/fqp  has now been retired.

Visitors to that address will be directed to the new FQP Web Site 
address  www.floridaqsoparty.org

The new site works a bit faster, and we won't have to duplicate our 
efforts with 2 sites up and running.

73, Ron

(At last report, 86 FQP e-logs have been received!)





From jimsmith at shaw.ca  Mon Apr 28 14:50:38 2003
From: jimsmith at shaw.ca (Jim Smith)
Date: Mon Apr 28 16:09:23 2003
Subject: [FQP]VE7FO FQP Results
Message-ID: <3EAD941E.7070904@shaw.ca>

 Florida QSO Party

Call: VE7FO
Operator(s): VE7FO
Station: VE7FO

Class: SOABMixed HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 3.5

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   40:            
   20:   47     23
   15:    3       
   10:            
--------------------
Total:   50     23  CW Mults = 32  Ph Mults = 17  Total Score = 6,027

Club: British Columbia DX Club

Comments:

The best laid plans.... etc

My efforts at promoting contest training resulted in 2 trainees signing 
up for
this one.  One has been here before a couple of times and the other would be
having (I believe) his first HF experience.  Two trainees this time, maybe 4
next time, then 8, then.... world domination.  Alas, it was not to be.  My
wife's birthday was on Saturday.  I had the training schedules nicely 
interwoven
with the birthday activity schedule.  Everything to do with the birthday
schedule got totally changed at the last minute.  No trainees.  I almost 
didn't
participate but I have my Canadian Multi record to defend.

In an attempt to improve my contest scores I have been spending some time
learning how to use W6EL's propagation forecasting program.  It's really 
quite
neat what it will predict given only a modest amount of data, including
predictions of hop details and take off angles required.  So, I ran 
predictions
for the Vancouver-Tallahassee and Vancouver-Miami paths.  I was 
surprised to see
that the results were somewhat different, the main difference being that 
15 was
more likely to be open to Miami than to Tallahassee.  (Possibly, as 
opposed to
not bloody likely)

Well, most of Sat was totally open for me as my wife had gone out for 
the day.
Some of Sun also appeared possible.  Participation would at least give 
me the
opportunity to test the propagation predictions against reality.

Didn't manage to get to the shack until some time around 1900Z on Saturday.
Checked 10 while the computer was booting.  Heard what I expected, nothing.
Tried 15.  Heard N4BP, I think it was, CQing on 15 cw and no one else.  
Right,
computer has booted up and TR is running in the Win 98 window.  Type 
N4BP and...
nothing.  Keyboard is dead.  Reboot the computer while listening to N4BP 
CQing
with no answers.  TR is just starting up.  N4BP leaves 15 cw for greener
pastures.  Keyboard is still dead.  Shut computer down and go have breakfast
while thinking about it.  Keyboard is USB running off a USB hub.  Think 
about
bypassing hub.  Realize that, even though computer is totally shut down, 
USB hub
still has power from wall wart.  Finish breakfast, kill and restore 
power to all
peripherals and computer including hub.  Computer boots, keyboard is fine.
Sigh!  N4BP is in Broward, near Miami.  Score 1 for W6ELPROP.  First Q at
1955Z.

Have fun for a couple of hours on 20.  All S&P.  Work all the phone I 
can then
bear down on the cw.  Keep going back and forth.  After a couple of 
hours I am
being nagged by my memory of a conversation with my daughter.  I had 
told her
that my wife said there was no need to buy a birthday present for her.  My
daughter said that meant nothing and that my wife would be really upset if I
took her at her word.  So, off I go, wondering what to buy.  Then, in a 
flash,
it hit me.  A couple of years ago she was complaining that the kitchen 
knife she
used for slicing and carving wasn't sharp and that she wanted a sharp 
knife.  I
bought her a knife sharpener.  Somehow, this didn't satisfy her, even 
though I
offered to do the sharpening any time she asked.  A friend conducted a 
survey
amongst all the men and women he knew.  The men all thought I did the right
thing and that she should be satisfied.  The women all said that my wife was
saying that she wanted a set of expensive Henckel knives from Germany in an
expensive wooden storage block.  It's amazing that a ham nerd like me 
ever got
close enough to a woman to procreate.

0020Z  The Henckel knives in the wooden block have been put in a garden 
sprayer
box with some ribbon taped to the top and a nice card signed.  Back to FQP.

0150Z  Propagation predictions say 40 is starting to open to FL.  Sure 
enough, a
few very weak cw signals.  Called a few but didn't expect to be heard 
through
the din of the locals.  Wasn't.  Wife came home, totally excited by the 
gift,
end of contest.

The knives don't seem very sharp to me.  The blade in my wood plane is a lot
sharper.

Wasn't able to get on at all on Sun.

I thought I would try using spots which would put me into Multi 
category, even
without my trainees, but couldn't access DX Summit the few times I tried 
it so
it's SOHP.  HP in this case is 200W from my MkV.  Why not go LP?  Well, rate
isn't very high from VE7 so figured more watts = more fun.

How good were the predictions?  Pretty good.  Signal to noise ratios for 
2400Hz
bandwidth on 20 were predicted to run from -2 to + 12 dB during the Sat 
contest
period and signal levels from 17 to 30 dB above 0.5 uV.  This for, at 
each end,
100W, noise levels typical of a residential area and half-wave dipoles 
in free
space.  I have an old TH3 tribander up about 45 ft but with a real good shot
towards FL.  During my operating times there were always intelligible 
fixed W4s
on ssb.  Later in the day there were lots of S9 ssb signals.  Didn't work a
single mobile on ssb.

Heard one lonely Neb QPer and gave him a Q.

I'd have to say that conditions were better from VE7 than last year.  23 
ssb Qs
vs 3, 73 Qs vs 65, 49 mults vs 40 and 3:30 hrs vs 8:50 hrs.

Didn't try chasing particular mobiles along their routes this year.  
Just worked
them as I found them.  As always, it's the mobiles that make the QSO Parties
fun.

73 and I'll be back next year with my 8 trainees, some on cw.

Volusia Escambia 7 Flagler Osceola

(Actually tried this on one guy.  Broke him up once he figured it out.)



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Mon Apr 28 18:33:15 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Mon Apr 28 16:51:41 2003
Subject: [FQP]Fwd: FQP Comments from W7TTT
Message-ID: <128.28c6302b.2bdef81b@aol.com>

I am forwarding this interesting note from my buddy Tom, K5RC/W7TTT.  

BTW, Tom thought he had a country sweep in last year's FQP.  Unfortunately, 
thanks to the eagle eyes of our illustrious log checker, he busted one 
county.

73, Geo...

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Mon Apr 28 18:35:09 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Mon Apr 28 16:54:17 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [FCG] FQP NJ4M/M  M/SABMixed (sometimes) LP Summary
References: <196.197dea34.2bdea2e4@aol.com>
Message-ID: <3EAD9E8D.1090700@tampabay.rr.com>

We found the road - no help from any sort of signage - the only clue was 
that in Dolphs it shows Tamiami trail taking a bend at that point and 
there was a nearby bend in the road....

We drove down the road for a while and then there was a change in the 
method of paving, we took that as the county line and started signing MON...

Eventually that road turned into crushed shells and no asphalt to be 
seen... then we saw one of those "you are here" outposts which had a map 
in it and I jumped out (Kevin was operating at the time) and walked over 
to it to find that, YES the road was indeed the one it seems to be... I 
hadn't seen a gator in the road for over a quarter mile, the one we saw 
was just a baby mebbe 4 foot long or so, so I felt comfortable taking a 
look see at the covered sign.

For future reference it was refered to as somethin' "Loop" which kind of 
makes sense when you look at it on the map, and if you watch the 
odomoeter you can work backwards to that point, and remember the shapr 
crick in the road, to find it...

What really surprised me was that this was not the county which was most 
prolific as far as QSOs - I expected a real flurry of activity for 
Kevin, and it was decent but we only made 74 QSOs form MON before we 
said time for Collier which turned out to be the most prolific for us at 
115 QSOs...

I agree with George, there sure were a lot of "turkey hawks/vultures" 
waiting for or working on Road kill.... we almost hit a turtle (or is 
that a TOrtoise) when we wer on the trail in Collier - he was far across 
that I stradled him with the wheel base and yes, he was fine in the rear 
view....

That part of the trip was one of the worst as far as road quality, thank 
god we had the computer and NA - sending CW when you are bouncin g 
around like that is NO fun!

Back to net.........

K4OJ





Georgek5kg@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 4/28/2003 11:08:37 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> wd4ahz@gte.net writes:
> 
> 
>>Sorry we missed the dirt road turnoff into MON (it's dark in the 
>>Everglades at night!) and ran out out time before we could make it to 
>>DES.  Some of the comments I've seen, made it sound like they were in 
>>demand ... but glad others were able to pick up our "slack"!
>>
> 
> 
> Don't be sorry.  We finally found that lane into MON and went down it until 
> we ran out of road without removing antennas (due to overgrowth).  Jim was 
> driving and had to stop to chase an alligator off the road...er, uh was it 
> the other way around?  At that point there were two more by my back door, so 
> I dared not get out else get eaten.
> 
> And speaking of being eaten...you ain't seen so many mean flying things as 
> are down there.  
> 
> Jim finally managed (carefully) to back the car out and back to safety.  What 
> a trip!
> 
> Geo + Jim
> 
> George I. Wagner, K5KG
> Productivity Resources LLC
> 941-312-9450
> 941-312-9460 fax
> 201-415-6044 cell
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Mon Apr 28 18:36:03 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Mon Apr 28 16:54:21 2003
Subject: [FQP]W7TTT Comments
Message-ID: <1e5.7bd113c.2bdef8c3@aol.com>

Sorry, friends, but conditions from the Northwest USA were abysmal 20M was 
barely open most of the time. K4XS (who is usually 40 over S9) barely ever 
hit S9.

On 20 CW, we had some sort of "radar" type QRM sweeping across the band, 
punctuated with periods of white noise. Probably coming from Asia, since no 
East Coasters complained about it. I was using a delta loop, so others who 
had front-to-back may not have heard it. There were a couple of times that 15 
opened for a short period. 

As it was, it took an Ouija board to copy the mobiles most of the time. The 
good news is that all the mobiles were about the same strength. N4TO was 
always easy to spot with the little leading-edge chirp, so I work them the 
most times. KN4Y was the weakest and most difficult to work.

I know you Floridians will have a hard time comprehending this, but it snowed 
here most of the weekend, inducing even more QRN. I made 150 QSO's in about 5 
agonizing hours of operating. I missed 6 counties. The NCCC reflector was 
busy with similar laments this morning. 

The NCCC was in there supporting FCG, but mother sunspots had us hampered!

Tom, K5RC (W7TTT)
Virginia City NV


George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Mon Apr 28 18:42:07 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Mon Apr 28 17:01:13 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP 2003
Message-ID: <1c0.8c69845.2bdefa2f@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/28/2003 2:16:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Axel.Schernikau@siv.de writes:

> thanks a lot for all activity during the recent FQP especially to all 
> the very active Mobiles who looked often for open EU pathes on 
> 20/15m.Several of them I was able to work 18-20 times.
> 

Axel,

Tnx for all the Q's.  Your signal was consistently in there in many of the 
pile ups.  Please excuse us if we failed to pick you out on the Sunday 
afternoon counties.  The USA pileups were very deep.

We had a great time working you and a few other DL's, GM3POI, SP4JWR and, of 
course, LY3BA many times.  

GL on getting the other three counties in FL.  If you are looking to work 
Calhoun, Gulf, 
Liberty, please send me a request, and I will see if we have any FCG members 
who are willing to make skeds from those counties.

73, George, K5KG and Jim, VE7ZO - K4FQP/m Team

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Mon Apr 28 18:53:44 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Mon Apr 28 17:12:54 2003
Subject: [FQP]W4WLC unoffical results....
References: <000d01c30da8$5458fa10$6401a8c0@deh1>
Message-ID: <3EADA2E8.9010107@tampabay.rr.com>

Thanks for getting on, Dave

The Florida QSO Party grows each year, we are at the point where for it 
to grow it its next evolutionary phase we need more folks like yourself 
operating from home stations... this adds to the fun for the guys on the 
other end as we pretty much so can guarantee sweepability in the FQP 
barring acts of God...so, if an entrant from out of state gets on and 
works all 67 counties should he QRT... we hope not - besides "insurance" 
QSOs with other mobiles passing through a given mult if enough guys 
operate in the contest the fact that you swept will be kinda "ho hum" 
and it then comes down to who worked the most outside of Florida 
stations! We have been focused on covering the counties with the mobiles 
on CW since we figure most home stations who would casually get on would 
do so on SSB... pretty much so like you did when you took the plunge 
this weekend.

I am curious if you would share with us why you decided to get your feet 
wet in the FQP.  We need more guys like yourself who have not previously 
been active in the FQP, or any contest for that matter, to turn on their 
rigs and hand out QSOs - being at the "rare" end of the pileup is fun. 
Its almost like being exotic DX on some far away island.  For one 
weekend a year anyone with a home station can join the fun and enjoy 
being "wanted".  There is a confirmed rumor that this weekend one 
Florida entrant had so many out of state guys calling him he had to 
operate split frequency so the callers would not cover him up! N4PM was 
taking callers up 5 KHz!

Please let us know why you decided to get on for this one, and - if you 
would be so kind, let us know the highs and lows of being a new entrant.

Welcome to the fun - if you wanna try some more contesting check out the 
web site for the Florida Contest Group, sponsors of the FQP at:

http://www.qsl.net/fcg

Thanks again for joining us... of course we hope you will be back in 363 
days... think I got that right 2004 is a leap year...

73,

Jim, K4OJ




Dave wrote:
> This was first contest I have ever worked.  I took a lot of breaks, had a
> lot of fun especially during the runs.  I worked all SSB with a G5RV at 28
> feet.  The ICOM 756 Pro II worked great.  I guess I need get back into CW,
> haven't worked any in 20 years.  Looking forward to next year.
> 
> Call:      W4WLC
>       Category:  Single Operator
>       Power:     Low Power
>       Band:      All Band
>       Mode:      SSB
>       County:    BAY
> 
>       MODE      QSO    QSO PTS  MULTS
> 
> 
>        CW        0        0        0
>       SSB      325      325       52
>       -----------------------------------------
> 
>       Totals   325      325       52
> 
>       Power Multiplier = 2  Final Score = 33,800
> 
> Dave
> W4WLC
> Lynn Haven, FL
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From w4wlc at bellsouth.net  Mon Apr 28 19:23:43 2003
From: w4wlc at bellsouth.net (Dave)
Date: Mon Apr 28 18:41:52 2003
Subject: [FQP]Why I did the 2003 FQP, W4WLC
References: <200304282213.h3SMD2N6025955@loja.kkn.net>
Message-ID: <001a01c30ddd$35d7e260$6401a8c0@deh1>

Why I did the 2003 FQP

I will have to give a little history to explain this.  I got my Novice
ticket (WN5QMW) in the Fall/Winter of 1975 thanks to K0RAJ (my Elmer).
Along came marriage and kids and my last HF contact was as a Novice in June
1983.  I never let the license expire (the one good thing I did) and
upgraded to Tech+ in 1988 I believe.  During this time I was WB5QMW, N5MAI,
KE4YAY, and back to WB5QMW.  The only rig I had for 15 years was a 2 meter
handy-talky.  I moved from Melbourne, FL to the Panama City area in June
2001.  In August of 2002 I found the Panama City ARC by accident.  What a
great group of guys and gals.  I got the bug again and upgraded to Extra in
November 2002 and changed my call to W4WLC.  Did a lot of radio research and
got the Icom 756 Pro II in February 2003.  So I have only been back into HF
two months.  NF4A (Charlie) gave the club a little spill on the FQP and
using CT and NA.  So loaded up CT, read the rules, set up the voice keyer
and went for it.  If I hadn't took so many breaks, some of them up to an
hour long I would have likely done much better.  I need to start working on
my CW again (I enjoyed it as a Novice) so I can play both sides.

That's my Ham life story, boring but true.

My biggest problem or concern was causing interference to another Florida
station.  Naturally I couldn't hear them and someone would tell me that
there were two Florida station on the freq.  I would move to another free
spot (they were hard to find).  My apologies to anyone I may have caused
QRM.  I found it hard to hold a frequency, I would get squeezed out.  I
guess that is just part of the game.  All in all I found it an enjoyable
experience.  I am a motorcycle rider and I found that beautiful weather we
had over the weekend calling me, but I resisted.  Maybe motorcycle mobile
next year?

Dave
W4WLC
Lynn Haven, FL

> Jim wrote:


> Please let us know why you decided to get on for this one, and - if you
> would be so kind, let us know the highs and lows of being a new entrant.
>
> Welcome to the fun - if you wanna try some more contesting check out the
> web site for the Florida Contest Group, sponsors of the FQP at:
>
> http://www.qsl.net/fcg
>
> Thanks again for joining us... of course we hope you will be back in 363
> days... think I got that right 2004 is a leap year...
>
> 73,
>
> Jim, K4OJ
>
>
>
>
> Dave wrote:
> > This was first contest I have ever worked.  I took a lot of breaks, had
a
> > lot of fun especially during the runs.  I worked all SSB with a G5RV at
28
> > feet.  The ICOM 756 Pro II worked great.  I guess I need get back into
CW,
> > haven't worked any in 20 years.  Looking forward to next year.
> >
> > Call:      W4WLC
> >       Category:  Single Operator
> >       Power:     Low Power
> >       Band:      All Band
> >       Mode:      SSB
> >       County:    BAY
> >
> >       MODE      QSO    QSO PTS  MULTS
> >
> >
> >        CW        0        0        0
> >       SSB      325      325       52
> >       -----------------------------------------
> >
> >       Totals   325      325       52
> >
> >       Power Multiplier = 2  Final Score = 33,800
> >
> > Dave
> > W4WLC
> > Lynn Haven, FL
> >

From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Mon Apr 28 20:49:40 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Mon Apr 28 19:08:54 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: Why I did the 2003 FQP, W4WLC
References: <200304282213.h3SMD2N6025955@loja.kkn.net>
	<001a01c30ddd$35d7e260$6401a8c0@deh1>
Message-ID: <3EADBE14.20208@tampabay.rr.com>

Thanks Dave... and thanks Charlie, NF4A...

As far as the QRMing other FL part - you are now a member of the club,,, 
we all have done it in the FQP I am sure - the trick is to realize there 
is another guy on the same frequency and move (assuming you had NOT been 
there for a while and staked out your turf)

With so many of us mobiling with compromised antenna systems we do not 
generate a heckuva lot of ground wave signal - fortunately enough of it 
makea its way out into the ether that others can hear us...

Which reminds me time to make another posting...

Thanks again, Dave - we welcome your joining the FQP family!

K4OJ


Dave wrote:
> Why I did the 2003 FQP
> 
> I will have to give a little history to explain this.  I got my Novice
> ticket (WN5QMW) in the Fall/Winter of 1975 thanks to K0RAJ (my Elmer).
> Along came marriage and kids and my last HF contact was as a Novice in June
> 1983.  I never let the license expire (the one good thing I did) and
> upgraded to Tech+ in 1988 I believe.  During this time I was WB5QMW, N5MAI,
> KE4YAY, and back to WB5QMW.  The only rig I had for 15 years was a 2 meter
> handy-talky.  I moved from Melbourne, FL to the Panama City area in June
> 2001.  In August of 2002 I found the Panama City ARC by accident.  What a
> great group of guys and gals.  I got the bug again and upgraded to Extra in
> November 2002 and changed my call to W4WLC.  Did a lot of radio research and
> got the Icom 756 Pro II in February 2003.  So I have only been back into HF
> two months.  NF4A (Charlie) gave the club a little spill on the FQP and
> using CT and NA.  So loaded up CT, read the rules, set up the voice keyer
> and went for it.  If I hadn't took so many breaks, some of them up to an
> hour long I would have likely done much better.  I need to start working on
> my CW again (I enjoyed it as a Novice) so I can play both sides.
> 
> That's my Ham life story, boring but true.
> 
> My biggest problem or concern was causing interference to another Florida
> station.  Naturally I couldn't hear them and someone would tell me that
> there were two Florida station on the freq.  I would move to another free
> spot (they were hard to find).  My apologies to anyone I may have caused
> QRM.  I found it hard to hold a frequency, I would get squeezed out.  I
> guess that is just part of the game.  All in all I found it an enjoyable
> experience.  I am a motorcycle rider and I found that beautiful weather we
> had over the weekend calling me, but I resisted.  Maybe motorcycle mobile
> next year?
> 
> Dave
> W4WLC
> Lynn Haven, FL
> 
> 
>>Jim wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>>Please let us know why you decided to get on for this one, and - if you
>>would be so kind, let us know the highs and lows of being a new entrant.
>>
>>Welcome to the fun - if you wanna try some more contesting check out the
>>web site for the Florida Contest Group, sponsors of the FQP at:
>>
>>http://www.qsl.net/fcg
>>
>>Thanks again for joining us... of course we hope you will be back in 363
>>days... think I got that right 2004 is a leap year...
>>
>>73,
>>
>>Jim, K4OJ
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Dave wrote:
>>
>>>This was first contest I have ever worked.  I took a lot of breaks, had
>>
> a
> 
>>>lot of fun especially during the runs.  I worked all SSB with a G5RV at
>>
> 28
> 
>>>feet.  The ICOM 756 Pro II worked great.  I guess I need get back into
>>
> CW,
> 
>>>haven't worked any in 20 years.  Looking forward to next year.
>>>
>>>Call:      W4WLC
>>>      Category:  Single Operator
>>>      Power:     Low Power
>>>      Band:      All Band
>>>      Mode:      SSB
>>>      County:    BAY
>>>
>>>      MODE      QSO    QSO PTS  MULTS
>>>
>>>
>>>       CW        0        0        0
>>>      SSB      325      325       52
>>>      -----------------------------------------
>>>
>>>      Totals   325      325       52
>>>
>>>      Power Multiplier = 2  Final Score = 33,800
>>>
>>>Dave
>>>W4WLC
>>>Lynn Haven, FL
>>>
>>
> 
> 



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Mon Apr 28 21:09:15 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Mon Apr 28 19:28:27 2003
Subject: [FQP]Request for Signal Reports, PLEASE
Message-ID: <3EADC2AB.50408@tampabay.rr.com>

Please report back to me and I will summarize and re-post back out the 
crunched data...

If you were on this past weekend in the Florida QSO Party please respond 
as follows:

Florida Participants - Who was loud calling you - ex: I was mobile and 
know for example that N9RV was almost always bonkers loud.  Relative 
reports are sufficient - do not need s-meter readings, etc.

Outside of Florida - Who was loud form Florida - please summarize your 
comments into two categories - the fixed stations and separately the 
mobiles.

Part of this is research - there were many different types of mobile 
antennas used this past weekend by the mobiling teams - as a matter of 
fact I do not think there were two identical approaches from any of the 
teams!  We would like to summarize this information and use it to better 
our signals.

Florida stations - lets all think back to those who called us and we 
thought "gee I wish I sounded like: __________"

Again - please respond privately and I will summarize and re-post.

This has no effect on scoring whatsoever so you can be honest about how 
weak N4TO may have been - of course team TOad beat everyone's butts once 
again - how do they do it - come to the contest dinner at Dayton to find 
out half the answer to that question!

73,

Jim, K4OJ

part of the K4FCG/m team






From no5w at txucom.net  Mon Apr 28 20:54:39 2003
From: no5w at txucom.net (Chuck, NO5W)
Date: Mon Apr 28 20:10:53 2003
Subject: [FQP]No alligator ops in FQP
Message-ID: <000001c30de9$ea6c8f30$6401a8c0@EMOCSANDER>

Sounds like Jim should audition for one of those shows on Animal Planet.

>>driving and had to stop to chase an alligator off the road...er, uh was it
>>the other way around?  At that point there were two more by my back door,
so
>>I dared not get out else get eaten.

But you guys and the other mobiles were certainly not working like
alligators -- good ears to pull all of those signals out of the piles. Great
CW operating.

Thanks for a FB FQP,

Chuck, NO5W


From bevans at hal-pc.org  Mon Apr 28 15:47:43 2003
From: bevans at hal-pc.org (Bob Evans)
Date: Mon Apr 28 21:41:32 2003
Subject: [FQP]K5WA Summary SOHP Mixed
Message-ID: <000f01c30dbf$0982fd80$6601a8c0@houston.rr.com>

Since I don't have TR Log loaded at home where I'm sending this email,
my summary is by memory.

         CW       SSB
40       101        1
20       270      130
15         5        0

Total    376      131 =  507
Mults     67       49

Approx score: 200K (I think) 


Another great event even with incredibly bad conditions on Saturday
between Houston and FL.  My last and most difficult county, believe it
or not, was OKA.  When all the mobiles went through OKA early on
Saturday, I couldn't hear a thing.  On Sunday, when W5WMU was 60bd over
and flying across I-10 to the west, I thought, no problem, I'll get Pat
for a sweep on CW, but the later it got and the closer he got to OKA, he
just disappeared to nothing.  Many thanks to Charlie, NF4A, for pointing
me to W5RE in Crestview who got on 40M for my ONLY OKA qso with 30
minutes left in the contest.  Charlie also tossed me several counties on
SSB, which made the occasional attempts on SSB seem not so painful. 

The Toadmobile, N4TO, gets my vote for most consistent mobile.  Always
signing their call/county (a MAJOR timesaver for us non-FL guys chasing
mobiles; hint-hint to the guys signing /M), able to copy well during
weak conditions and staying near a single frequency. I think I worked
them in every county they traveled on Sunday and 75% of Saturday's
counties.  Saturday would have been 100% if conditions weren't so bad
from here.  They just set the perfect rhythm to follow (including a very
entertaining CW note).  W5WMU and NF4A tied for second easiest to
follow. 

As far as the dirt road to Monroe County, it is probably a good thing
some of you didn't find it.  From the FQP a couple of years ago when
N6MU and I used a GPS computer to locate it, we found and drove it, but
it was a road only fit for HumVees and wildlife.  My car still shudders
at the thought of trying that road again!  I'm glad we didn't see any
gators when we stopped and took pictures.  By the way, I worked MON a
total of 8 times!  There were several non-contester contacts from the
Keys that I never expected.

K4FCG and K4FQP set CW speed records, I believe.  George, did you know
that FCG and FQP sound exactly the same to us dyslexic guys that can't
copy code at 45wpm?  I hope I got half of those contacts logged
correctly.

As bad as Saturday's conditions were from here, Sunday was incredibly
good for a large part of the day.  All the mobiles east of the panhandle
and south were at least 20-40 over, but it seems that most of the fixed
stations had their antennas pointed North or Northeast.  I called N4BP
until I was blue, but the EUs were much louder for him, apparently.

FCG, thanks again for such an awesome event!  I'd love to have been
screaming down the Florida backroads myself, but it was almost as good
to hear you guys having such a good time.  Keep up the great work!



Bob K5WA
Houston, Texas



From wd4ahz at gte.net  Tue Apr 29 00:13:51 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Mon Apr 28 22:32:47 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [FCG] FQP NJ4M/M  M/SABMixed (sometimes) LP Summary
References: <196.197dea34.2bdea2e4@aol.com> <3EAD9E8D.1090700@tampabay.rr.com>
Message-ID: <3EADEDEF.4070701@gte.net>

Jim White, K4OJ wrote:

 > We found the road - no help from any sort of signage - the only clue was
 > that in Dolphs it shows Tamiami trail taking a bend at that point and
 > there was a nearby bend in the road....
 >
 > We drove down the road for a while and then there was a change in the
 > method of paving, we took that as the county line and started signing
 > MON...

<snip>

 > For future reference it was refered to as somethin' "Loop" which kind of
 > makes sense when you look at it on the map, and if you watch the
 > odomoeter you can work backwards to that point, and remember the shapr
 > crick in the road, to find it...

Yep ... we were on "Loop Road", and also saw the change in pavement (we 
even asked each other, if that was the line)... but kept driving looking 
for a County Line marker ... we wanted to be positive we were where we 
were supposed to be!

We then decided to get back on 41 and go in at "Monroe Station" and head 
south from there ... but by the time we made it that far, it was already 
dark, and the lousy road was full of standing water after what must have 
been a good downpour.  I was still working guys on CW looking for any 
landmarks with Richard ... when someone asked me if we're going to MON! 
  I said we're looking for the turnoff ... but we ended up going right 
past it anyway!

Should we decide to do it again next year, we'll know where we need to 
be ... and try to get there during daylight hours, so it's easier to find!

The things we do for Q's!

Ron

From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 02:56:32 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 01:15:54 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [FCG] FQP NJ4M/M  M/SABMixed (sometimes) LP Summary
References: <196.197dea34.2bdea2e4@aol.com> <3EAD9E8D.1090700@tampabay.rr.com>
	<3EADEDEF.4070701@gte.net>
Message-ID: <3EAE1410.8030506@tampabay.rr.com>

...mebbe somebody should write the Sate or Monroe county mentioning that 
the county line is not marked on Loop Rd over in "Big Cypress"

OJ




Ron Wetjen wrote:
> Jim White, K4OJ wrote:
> 
>  > We found the road - no help from any sort of signage - the only clue was
>  > that in Dolphs it shows Tamiami trail taking a bend at that point and
>  > there was a nearby bend in the road....
>  >
>  > We drove down the road for a while and then there was a change in the
>  > method of paving, we took that as the county line and started signing
>  > MON...
> 
> <snip>
> 
>  > For future reference it was refered to as somethin' "Loop" which kind of
>  > makes sense when you look at it on the map, and if you watch the
>  > odomoeter you can work backwards to that point, and remember the shapr
>  > crick in the road, to find it...
> 
> Yep ... we were on "Loop Road", and also saw the change in pavement (we 
> even asked each other, if that was the line)... but kept driving looking 
> for a County Line marker ... we wanted to be positive we were where we 
> were supposed to be!
> 
> We then decided to get back on 41 and go in at "Monroe Station" and head 
> south from there ... but by the time we made it that far, it was already 
> dark, and the lousy road was full of standing water after what must have 
> been a good downpour.  I was still working guys on CW looking for any 
> landmarks with Richard ... when someone asked me if we're going to MON! 
>  I said we're looking for the turnoff ... but we ended up going right 
> past it anyway!
> 
> Should we decide to do it again next year, we'll know where we need to 
> be ... and try to get there during daylight hours, so it's easier to find!
> 
> The things we do for Q's!
> 
> Ron
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 05:28:30 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 03:47:58 2003
Subject: [FQP]Rabbits and Love Bugs and the K4FCG mobile saga - very long
	post!
Message-ID: <3EAE37AE.2080103@tampabay.rr.com>

FQP Mobile Entries from K4FCG/M....and a long story - hit delete now or 
be sucked in!


Before we get too far along team K4FCG/M (K4OJ + N4KM) would like to 
extend our thanks to the following:

a)	N4OX (Fri.) and W4SO (Sat) who were kind enough to open their homes 
to us allowing us to crash in order to do such a lengthy route - 412 
counties in 1200 miles worth of road trip - plus the drives up and 
afterward - total mileage around 1600!

b)	W1YL for a cooler full of pop and sandwiches so we could keep running 
- not exactly like you can go through the drive through with ham sticks 
above an SUV!

c)	The entrants in the FQP who keep us coming back for more each year - 
your following us and working us whenever we go into a new a county is 
great... love those initial pileups!



Day One:

QSOs    Mults	Claimed Score			 Running total
30	14	1,680	ESC 	ESCAMBIA	30
33	18	2,376	SAN 	SANTA ROSA	63
36	18	2,698	OKA 	OKALOOSA	99
27	17	1,802	WAL 	WALTON		126
29	16	1,856	HOL 	HOLMES		155
26	16	1,664	WAG 	WASHINGTON	181
46	25	4,500	JAC 	JACKSON		227
39	17	2,618	GAD 	GADSDEN		266
35	18	2,484	LEO 	LEON		301
34	19	2,508	JEF 	JEFFERSON	335
40	24	3,744	MAD 	MADISON		375
29	19	2,166	SUW 	SUWANNEE	404
28	18	1,944	CLM 	COLUMBIA	432
44	26	4,524	BAK 	BAKER		476
36	23	3,220	NAS 	NASSAU		512
47	30	5,640	DUV 	DUVAL		559
54	30	6,480	CLA 	CLAY		613
43	25	4,300	PUT 	PUTNAM		656
40	26	4,056	FLG 	FLAGLER		696
47	30	5,520	VOL 	VOLUSIA		743
59	29	6,844	BRE 	BREVARD		802
21	15	1,230	IDR 	INDIAN RIVER	823
47	25	4,700	STL 	ST. LUCIE	870
34	18	2,448	MRT 	MARTIN		904

Day Two:
					
60	27	6,426	DAD 	MIAMI - DADE	964
74	32	9,344	MON 	MONROE		1038
115	41	18,778	CLR 	COLLIER		1153
63	32	7,036	LEE	LEE 		1216
49	26	5,096	CHA 	CHARLOTTE 	1265
65	31	7,998	SAR 	SARASOTA	1330
49	28	5,432	MTE 	MANATEE		1379
49	28	5,432	PIN 	PINELLAS	1428
54	29	6,032	HIL 	HILLSBOROUGH	1482
54	29	6,148	POL 	POLK		1536
71	35	9,730	LAK 	LAKE		1607
42	26	4,316	SUM 	SUMTER		1649
58	23	5,290	HER 	HERNANDO	1707
97	46	16,928	CIT 	CITRUS		1804
72	32	9,216	MAO 	MARION		1876
50	29	5,626	LEV 	LEVY		1926
73	34	9,860	ALC 	ALACHUA		1999

219,690	points total claimed score for the Seffner Amateur Radio Club 
total...		

...can you believe it, 1999 claimed QSOs - and our goal was 2,000 - talk 
about being on target!

1999 qsos is a rate of 100/hour :-) - or - about 49 QSOs/County... or 
1.667 QSO's per mile!

Hottest counties as far as rate were the last two where a pro rated rate 
of 176 and 175 per hour was attained - I knew I was cross eyed waiting 
for the final bell so we could find me a rest room, but did not 
anticipate my sense of urgency to translate into that much of an ensuing 
rate!

Some of the trip highlights:

Fri. PM on the way North telling friends to look for W1YL this weekend.

N4OX's cats and the laser pointer "toy"

Sat AM brunch with N4OX and NF4A before the party had begun!

Wondering if our last QSO would be with W1END, while he was our last QSO 
in one county, our final QSO of the weekend was with K3TW

Turning down an unmarked road and hoping it was that back road that 
leads to Monroe county... no street signs, no county line marker, but 
there was a pavement change...and a little further on there was a "you 
are here map" and sure enough I had guessed right and we were on thE 
road into Monroe from Alligator Alley - only to find out as I crept down 
it that it changed from poorly maintained asphalt to crushed shell/rock 
and that we would have to do a u-turn and then park 'til the deserving 
thinned out....

Hearing many say thanks for the sweep to N4KM when we activated Monroe 
early Sunday AM - old FQP sweep record was roughly mid day Sunday

Telling N4KM to hold up for a minute when we were in MONROE, I heard 
something - a station off to the side in HIL/Hillsborough was off the 
side of the filter - realizing it was my Mom, and she WAS using the 
contest software... and she was running 'em

Dodging alligator and turtle while in the "big cypress" Everglades area 
- dodging even more turkey vultures feasting on road kill along 
Alligator Alley

Just when we thought the colder wx meant fewer problems with Love Bugs 
this year suddenly finding ourselves alongside a convoy of Volkswagens 
that stretched all the way across the Sunshine Skyway in Pinellas - 
including of course plenty of, you guessed it Love Bugs!  Plenty of VW 
buses, dude - and despite our efforts to avoid the Miami Airport's 
Rabbit explosion - there we were alongside you guessed it: Rabbits!  And 
there were "Things" and Dune Buggies...according to the local paper 
there were hundreds of VW drivers in the "convoy" - they took up the 
right lane all the way across the Skyway!

Having WA3HAE ask us to go up to sideband and then me picking up my cell 
  phone - squeezing the volume button thinking it was the PTT button on 
the mike, talking into the phone - which was plugged into the cigarette 
lighter and had a curly cord on the back of it, too...    I lost it - 
'HAE then asked what was so funny and I told him that I tried to call 
him on my cell phone - we agreed that those frequencies were NOT allowed 
in the FQP rules!  Then having N4KM accuse me of being a phone lid!

Having KU8E call us in Hillsborough and realizing we were headed for 
each other - going opposite directions on I-4 - quickly QSYing to work 
each other bands, including our only 10 meter contact of the weekend!

The computer interface between the laptop and the IC706 and NA software 
all working so well - only a few instances of the gear balking all 
weekend long - try sending fast CW manually when you are driving the 
less than properly maintained alligator alley!

The building crescendo of rate at the end of the contest...only to have 
it come and then totaling the qsos realizing we had hit our mark for the 
weekend....

Reports on our signal varied with some saying were you parked by a lake 
in Citrus County - you were really loud there - to, you should find out 
what "______" was using and do what they did - "______" being a 
different station depending on the reporter!

Wow.... then finding out Mom had made 400 QSOs and computer logged them 
all - this was a banner weekend!

On a personal note:

Several years ago I got an e-mail from K9UIY telling me that there was a 
guy moving to Florida and that I should look him up... site unseen I 
asked him to join me in the FQP and we haven't missed one since... that 
guy is Kevin, N4KM and our friendship has grown a lot since that first 
FQP.  Kevin has engineered his SUV really well and the trip is smooth as 
silk in it - sure the contest going on helps the time go by, but the 
exchanged laughs and "optional phonetics" for callers-in are a hoot. I 
look forward to our FQP weekend each year with great anticipation, we 
have a blast.

Ham radio plays a very large role in my life, and at the forefront is 
contesting which has made me many friends - and a few enemies (who for 
some reason do not like seeing my e-mails!)

In two weeks time the main man behind the FQP, K1TO, will be inducted 
into the Contesting Hall of Fame along with N6RO - and another contester 
N6TR will be the Hamvention Ham of the Year....

Before I was even licensed I saw this same kind of excitement about 
contesting when my parents helped form a contest club in New England 
called Murphy's Marauders...today my Mom is using contesting software 
that contains algorithms she wrote about in QST about 50 years ago!

The next time somebody tells you contesting and contesters are not 
politically correct you remind them of the longevity of the contesting 
spirit... how can you help but love this stuff!

73,

Jim, K4OJ




From Harry.van.Enckevort at tiscali.nl  Tue Apr 29 12:57:26 2003
From: Harry.van.Enckevort at tiscali.nl (Harry van Enckevort)
Date: Tue Apr 29 07:14:58 2003
Subject: [FQP]PA3ARM 2003 CLAIMED SCORE
Message-ID: <000001c30e46$8226db30$bde3f1c3@PA3ARM>

Hello there,
Just re-subscribed on this reflector; here is mi claimed score :

CW only - 100W out es inverted v 11m up fer 20m - dipole 4 m up fer 40
es 15

QSO's :
15 m  > 33  (Sunday started at 15.00Z)
40 m  > 8   (not behind the set between 00.00Z es 01.00Z approx)
20m   > 72

43 multipliers 

Total 113 (2 dupes)  - claimed score 19092

It was great !  It was my 4th FL party es now finally 1st time more than
100 QSO's. In fact I (almost)  beat mi PA/CA 2001 highest number of
contacts of 114/109 respectively. (apart from CH test)- still log
manually  hi 
As usual now also missed some hours becuz of other duties
(tabletennis)this time on Sunday afternoon here;  so not sure whether I
missed mobiles between 12.00Z es 15.00Z on Sunday on 15m . Guess managed
to work most of the 2 suffix stns on 15m either Saturday or sunday.
Still needed 14 counties fer mi USA-CA (just rcvd 1000 endorsement) es
managed to work 7 of them.

-some ot the really nice things is the 035 frequency fer CW ....gives
low power/decent ant  stns in EU possibilities on 40m also 
-in general better condx than last year at least on Sunday; had no big
expectations bcuz of the declining sunactivity but pleasantly surprised.
-Worked W4ARM (hi) ; hrd him in feb/march in one of the parties also 
-Fine moment Saturday when I worked the N4TO team in both GIL es LAF
within 20 minutes (both new ones) ; did I miss Dixie between in ?
-worked K4FQP Sunday 18.28Z in MONroe , then 18.43Z in LAKe es then agn
19.01 in CoLlieR (2nd 100% sure)..so who was tired or were they
/airplane ?? hi hi  (was Lake Dade?)
 -listened to the unbelievable pile up last half hour when either the
K4FQP
or K4FCG team were in DESoto..... decided not to call (hi) es then went
to Jeff + ? KU8E in Hamilton (new one also) who I worked in the vy last
secvond of the contest....thought had not worked HAM yet untill
preparing the log today es saw worked HAM already on Saturday (K4FQP)
.....big smile..
-did not hear Ed KN4Y on Sunday...worked him 1x on Saturday ....is there
another story in the pipeline?  Hi
-heard PA3BWS es another PA (CNL?)....but only occasionally ...curious
fer their results (hi) 

Thanks to all the mobiles fer being on the route/air... es thanks to the
big organisation ....
Lots of fun..that's what counts

will join agn in 2004.....

73
Harry
PA3ARM

Mail to PA3ARM@arrl.net





From ku8e at bellsouth.net  Tue Apr 29 10:16:44 2003
From: ku8e at bellsouth.net (ku8e@bellsouth.net)
Date: Tue Apr 29 08:33:00 2003
Subject: [FQP]No alligator ops in FQP
Message-ID: <20030429131644.UXVZ14209.imf45bis.bellsouth.net@mail.bellsouth.net>


 Hi,

 While we were in N Fla I was always wondering if there were alligators in that
part of the state too ?? There sure seemed to be no shortage of swampy areas were they could hang out. We did see many interesting birds,armidillos (?), and other stuff that I probably only saw at the zoo when I lived in Ohio !!!

I was wondering .... Do they have Radio Shack's in Fla ???  We needed a Y-adapter that I forgot to bring and I never found one anywhere.....

                          Jeff KU8E

> 
> From: "Chuck, NO5W" <no5w@txucom.net>
> Date: 2003/04/28 Mon PM 08:54:39 EDT
> To: <Georgek5kg@aol.com>
> CC: fqp@kkn.net
> Subject: [FQP]No alligator ops in FQP
> 
> Sounds like Jim should audition for one of those shows on Animal Planet.
> 
> >>driving and had to stop to chase an alligator off the road...er, uh was it
> >>the other way around?  At that point there were two more by my back door,
> so
> >>I dared not get out else get eaten.
> 
> But you guys and the other mobiles were certainly not working like
> alligators -- good ears to pull all of those signals out of the piles. Great
> CW operating.
> 
> Thanks for a FB FQP,
> 
> Chuck, NO5W
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 

From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Tue Apr 29 10:19:49 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Tue Apr 29 08:38:25 2003
Subject: [FQP]Merging FQP WL Logs
Message-ID: <109.2303dba7.2bdfd5f5@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/29/2003 2:05:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
w5xd@writelog.com writes:

> It was removed intentionally because there is another way to do
> it. 
> 
> 1. File Open one of the logs to be merged.
> 2. File Save As ...ADIF format
> 3. File Open the other log.
> 4. File Import the first ADIF file
> 
> The end result is the same.
> 
> Wayne
> 

We just finished the Florida QSO Party where we were mobile and had 41 
independent WL files, one for each County in which we operated.  We needed a 
consolidated log showing the entire population of QSOs.  My cohort, VE7ZO, 
undertook the job of doing log consolidation and in doing so, discovered a 
cleaver and simple way of moving WL logs into Excel that DOES NOT require 
Exporting the file.  Here is what he did:

1. In WL, click on VIEW I ONLY THE LOG
2. Using the mouse, highlight any or all QSOs you wish to move into Excel.
3. Hit Ctrl-C to do a clipboard Copy
4. Open Excel and Paste the image into a cell.  The entire highlighted file 
will be replicated perfectly into Excel.  Walla...cleaver and simple is good 
!!!

Note:  I tried this with MS Word and Notepad.  It does not work with Word; 
the Callsign field gets overlaid with garbage. In Notepad, it works like a 
charm.

Just thought you'd like to know.

73, Geo...K4FQP/m

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Tue Apr 29 10:20:48 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Tue Apr 29 08:39:14 2003
Subject: [FQP]No alligator ops in FQP
Message-ID: <145.104224ee.2bdfd630@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/29/2003 9:16:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
ku8e@bellsouth.net writes:

> Do they have Radio Shack's in Fla ???  

Yes they do, but the alligators clearly outnumber them!

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Tue Apr 29 10:28:03 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Tue Apr 29 08:46:31 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [FCG] FQP NJ4M/M  M/SABMixed (sometimes) LP Summary
Message-ID: <68.2ff071c0.2bdfd7e3@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/28/2003 11:15:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
wd4ahz@gte.net writes:

> We then decided to get back on 41 and go in at "Monroe Station" and head 
> south from there ... but by the time we made it that far, it was already 
> dark, and the lousy road was full of standing water after what must have 
> been a good downpour.  I was still working guys on CW looking for any 
> landmarks with Richard ... when someone asked me if we're going to MON! 
>  I said we're looking for the turnoff ... but we ended up going right 
> past it anyway!
> 

We went in at Monroe Station, and that is where the alligators and mean 
flying things took over.  We never did find the east end of the loop.  Jim 
finally managed to turn around in the bush and made our way back to a wide 
place just inside the line where we parked with the car and DC converter 
turned off (no noise) so we could run the pileup.  What a trip.

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From abowen at nettally.com  Tue Apr 29 10:37:25 2003
From: abowen at nettally.com (ABowenN4OO)
Date: Tue Apr 29 08:55:55 2003
Subject: [FQP]Alligators In N FL
In-Reply-To: <20030429131644.UXVZ14209.imf45bis.bellsouth.net@mail.bells
 outh.net>
Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.1.20030429093026.00a60420@mail.nettally.com>

At 09:16 AM 4/29/2003 -0400, ku8e@bellsouth.net wrote:

>  While we were in N Fla I was always wondering if there were alligators 
> in that
>part of the state too ?? There sure seemed to be no shortage of swampy 
>areas were they could hang out. We did see many interesting 
>birds,armidillos (?), and other stuff that I probably only saw at the zoo 
>when I lived in Ohio !!!

We have lots of alligators, which are protected BTW. I had one on my porch 
2 yrs ago. Had to call the proper authorities instead of doing it myself. 
They are mean and quick when cornered.

Also have a few black bears, bobcats, coyotes, foxes and misc reptiles, 
plus the usual road kill armadillos, coons and possums.

We also have hills in N FL. I live just a few miles from Mt Beasor, which 
BTW is about 10 ft higher than the surrounding terrain. Mt B. happens to be 
an old Baptist church.

INK N4OO



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Tue Apr 29 10:44:54 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Tue Apr 29 09:03:23 2003
Subject: [FQP]K5WA Summary SOHP Mixed
Message-ID: <15f.1f9c8540.2bdfdbd6@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/28/2003 10:24:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
bevans@hal-pc.org writes:

> K4FCG and K4FQP set CW speed records, I believe.  George, did you know
> that FCG and FQP sound exactly the same to us dyslexic guys that can't
> copy code at 45wpm?  I hope I got half of those contacts logged
> correctly.
> 

Hi Bob,

Yes, I had suspected that K4FCG and K4FQP were confusable callsigns.  I think 
that at least one station called us K4FCG.  And K4FQP is murder to say on 
phone, too.

Tnx for all the Q's.  Good job, Bob.

73, George

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From nf4a at knology.net  Tue Apr 29 15:22:18 2003
From: nf4a at knology.net (nf4a)
Date: Tue Apr 29 09:40:42 2003
Subject: [FQP]FQP N4PN SOABMixed HP
Message-ID: <20030429142218.7964.qmail@webmail1.knology.net>


                    Florida QSO Party

Call: N4PN
Operator(s): N4PN
Station: N4PN

Class: SOABMixed HP
QTH: Franklin County
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   40:             
   20:             
   15:             
   10:             
--------------------
Total:  378    1833  CW Mults = 67  Ph Mults = 117  Total Score = 457,976

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

Nothing new to report on band condx by this time. Sunday was a lot of fun. 
Did
have over 1200 Q's at half way. Some gud stuff dropped by; like ZA (both 
modes),
C9, DU, etc. The pileup finally got to me with all of the European
100w/dipoles at the same strength on Sunday afternoon. Because of some of 
the
same bad ops constant calling, I had to resort to "listening up 2". Felt 
like
I was on an dxpedition somewhere..! Congrats to all of the mobiles who 
really
make the contest what it is...
73, Paul, N4PN


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: 
http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Tue Apr 29 11:53:30 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Tue Apr 29 10:12:34 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [CQ-Contest] Request for Signal Reports, PLEASE
Message-ID: <1e7.7cf3e58.2bdfebea@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/29/2003 9:48:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
kg5u@hal-pc.org writes:

> Yup.... 
>  
> K4XS told me that Jim was going to ask for urine samples.  I figure drug 
> tests can't be far behind. 
>  
> Yes, I was QRP.  Thanks.  I see that there may have been a 'best laid 
> plans' factor in your intinerary....What you were reporting seemed to be 
> derived in part from your Day 1 itinerary listed on the website. :-)
>   
> I didn't start getting a clue as to how to properly track you guys and keep 
> checking back until midway through Sunday.  Next year should be better. :-)
>   
> Thanks for picking me up in the pileups.... I tried to drop my call in the 
> short breathing space between their calls and your reply.  That seemed to 
> work pretty well for most of the mobiles with pileups.  I know callsign 
> recognition played a large part, too.  In at least a half dozen 
> occurrences, I was the second QSO (him: ...tu nw KG5U 599 xxx...) where 
> only part of my call may have been heard when he was copying someone else's 
> call. I like when that happens. 
>  
>  
> 73,
>  dale
> 

Dale,

Your call is pretty distinctive in the piles, and besides I know you and that 
always helps.

Yes, we had to change our route plans on Saturday morning.  Friday night was 
nothing but thunderstorms and lightning all night.  By Saturday morning a 
heavy wx system had moved over central FL and was heading east and south.  It 
was clear to the north.  We decided early on Saturday to switch day 1 route 
with day 2.  We headed north from St. Pete and did NW, N and NE FL on day 1, 
which ended us up in Orange county (Orlando) for the night.  Day 2 was south 
from there on Sun morning, and then across the Everglades in the afternoon 
and up the west by the end of the contest.  Sri for being difficult to 
follow...it was for us too.  We made two wrong turns along the way, each of 
which cost us about an hour delay, the net result of which probably cost us 2 
or 3 counties that we never made.

Tnx agn...geo

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 12:06:01 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 10:25:37 2003
Subject: [FQP]K5WA Summary SOHP Mixed
References: <15f.1f9c8540.2bdfdbd6@aol.com>
Message-ID: <3EAE94D9.1040906@tampabay.rr.com>

...hard to say on phone?  I figured that was your secret weapon - a 
special event call!

What about K4 Florida QSO Party K4FQP, George!

And yes, there is no question we were getting confused!  Suspect log 
chequer extraordinaire will find a lot of each of our calls transposed 
in the logs!

OJ




Georgek5kg@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 4/28/2003 10:24:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> bevans@hal-pc.org writes:
> 
> 
>>K4FCG and K4FQP set CW speed records, I believe.  George, did you know
>>that FCG and FQP sound exactly the same to us dyslexic guys that can't
>>copy code at 45wpm?  I hope I got half of those contacts logged
>>correctly.
>>
> 
> 
> Hi Bob,
> 
> Yes, I had suspected that K4FCG and K4FQP were confusable callsigns.  I think 
> that at least one station called us K4FCG.  And K4FQP is murder to say on 
> phone, too.
> 
> Tnx for all the Q's.  Good job, Bob.
> 
> 73, George
> 
> George I. Wagner, K5KG
> Productivity Resources LLC
> 941-312-9450
> 941-312-9460 fax
> 201-415-6044 cell
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From kc1f at adelphia.net  Tue Apr 29 14:50:22 2003
From: kc1f at adelphia.net (Stuart Santelmann KC1F)
Date: Tue Apr 29 10:52:46 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [CQ-Contest]  Rabbits and Love Bugs and the K4FCG mobile
	saga - very long post!
References: <3EAE37AE.2080103@tampabay.rr.com>
Message-ID: <004801c30e4d$ed04eee0$6401a8c0@mrrmnh.adelphia.net>

Speaking of being sucked in...

     Saturday was very rainy here in NH, so I was curious what was involved
to try to get a sweep.  I needed 10 or so at halftime, so I printed out the
map of the counties from the web site, and started plotting where the
various mobiles were headed, and asking them their plans.  I was tracking
N4TO moving toward DeSoto when I needed it, then missed them while I was
outside.  The next time I worked them, I noted I missed DeSoto, and they
said "we noticed" !  I did miss two counties (rats !) - Liberty on the
panhandle, and Bradford in the northeast.  I heard N4OO and W5WMU both in
the next county from Liberty, and I'm sure they went through, but I missed
them.  I also tracked KU8E from Putnam to Alachua to Union, either just
missing Bradford, or being there so briefly that I missed it.  I operated
about 6 1/2 hours total.  Sunday was a lot nicer weather day here, so spent
a lot of time with my kids playing baseball and riding bikes.
     I rarely do QSO parties, but OJ's promotion got me interested !  Some
other observations:

-  Packet was of minimal help.  Had I realized this beforehand, I would have
gone unassisted.  I don't think I found any multipliers from packet, but I
spotted a lot of stuff.

-  K4FCG and K4FQP were consistently s7 to s9.  N4TO did seem a bit weaker
consistently, if I remember correctly.  Maybe Doppler shift from driving
faster ?  I had the following QSO    totals with the mobiles:  N4TO 19,
K4FCG 18, K4FQP 18 (3 were on SSB), W5WMU 16, KU8E 12, W4SAA 11, W9HB 10.
Were you all running essentially the same power ?

-  It's also apparent that the mobiles may have the most fun.  Wish I could
get something together for next weekend here !  We also have 67 counties,
hi.  So, is maximizing the miles a key factor in winning ?  How often did
you guys operate while stationary ?  Who did the most miles ?

-  I was surprised at the lack of activity on 15, as the signals were good.
Nothing on 10.

-  I wouldn't have operated at all if CT didn't support the contest !



                                                                73
Stu              KC1Florida



      MODE      QSO    QSO PTS  MULTS


       CW      201      402       64
      SSB       34       34       24
      -----------------------------------------

      Totals   235      436       88  =   38,368



All reports sent were 59(9), unless otherwise noted.

Operator List: KC1F + packet

Equipment Description:

TS-850S, AL-1200
Cushcraft 20-3CD rotary at 57 feet
Cushcraft 15-4CD rotary at 49 feet

From wd4ahz at gte.net  Tue Apr 29 13:02:41 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Tue Apr 29 11:21:47 2003
Subject: [FQP]Notice ...
Message-ID: <3EAEA221.4020408@gte.net>

Am getting a BUNCH of people posting to the reflector (because they use 
"reply all" to reply to posts sent to FCG, FQP, and CQ-Contest). 
Instead of spending time sorting out what is what and coming from 
subscribers or non-subscribers ... if the post is "relevant" and useful, 
I will go ahead and let it through.

I expect things will get back to normal soon.

Ron



From ku8e at bellsouth.net  Tue Apr 29 13:35:32 2003
From: ku8e at bellsouth.net (ku8e@bellsouth.net)
Date: Tue Apr 29 11:51:52 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [CQ-Contest]  Rabbits and Love Bugs and the K4FCG mobile
	saga - very long post!
Message-ID: <20030429163532.LLOB14209.imf45bis.bellsouth.net@mail.bellsouth.net>

Hi Stu,

 I looked at our log and we were in Bradford from 0114 - 0129 Z on Saturday night. Probably just a fluke that we missed you. I show K1KI and W1DWA in the
log... so we had propagation on 20 then. We were also on 40 during that time.

                  Jeff KU8E
 > 
> From: "Stuart Santelmann KC1F" <kc1f@adelphia.net>
> Date: 2003/04/29 Tue AM 08:50:22 EDT
> To: <k4oj@tampabay.rr.com>,  <cq-contest@contesting.com>,  <fcg@mailman.qth.net>, 
>    <fqp@kkn.net>
> Subject: [FQP]Re: [CQ-Contest]  Rabbits and Love Bugs and the K4FCG mobile
> 	saga - very long post!
> 
> Speaking of being sucked in...
> 
>      Saturday was very rainy here in NH, so I was curious what was involved
> to try to get a sweep.  I needed 10 or so at halftime, so I printed out the
> map of the counties from the web site, and started plotting where the
> various mobiles were headed, and asking them their plans.  I was tracking
> N4TO moving toward DeSoto when I needed it, then missed them while I was
> outside.  The next time I worked them, I noted I missed DeSoto, and they
> said "we noticed" !  I did miss two counties (rats !) - Liberty on the
> panhandle, and Bradford in the northeast.  I heard N4OO and W5WMU both in
> the next county from Liberty, and I'm sure they went through, but I missed
> them.  I also tracked KU8E from Putnam to Alachua to Union, either just
> missing Bradford, or being there so briefly that I missed it.  I operated
> about 6 1/2 hours total.  Sunday was a lot nicer weather day here, so spent
> a lot of time with my kids playing baseball and riding bikes.
>      I rarely do QSO parties, but OJ's promotion got me interested !  Some
> other observations:
> 
> -  Packet was of minimal help.  Had I realized this beforehand, I would have
> gone unassisted.  I don't think I found any multipliers from packet, but I
> spotted a lot of stuff.
> 
> -  K4FCG and K4FQP were consistently s7 to s9.  N4TO did seem a bit weaker
> consistently, if I remember correctly.  Maybe Doppler shift from driving
> faster ?  I had the following QSO    totals with the mobiles:  N4TO 19,
> K4FCG 18, K4FQP 18 (3 were on SSB), W5WMU 16, KU8E 12, W4SAA 11, W9HB 10.
> Were you all running essentially the same power ?
> 
> -  It's also apparent that the mobiles may have the most fun.  Wish I could
> get something together for next weekend here !  We also have 67 counties,
> hi.  So, is maximizing the miles a key factor in winning ?  How often did
> you guys operate while stationary ?  Who did the most miles ?
> 
> -  I was surprised at the lack of activity on 15, as the signals were good.
> Nothing on 10.
> 
> -  I wouldn't have operated at all if CT didn't support the contest !
> 
> 
> 
>                                                                 73
> Stu              KC1Florida
> 
> 
> 
>       MODE      QSO    QSO PTS  MULTS
> 
> 
>        CW      201      402       64
>       SSB       34       34       24
>       -----------------------------------------
> 
>       Totals   235      436       88  =   38,368
> 
> 
> 
> All reports sent were 59(9), unless otherwise noted.
> 
> Operator List: KC1F + packet
> 
> Equipment Description:
> 
> TS-850S, AL-1200
> Cushcraft 20-3CD rotary at 57 feet
> Cushcraft 15-4CD rotary at 49 feet
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 

From Hal at japancorporateresearch.com  Tue Apr 29 14:00:34 2003
From: Hal at japancorporateresearch.com (Hal Offutt)
Date: Tue Apr 29 12:20:09 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
Message-ID: <004301c30e71$011ce4f0$99efeecd@computer>

Hello,

Great job in the Party again this year, everyone.  A lot of fun.  I'll have
a few comments about the contest itself later.


I was curious about something that NF4A wrote in his 3830 posting:

....maybe we should have a new mobile category
for driver/operator vs. operator assisted by driver ;)  ...

Unquote


I thought that's what we already had.  

Is a "single operator mobile" allowed to have a driver?

73,

Hal W1NN



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Tue Apr 29 14:10:18 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Tue Apr 29 12:28:50 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [CQ-Contest]  Rabbits and Love Bugs and the K4FCG mobile
	saga - ...
Message-ID: <19b.143a02cb.2be00bfa@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/29/2003 11:34:51 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
kc1f@adelphia.net writes:

> -  K4FCG and K4FQP were consistently s7 to s9.  N4TO did seem a bit weaker
> consistently, if I remember correctly.  Maybe Doppler shift from driving
> faster ?  I had the following QSO   totals with the mobiles:  N4TO 19,
> K4FCG 18, K4FQP 18 (3 were on SSB), W5WMU 16, KU8E 12, W4SAA 11, W9HB 10.
> Were you all running essentially the same power ?
> 
> -  It's also apparent that the mobiles may have the most fun.  Wish I could
> get something together for next weekend here !  We also have 67 counties,
> hi.  So, is maximizing the miles a key factor in winning ?  How often did
> you guys operate while stationary ?  Who did the most miles ?
> 
> 

Stu,

Tnx for all the Qs.  We were running 100 w with the engine on and about 60 
with it off (lower supply voltage without the alternator).  Probably 95% of 
the Qs were @ 100w.
Antennas were mag mounts - 2 Hamsticks and 1 Hustler whip, all on the roof of 
Explorer.

Our engine and laptop DC converter noise were most objectionable on 15 and 
10, so many times we stopped to work those bands...at times we just unplugged 
the laptop DC converter to reduce the noise and keep on driving.  We did a 
total of 1100 miles and, yes, doing max counties seems to be a winning 
strategy.  After about 30 minutes in a county, the pileups would subside, so 
at that point we'd want to be to the next county.  Due to routing or making a 
wrong turn, we were in some counties for an hour, and that was too long.

Tnx agn...73, George & Jim, VE7ZO - K4FQP/m team

George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From wd4ahz at gte.net  Tue Apr 29 14:29:27 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Tue Apr 29 12:48:34 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
References: <004301c30e71$011ce4f0$99efeecd@computer>
Message-ID: <3EAEB677.1060400@gte.net>

Hal Offutt wrote:

> Is a "single operator mobile" allowed to have a driver?

Yes ... as long as the "driver" doesn't operate.  How one guy can do it 
all anyway, amazes me!

Ron


From jdunbar28 at mchsi.com  Tue Apr 29 13:37:22 2003
From: jdunbar28 at mchsi.com (Jim Dunbar)
Date: Tue Apr 29 12:55:52 2003
Subject: [FQP]No alligator ops in FQP
References: <20030429131644.UXVZ14209.imf45bis.bellsouth.net@mail.bellsouth.net>
Message-ID: <002801c30e75$fdb2ecb0$6501a8c0@cmc3092490a>

Yes, There are alligators up here. Often you can find them near or on Golf
Courses that have bodies of water surrounding the Golf Courses.

Supposedly, someone around here, hit an alligator shell with a Golf Ball
Tee-Off Driver shot, and the ball richocheted another 1000 yards. The
alligator didn't feel a thing.

Jim
K4PV
----- Original Message -----
From: <ku8e@bellsouth.net>
To: <fqp@kkn.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 8:16 AM
Subject: Re: [FQP]No alligator ops in FQP


>
>  Hi,
>
>  While we were in N Fla I was always wondering if there were alligators in
that
> part of the state too ?? There sure seemed to be no shortage of swampy
areas were they could hang out. We did see many interesting birds,armidillos
(?), and other stuff that I probably only saw at the zoo when I lived in
Ohio !!!
>
> I was wondering .... Do they have Radio Shack's in Fla ???  We needed a
Y-adapter that I forgot to bring and I never found one anywhere.....
>
>                           Jeff KU8E
>
> >
> > From: "Chuck, NO5W" <no5w@txucom.net>
> > Date: 2003/04/28 Mon PM 08:54:39 EDT
> > To: <Georgek5kg@aol.com>
> > CC: fqp@kkn.net
> > Subject: [FQP]No alligator ops in FQP
> >
> > Sounds like Jim should audition for one of those shows on Animal Planet.
> >
> > >>driving and had to stop to chase an alligator off the road...er, uh
was it
> > >>the other way around?  At that point there were two more by my back
door,
> > so
> > >>I dared not get out else get eaten.
> >
> > But you guys and the other mobiles were certainly not working like
> > alligators -- good ears to pull all of those signals out of the piles.
Great
> > CW operating.
> >
> > Thanks for a FB FQP,
> >
> > Chuck, NO5W
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > FQP mailing list
> > FQP@kkn.net
> > http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp

From W2SR at trackdata.com  Tue Apr 29 15:17:37 2003
From: W2SR at trackdata.com (Robert I. Block W2SR)
Date: Tue Apr 29 13:41:31 2003
Subject: [FQP]QLF de W2SR
Message-ID: <014001c30e7b$a096ceb0$d6018b97@bk.trackdata.com>

Many thanks to the gracious CW OPs who acknowledged my shaky fist.   I
worked a bit more than a dozen Q's putting in about 2 hours of air time
leisurely interspersed with working around the house and garden.  Condx
were quirky, often surprisingly good to the NYC/NJ metro area.  If my CW
skills were any good, I could have worked many, many  more.  Everybody
gets a 599 in a contest, but in this case most of the signals were 599+.

I didn't hear squat on 10M, but 20M was blazing away crowding the
Nebraska QP into oblivion.  15M was much weaker, but many signals were
559 and better.

One request:  Please try a QRS call (10-15 WPM) every now and then when
things get slow.  If the run never stops, then, by all means, keep up
the speed.   But many of the non-FL stations replied at moderate speeds
and I suspect that even more would have if they could identify the
calling station.    I suspect that declining sunspot activity means
poorer propagation ahead.  Taking a little sizzle off the CQ might
result in more Q's made in fewer retries.

And to Robbie (SK) , the prior holder of W2SR, I hope I'm working to
uphold your CW legacy.

From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 15:52:17 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 14:11:58 2003
Subject: [FQP]K5WA Summary SOHP Mixed
References: <000f01c30dbf$0982fd80$6601a8c0@houston.rr.com>
Message-ID: <3EAEC9E1.2060104@tampabay.rr.com>

Bob,

We were so pleased with our efforts this year that we repeated last 
years finale and had dinner at your restaurant! You are thE Bob Evans, 
right?

Thanks for all those Q's

Jim, K4OJ








Bob Evans wrote:
> Since I don't have TR Log loaded at home where I'm sending this email,
> my summary is by memory.
> 
>          CW       SSB
> 40       101        1
> 20       270      130
> 15         5        0
> 
> Total    376      131 =  507
> Mults     67       49
> 
> Approx score: 200K (I think) 
> 
> 
> Another great event even with incredibly bad conditions on Saturday
> between Houston and FL.  My last and most difficult county, believe it
> or not, was OKA.  When all the mobiles went through OKA early on
> Saturday, I couldn't hear a thing.  On Sunday, when W5WMU was 60bd over
> and flying across I-10 to the west, I thought, no problem, I'll get Pat
> for a sweep on CW, but the later it got and the closer he got to OKA, he
> just disappeared to nothing.  Many thanks to Charlie, NF4A, for pointing
> me to W5RE in Crestview who got on 40M for my ONLY OKA qso with 30
> minutes left in the contest.  Charlie also tossed me several counties on
> SSB, which made the occasional attempts on SSB seem not so painful. 
> 
> The Toadmobile, N4TO, gets my vote for most consistent mobile.  Always
> signing their call/county (a MAJOR timesaver for us non-FL guys chasing
> mobiles; hint-hint to the guys signing /M), able to copy well during
> weak conditions and staying near a single frequency. I think I worked
> them in every county they traveled on Sunday and 75% of Saturday's
> counties.  Saturday would have been 100% if conditions weren't so bad
> from here.  They just set the perfect rhythm to follow (including a very
> entertaining CW note).  W5WMU and NF4A tied for second easiest to
> follow. 
> 
> As far as the dirt road to Monroe County, it is probably a good thing
> some of you didn't find it.  From the FQP a couple of years ago when
> N6MU and I used a GPS computer to locate it, we found and drove it, but
> it was a road only fit for HumVees and wildlife.  My car still shudders
> at the thought of trying that road again!  I'm glad we didn't see any
> gators when we stopped and took pictures.  By the way, I worked MON a
> total of 8 times!  There were several non-contester contacts from the
> Keys that I never expected.
> 
> K4FCG and K4FQP set CW speed records, I believe.  George, did you know
> that FCG and FQP sound exactly the same to us dyslexic guys that can't
> copy code at 45wpm?  I hope I got half of those contacts logged
> correctly.
> 
> As bad as Saturday's conditions were from here, Sunday was incredibly
> good for a large part of the day.  All the mobiles east of the panhandle
> and south were at least 20-40 over, but it seems that most of the fixed
> stations had their antennas pointed North or Northeast.  I called N4BP
> until I was blue, but the EUs were much louder for him, apparently.
> 
> FCG, thanks again for such an awesome event!  I'd love to have been
> screaming down the Florida backroads myself, but it was almost as good
> to hear you guys having such a good time.  Keep up the great work!
> 
> 
> 
> Bob K5WA
> Houston, Texas
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 15:56:34 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 14:16:16 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [3830] FlQP W7DRA/0 SOABCW LP
References: <200304291520.h3TFKuu32003@b4h.net>
Message-ID: <3EAECAE2.1080700@tampabay.rr.com>

Saying you had a distinctive note would be to put it mildly!

The good news was when you called one of us would say - YES - Nebraska mult!

We just figured that Nebraska being what it is there was no "regulation" 
there!

Brip Brra Bip ?

73 - thanks for the QSOs!

Jim, K4OJ








webform@b4h.net wrote:
>                     Florida QSO Party
> 
> Call: W7DRA/0
> Operator(s): W7DRA
> Station: W7DRA/0
> 
> Class: SOABCW LP
> QTH: NE
> Operating Time (hrs): 18
> 
> Summary:
>  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
> --------------------
>    40:           
>    20:           
>    15:           
>    10:           
> --------------------
> Total:  109     0  CW Mults = 43  Ph Mults = 0  Total Score = 9,374
> 
> Club: 
> 
> Comments:
> 
> great contest as usual, the organizers should include the option of earning a
> TEE shirt (hopefully a black one) for a log with 100 contacts
> 
> hope you all excuised the ratty 20m signal, the push push 6BQ7 final driven by
> the hw16 wanted to take off no matter what i did to stop it
> 
> 
> Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>     The world's top contesters battle it out in Finland!
> THE OFFICIAL FILM of WRTC 2002 now on professional DVD and VHS!
>        http://home1.pacific.net.sg/~jamesb/
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 3830 mailing list
> 3830@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
> 



From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 16:21:08 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 14:40:51 2003
Subject: [FQP]Re: [3830] FlQP W6YX SchoolMixed LP
References: <200304291551.h3TFpbe32015@b4h.net>
Message-ID: <3EAED0A4.30604@tampabay.rr.com>

N6DE and the Gang at W6YX ask:

We called "CQ Florida" on 10m and 15m, with limited success.  Most of the
stations returning our CQs were not in Florida.  It became so funny after a
while that Mark K6UFO and I started a list of states that called us! 
Attention
K4OJ: Is there an FQP award for Worked All States while calling "CQ


K4OJ responds:

Come into my office, Dean - get comfortable...

Well, its like this...please, lay down on the couch...

This is a fairly frequent occurrence in human relations and it is 
expressing itself in some hams through the location of the individuals 
involved.

Sometimes referred to as FQP envy, it is also known in some circles as 
Party envy...

And of course some just get caught up in the excitement and dump their 
calls in before seeing the error of their ways - referred to in some 
circles as Premature Evaluation [not checking it is indeed a Floridian 
before they dump their call in]

I am sorry, Dean but I see our time is up... I will not be available for 
any more sessions until next year however you may wish to see my 
colleague K1KI who will be conducting sessions next weekend in a similar 
vein. Go to his related web site [ http://www.fara.org/neqp/topten.html ]

Have a good week. Be sure to try out that new antenna next weekend in 
the New England QSO Party!  Be patient with those with Party Envy, 
should you be comfortable you may wish to refer these individuals to the 
OCOS, here is my card....


K4OJ, Ph.D. Contests  -   Director

The Orange Clinic for Operator Studies








From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 16:24:21 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 14:44:02 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
References: <004301c30e71$011ce4f0$99efeecd@computer>
	<3EAEB677.1060400@gte.net>
Message-ID: <3EAED165.1010005@tampabay.rr.com>

If it walks like a duck, squawks like a duck it must be:

NF4 Aflac








Ron Wetjen wrote:
> Hal Offutt wrote:
> 
>> Is a "single operator mobile" allowed to have a driver?
> 
> 
> Yes ... as long as the "driver" doesn't operate.  How one guy can do it 
> all anyway, amazes me!
> 
> Ron
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From n4mvl at yahoo.com  Tue Apr 29 13:30:43 2003
From: n4mvl at yahoo.com (Lee Boulineau)
Date: Tue Apr 29 14:49:13 2003
Subject: [FQP]QLF de W2SR
In-Reply-To: <014001c30e7b$a096ceb0$d6018b97@bk.trackdata.com>
Message-ID: <20030429193043.93175.qmail@web21207.mail.yahoo.com>

I like the slower speeds - about 10-12 wpm is good for
me - I can relax a little!

73 de N4MVL

Lee

--- "Robert I. Block W2SR" <W2SR@trackdata.com> wrote:
> Many thanks to the gracious CW OPs who acknowledged
> my shaky fist.   I
> worked a bit more than a dozen Q's putting in about
> 2 hours of air time
> leisurely interspersed with working around the house
> and garden.  Condx
> were quirky, often surprisingly good to the NYC/NJ
> metro area.  If my CW
> skills were any good, I could have worked many, many
>  more.  Everybody
> gets a 599 in a contest, but in this case most of
> the signals were 599+.
> 
> I didn't hear squat on 10M, but 20M was blazing away
> crowding the
> Nebraska QP into oblivion.  15M was much weaker, but
> many signals were
> 559 and better.
> 
> One request:  Please try a QRS call (10-15 WPM)
> every now and then when
> things get slow.  If the run never stops, then, by
> all means, keep up
> the speed.   But many of the non-FL stations replied
> at moderate speeds
> and I suspect that even more would have if they
> could identify the
> calling station.    I suspect that declining sunspot
> activity means
> poorer propagation ahead.  Taking a little sizzle
> off the CQ might
> result in more Q's made in fewer retries.
> 
> And to Robbie (SK) , the prior holder of W2SR, I
> hope I'm working to
> uphold your CW legacy.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com
From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 16:33:34 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 14:53:15 2003
Subject: [FQP]QLF de W2SR
References: <014001c30e7b$a096ceb0$d6018b97@bk.trackdata.com>
Message-ID: <3EAED38E.1060800@tampabay.rr.com>


fwiw

Dunno if you worked G4BUE/W4 but I believe he and MU0BUE are living in 
Robbie's old QTH...

73,

Jim, K4OJ


From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 17:51:29 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 16:11:14 2003
Subject: [FQP]K4FCG/M Breakdowns
Message-ID: <3EAEE5D1.7050105@tampabay.rr.com>

sorry for the poor columnar registration.....

Florida QSO Party 2003 by K4FGG/M - K4OJ & N4KM ops

County QSOs Total IN OUT Time Rate 40C 20S 20C 15S 15C 10C
ESC 30 30 16:00 16:20 0:20 90 30
SAN 33 63 16:21 16:40 0:19 104 33
OKA 36 99 16:41 17:00 0:19 114 1 35
WAL 27 126 17:01 17:16 0:15 108 1 26
HOL 29 155 17:17 17:30 0:13 134 29
WAG 26 181 17:30 17:46 0:16 98 26
JAC 46 227 17:49 18:16 0:27 102 2 44
GAD 39 266 18:16 18:46 0:30 78 39
LEO 35 301 18:49 19:10 0:21 100 1 34
JEF 34 335 19:11 19:26 0:15 136 2 32
MAD 40 375 19:27 19:51 0:24 100 2 38
SUW 29 404 19:54 20:12 0:18 97 1 28
CLM 28 432 20:14 20:34 0:20 84 2 26
BAK 44 476 20:36 21:07 0:31 85 1 43
NAS 36 512 21:07 21:28 0:21 103 2 34
DUV 47 559 21:29 21:49 0:20 141 3 44
CLA 54 613 21:51 22:22 0:31 105 6 48
PUT 43 656 22:23 22:50 0:27 96 5 38
FLG 40 696 22:52 23:19 0:27 89 6 2 32
VOL 47 743 23:20 23:58 0:38 74 8 2 37
BRE 59 802 00:00 0:56 0:56 63 22 37
IDR 21 823 00:59 1:11 0:12 105 1 20
STL 47 870 01:12 1:41 0:29 97 25 22
MRT 34 904 01:43 2:00 0:17 120 21 13

DAD 60 964 12:00 12:51 0:51 71 2 1 57
MON 74 1038 12:52 13:32 0:40 111 2 72
CLR 115 1153 13:36 14:59 1:23 83 4 1 78 32
LEE 63 1216 14:59 15:24 0:25 151 2 44 17
CHA 49 1265 15:26 15:43 0:17 173 1 30 18
SAR 65 1330 15:43 16:15 0:32 122 1 47 17
MTE 49 1379 16:15 16:38 0:23 128 1 38 10
PIN 49 1428 16:39 16:59 0:20 147 1 48
HIL 54 1482 16:59 17:30 0:31 105 4 46 3 1
POL 54 1536 17:31 18:01 0:30 108 2 40 12
LAK 71 1607 18:02 18:45 0:43 99 2 60 1 8
SUM 42 1649 18:46 19:08 0:22 115 25 1 16
HER 58 1707 19:09 19:40 0:31 112 1 47 10
CIT 97 1804 19:41 20:39 0:58 100 10 80 7
MAO 72 1876 20:40 21:15 0:35 123 72
LEV 50 1926 21:16 21:33 0:17 176 3 47
ALC 73 1999 21:34 21:59 0:25 175 1 72


	    40C    20S   20C   15S 15C  10C
1999 total  102    53   1691     2 150    1
Percentage 5.10  2.65  84.59 0.10 7.50 0.05



From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Tue Apr 29 17:59:07 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Tue Apr 29 16:18:01 2003
Subject: [FQP]Fwd: [NCCC] FQP W6YX LP
Message-ID: <1d5.87ef427.2be0419b@aol.com>

In a message dated 4/29/2003 4:55:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time, TOMK5RC 
writes:

>  Florida QSO Party
> 
> Call: W6YX
> Operator(s): K6UFO AE6EJ AE6KU AA6XV N6DE
> Station: W6YX
> 
> Class: SchoolMixed LP
> QTH: CA
> Operating Time (hrs): 20
> 
> Summary:
> Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
> --------------------
>   40:   24    1
>   20:  175    37
>   15:   69    42
>   10:   16    18
> --------------------
> Total:  284    98  CW Mults = 67  Ph Mults = 39  Total Score = 141,192
> 
> Club: Northern California Contest Club
> 
> Comments:
> 
> (we'll be either a M/S or a School entry, pending a rules clarification 
> from the
> FCG)
> 
> Since there was no conflict this year with the Visalia DX Convention, we 
> were
> able to activate the Stanford club station in FQP.  We had an intense 
> 4-square
> antenna work party at W6YX for ten hours on Saturday, so several of us 
> balanced
> our time between helping with the work party and operating FQP.  Some of 
> our
> operators were club members fairly new to contesting.  FQP was a good
> opportunity for them to operate in a low stress contest while also learning 
> the
> station and becoming more familiar with Writelog.
> 
> FQP is overwhelmingly a 20m contest for stations in Florida.  On the west 
> coast,
> we had a few hours in our morning and a few in the late afternoon/early 
> evening
> when propagation was reasonable to Florida on 20m.  In between, 20m 
> propagation
> was dreadful.  We made *many* QSOs on 20m that were S0-S2.  We also 
> experienced
> a lot of QSB on 20m.
> 
> At least from W6YX, 15m was wide open nearly the entire contest!  We made 
> QSOs
> on 15m in 15 of the 20 hours of FQP.  Many signals were loud.  I 
> specifically
> remember W4/G4BUE being 59+20dB on that band.  The problem was that the
> Floridian masses were just not on 15m much.  I guess it's understandable 
> given
> the 20m pipeline from FL into the east coast and midwest, but it's still
> disappointing for us on the west coast.
> 
> 10m was solidly open to south Florida, as far north as Hillsborough County, 
> in
> the last four hours of the contest on Sunday.  Again, there were great 
> signals,
> but hardly any action.
> 
> We called "CQ Florida" on 10m and 15m, with limited success.  Most of the
> stations returning our CQs were not in Florida.  It became so funny after a
> while that Mark K6UFO and I started a list of states that called us!  
> Attention
> K4OJ: Is there an FQP award for Worked All States while calling "CQ 
> Florida"?
> 
> Despite good signals on the high bands, we regularly drifted back to 20m 
> for
> more punishment to work S0 signals.  Tracking the mobiles on 20m CW was 
> really
> the only way to get a sweep.
> 
> Thanks to all the mobiles for digging out our low power signal.  K4FQP, 
> K4FCG,
> and N4TO had terrific ears!  I was amazed that they pulled W6YX out of the 
> ether
> so many times.  KN4Y consistently had the strongest mobile signal the 
> entire
> weekend on 20m.  Our last county needed was Gadsden.  I heard W5WMU/GAD on 
> 20m,
> and must have called him for ten minutes, but he never heard us.  I don't 
> blame
> him because he had a large pileup, and I must have been weak to him.  All 
> of a
> sudden he disappeared, but a few minutes later I found him on a different
> frequency in Liberty.  Of course, he worked us right away. That was 
> certainly
> frustrating.  Later, I heard KN4Y/GAD with a decent signal and worked him 
> for
> the sweep!
> 
> We are very thankful that FQP does not have a 10 minute rule for M/S 
> stations.
> That made the contest a lot more fun for us.
> 
> We hope to see all of you in the California QSO Party on October 4-5, 2003!
> 
> 73...
> -Dean - N6DE
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> NCCC mailing list
> NCCC@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/nccc
> 



George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From k5iid at ntelos.net  Wed Apr 30 00:29:59 2003
From: k5iid at ntelos.net (Tom Horton)
Date: Tue Apr 29 18:48:11 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
In-Reply-To: <004301c30e71$011ce4f0$99efeecd@computer>
Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.1.20030429232409.00afb100@wvinbox.ntelos.net>

Hal,
  As an old county hunter mobiler like Charlie and Ed (KN4Y), I totally 
agree with you!
Single operator meaans just that, in my opinion.
  I got stung with that many years ago in a county hunter contest, and I 
will never
operate mobile in another where a driver is used with an operator.
There is no problem with that, except that it isn't fair.
I wrote the rules to the West Virginia QSO Party last year and that was one 
of the rules put in.
But as soon as it got to the "comittee" that part got kicked out. So never 
mind.
  The MARAC County Hunter Contests also discriminate since there are no 
power levels.
Just tain't fair McGee!
73, Tom K5IID





At 13:00 4/29/03 -0400, Hal Offutt wrote:
>Hello,
>
>Great job in the Party again this year, everyone.  A lot of fun.  I'll have
>a few comments about the contest itself later.
>
>
>I was curious about something that NF4A wrote in his 3830 posting:
>
>....maybe we should have a new mobile category
>for driver/operator vs. operator assisted by driver ;)  ...
>
>Unquote
>
>
>I thought that's what we already had.
>
>Is a "single operator mobile" allowed to have a driver?
>
>73,
>
>Hal W1NN
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>FQP mailing list
>FQP@kkn.net
>http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp

"E"  Sorter for the ARRL W5 QSL Bureau
Williamstown, WV

From wd4ahz at gte.net  Tue Apr 29 20:47:45 2003
From: wd4ahz at gte.net (Ron Wetjen)
Date: Tue Apr 29 19:06:59 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
References: <4.3.2.7.1.20030429232409.00afb100@wvinbox.ntelos.net>
Message-ID: <3EAF0F21.5000602@gte.net>

Tom Horton wrote:

>  As an old county hunter mobiler like Charlie and Ed (KN4Y), I totally 
> agree with you!
> Single operator meaans just that, in my opinion.

What you want is a distinction/clarification between single op/single 
driver ... and single op/with driver?

I don't know how many actually do single op/with driver ... but this 
hasn't come up before.  (I think there may have been a couple rare 
instances in the past.)

If it's something that needs to be addressed, share your thoughts! 
We're open and willing to discuss changes and clarifications to the 
rules ... and any proposed changes are carefully considered, and 
discussed among FCG members, before a decision is made.

This is "our" QSO Party - both the Florida guys AND the out-of-staters 
who keep coming back and supporting it ... so what ever makes it fair, 
equitable, and enjoyable for EVERYONE is our main goal and objective.

Let the discussions begin ...

Ron

From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 21:48:39 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 20:08:31 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
References: <4.3.2.7.1.20030429232409.00afb100@wvinbox.ntelos.net>
	<3EAF0F21.5000602@gte.net>
Message-ID: <3EAF1D67.70902@tampabay.rr.com>

This is a tough nut to crack - a lot of folks have the ability to have a 
friend or spouse drive so they can operate...

The Panhandle types do not it seems - their spouses and friends know 
better than to pair up with a rabid contester for 20 hours of them 
cussing about having their frequency stolen, and "this guy musta oiled 
up his friggin straight key for the contest he has got to be sendin a 
good 7 WPM!"

NF4A, N4OO and KN4Y I believe all do it solo - when we were writing the 
rules for the FQP I could not imagine this image - but wondered to 
myself if someday there would be ability with some sort of computer 
interface for a guy to drive AND operate simultaneously... then I got 
sober real quick and thought about which should have priority - holding 
the run frequency or vehicular homicide!

Guys who stop and operate are to be applauded... I do not think I could 
take runous interuptous!  When the FQP comes up to speed there ain't no 
stoppin' it!

The first few years of the FQP I did as stop set up antennas and operate 
sorta Field Day style.... then I saw the numbers that could be made by 
keeping rolling... the more times you cross a county line the more times 
you are fresh meat and those rate meters peg. This is an F1 event for 
Floridians plain and simple... you would think a bunch of rate hungry 
contesters wrote the rules!

As far as distinguishing between the solo person doing both the driving 
and the operating and an operator assisted by a "drive-only" partner - 
there may be something to this.  It is not a question of matching 
operator skills but essentially penalizing one operator by his having to 
drive as well!

Know switching to my imagination - I am driving my pickup truck alone 
and it is FQP weekend - so obviously I am workin g the contest, how do I 
do it and make a fat log total too...Thinking about some alternate 
possibilities here - if I were doing it solo - which would take away a 
lot of the fun for me - Kevin and I have a helluva good time bs-ing and 
nick-naming the callers:

I would try and figure a way to do it as a mixed mode entry, I would 
drive from one county line to the other and would operate phone during 
the driving - recording the operation for transcription later on. At the 
stop on the county line I would continue to run the "previous" county 
but now on CW -and- then when the rate petered out I would switch to 
operating CW as the new "next" county....when that petered out I would 
start the engine and go back to haulin' arse and dealing with the 
sideband portion of my contest... although two of the greatest 
frustrations in life, to me anyway, are SSB and those damn Florida drivers!

The big trick would be figuring a way to time stamp the phone QSOs... I 
know that you can view video tapes which have a running clock at the 
bottom of the screen, the same technology - or even a stock VCR that you 
use the audio input as the output of the RX would work... and... if you 
wanted to get fancy I suppose you could savor the moment by including a 
camera lookin out the front window to capture the alligators on the Alley!

I think the FCG out to think about this unique distinction... operator 
solo or driver assisted single ops.... and then we could open a whole 
'nother can of worms - who had the most pocket cash to hire the fastest 
driver... think of the post contest postings, its not fair OJ got to 
ride shotgun in WC4E's Zee car, my wife drove our VW Bus which has not 
had a tune up since 1967 - it ain't fair!  Or mebbe we need to have the 
entrants include their mileage covered and then score them on a QSO per 
mile basis... or.....

More coffee, please

OJ








Ron Wetjen wrote:
> Tom Horton wrote:
> 
>>  As an old county hunter mobiler like Charlie and Ed (KN4Y), I totally 
>> agree with you!
>> Single operator meaans just that, in my opinion.
> 
> 
> What you want is a distinction/clarification between single op/single 
> driver ... and single op/with driver?
> 
> I don't know how many actually do single op/with driver ... but this 
> hasn't come up before.  (I think there may have been a couple rare 
> instances in the past.)
> 
> If it's something that needs to be addressed, share your thoughts! We're 
> open and willing to discuss changes and clarifications to the rules ... 
> and any proposed changes are carefully considered, and discussed among 
> FCG members, before a decision is made.
> 
> This is "our" QSO Party - both the Florida guys AND the out-of-staters 
> who keep coming back and supporting it ... so what ever makes it fair, 
> equitable, and enjoyable for EVERYONE is our main goal and objective.
> 
> Let the discussions begin ...
> 
> Ron
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From ve7zo at tampabay.rr.com  Tue Apr 29 22:53:22 2003
From: ve7zo at tampabay.rr.com (Jim Roberts)
Date: Tue Apr 29 21:33:39 2003
Subject: [FQP]K4FQP/m
References: <3EAEE5D1.7050105@tampabay.rr.com>
Message-ID: <000601c30ebb$48a0b230$203d1c18@ve3edce5kj0wo6>

K4FQP/m Scoring.  Operating summary to follow:

Total Q's:  1849
Total Multiplier:  119.  (CW - 71, SSB - 48)

                            10 M                        15M
20M                        40M
                        CW    SSB                CW    SSB            CW
SSB            CW    SSB
QSO's                7        0                    86      16
1467    176            97        0

Total Counties Activated:  41
Wrong turns:  3
Worst Assumption:  Monroe HWY 94 was passable at 50 mph.

County Activity- QSO'S:

PAS:    13
HER:     21
SUM:    19
CIT:       39
MAO:    31
LEV:      46
ALC:      37
GIL:        33
DIX:      30
LAF:      64
TAY:     24
MAD:    26
SUW:    45
HAM:    35
CLM:     48
UNI:      60
BAK:     29
NAS:     5
DUV:    20
CLA:    33
BRA:    36
PUT:     90
VOL:    66
FLG:    53

ORA:    11
OSC:    38
BRE:    26
IDR:     35
STL:    82
OKE:    54
MRT:    24
PAL:    89
BRO:    28
DAD:    31
CLR:    126
MON:    76
LEE:    96
HEN:    40
GLA:    75
CHA:    51
DES:    66

Op's George K5KG and Jim VE7ZO.




 _______________________________________________
> The Florida Contest Group:    http://www.qsl.net/fcg/ or
http://www.fcg.club
> Post your scores: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
> Contest Buddy Program:
> http://www.letchforddesign.com/elmer/
> FCG@mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/fcg

From Hal at japancorporateresearch.com  Wed Apr 30 00:13:30 2003
From: Hal at japancorporateresearch.com (Hal Offutt)
Date: Tue Apr 29 22:36:21 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
References: <4.3.2.7.1.20030429232409.00afb100@wvinbox.ntelos.net>
	<3EAF0F21.5000602@gte.net>
Message-ID: <011501c30ec7$0efcb8b0$99efeecd@computer>

Ron, Jim, Tom and Everyone,

Discussion you want, discussion you get, Ron.  I'm happy that you FCGers
are willing to consider rule refinements to make the FQP better.

I studied the current FQP rules and here's my take on this.  The FQP has two
mobile classes:  "single operator" and "multi operator."  If my
understanding is correct, both categories permit two bodies in the car and
allow someone to operate and someone else to drive. The only real difference
is that in the "multi operator" category, the ops get to switch off.  In
terms of competition, these two styles of mobile operating are essentially
the same:  both have a devoted driver and a devoted operator.  In two ten
hour contests like the FQP, operator fatigue is not a major factor, so it is
fully conceivable that under the current rules, a "single operator" could
beat a "multi operator."

The problem is that these two categories provide no place for the operator
who either likes to do everything by him/herself or can't find a driver and
has no choice but to go out on his/her own.  If these folks have to compete
against mobiles who have full time drivers, it is, as Tom points out, very
unfair.

I would argue that in mobile contesting, the major distinction is whether
there is one person in the car or more than one person in the car, not
whether there is only one radio op or more than one radio op.  If you are
to have two categories (which the FQP justifiably has), I think it makes
sense to separate them in this fashion.

Therefore, I would suggest that the current "single operator" category be
defined as Tom suggests:  one person doing everything.  I'm am not
suggesting the creation of a new category, just a refinement in the
definition of the current "single operator" category. That's pretty much
what it is anyway, from what I can see.

Solo mobiling is a learned skill very much like SO2R.  It takes a lot of
experience to get good at it.  Some ops never feel that they can drive and
operate so they minimize their driving and spend most of the contest parked
somewhere.  They will usually hang out near four county intersections and
try to work all the bands and modes before moving into the next county.  (In
last year's PAQP, by design I only drove 140 miles during the 22 hour
contest.)  Others drive and operate mostly on back roads where there is
little traffic and record everything on tape recorders, voice recorders, or
whatever.  The solution you come up with is part of your own operating
technique and your bag of tricks.  Obviously safety is an issue, as it is
with multi operators.  Mobiles should be required to obey the speed limits
and other traffic rules and always put safety first.

I hope this adds something to the discussion.

73,

Hal W1NN










----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Wetjen" <wd4ahz@gte.net>
To: "Florida QSO Party" <fqp@kkn.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 7:47 PM
Subject: Re: [FQP]Mobile Categories


> Tom Horton wrote:
>
> >  As an old county hunter mobiler like Charlie and Ed (KN4Y), I totally
> > agree with you!
> > Single operator meaans just that, in my opinion.
>
> What you want is a distinction/clarification between single op/single
> driver ... and single op/with driver?
>
> I don't know how many actually do single op/with driver ... but this
> hasn't come up before.  (I think there may have been a couple rare
> instances in the past.)
>
> If it's something that needs to be addressed, share your thoughts!
> We're open and willing to discuss changes and clarifications to the
> rules ... and any proposed changes are carefully considered, and
> discussed among FCG members, before a decision is made.
>
> This is "our" QSO Party - both the Florida guys AND the out-of-staters
> who keep coming back and supporting it ... so what ever makes it fair,
> equitable, and enjoyable for EVERYONE is our main goal and objective.
>
> Let the discussions begin ...
>
> Ron
>
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
>

From k4oj at tampabay.rr.com  Wed Apr 30 00:46:11 2003
From: k4oj at tampabay.rr.com (Jim White, K4OJ)
Date: Tue Apr 29 23:06:07 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
References: <4.3.2.7.1.20030429232409.00afb100@wvinbox.ntelos.net>
	<3EAF0F21.5000602@gte.net> <011501c30ec7$0efcb8b0$99efeecd@computer>
Message-ID: <3EAF4703.7050302@tampabay.rr.com>

Hal,

As one of the ackonwledged experts at the QSO Paty game your input is 
much appreciated!

I know I value your input and welcome others to also contribute thier 
thoughts... the day when the FCG had a lunch meeting in Melbourne at 
Francos Ristorante we opened the topic of what if the FCG were to 
sponsor the Florida QSO Party was a momentous one.  We had voices from 
every walk of operator there and it showed... we had CW guys, phone 
guys, QRP guys - super station owners and guys who had never HF mobiled 
(including me!)

Out of that "think tank" we learned that few have acquired the taste for 
anchovies on a pizza and a basic set of guidelines as to how to shape 
the rules of a good state QSO Party we all would participate in!

There have only been minor changes to the rules, including several years 
ago when we re-thought the weighting of the QRP multiplier.  We made a 
change to the QSO Party rules at that time, and in keeping with a desire 
to have the records mean something the previous years scores were 
re-weighted as far as the "records" were concerned - it would not be 
fair to ask a new guy to compete against a record set when a different 
set of rules were in force!  Not many sponsors will do something as 
momentous as this - it ain't an easy undertaking but, for the FCG it 
meant we stayed the course as far as having a quality product... sorta 
ISO2000 I think, George!

If there should be a change to the mobile single operator category I 
would anticipate we would asterik the records noting that potential 
difference.

I think I speak for the club in saying that we are open to ideas for 
improving the FQP and while we may not adopt a given idea it does not 
mean we do not want to hear of it.  As a club we will decide to either 
incorporate or not incorporate any changes to the FQP.

My take thus far:

Mobile operations:

Single Op Unassisted Driving - A single individual performs all 
operating functions and also does all of the driving of the mobile vehicle.

Single Op Assisted Driving - A single operator performs all operating 
functions but has an assistant that drives the mobile.  The driver may 
not perform or assist in any of the operating done by the entrant... 
failure to follow these guidleines will result in the entry being 
recategorized as a Mobile Multioperator entry.

I.E. the Duck and Doc Categories....

73,

Jim, K4OJ









Hal Offutt wrote:
> Ron, Jim, Tom and Everyone,
> 
> Discussion you want, discussion you get, Ron.  I'm happy that you FCGers
> are willing to consider rule refinements to make the FQP better.
> 
> I studied the current FQP rules and here's my take on this.  The FQP has two
> mobile classes:  "single operator" and "multi operator."  If my
> understanding is correct, both categories permit two bodies in the car and
> allow someone to operate and someone else to drive. The only real difference
> is that in the "multi operator" category, the ops get to switch off.  In
> terms of competition, these two styles of mobile operating are essentially
> the same:  both have a devoted driver and a devoted operator.  In two ten
> hour contests like the FQP, operator fatigue is not a major factor, so it is
> fully conceivable that under the current rules, a "single operator" could
> beat a "multi operator."
> 
> The problem is that these two categories provide no place for the operator
> who either likes to do everything by him/herself or can't find a driver and
> has no choice but to go out on his/her own.  If these folks have to compete
> against mobiles who have full time drivers, it is, as Tom points out, very
> unfair.
> 
> I would argue that in mobile contesting, the major distinction is whether
> there is one person in the car or more than one person in the car, not
> whether there is only one radio op or more than one radio op.  If you are
> to have two categories (which the FQP justifiably has), I think it makes
> sense to separate them in this fashion.
> 
> Therefore, I would suggest that the current "single operator" category be
> defined as Tom suggests:  one person doing everything.  I'm am not
> suggesting the creation of a new category, just a refinement in the
> definition of the current "single operator" category. That's pretty much
> what it is anyway, from what I can see.
> 
> Solo mobiling is a learned skill very much like SO2R.  It takes a lot of
> experience to get good at it.  Some ops never feel that they can drive and
> operate so they minimize their driving and spend most of the contest parked
> somewhere.  They will usually hang out near four county intersections and
> try to work all the bands and modes before moving into the next county.  (In
> last year's PAQP, by design I only drove 140 miles during the 22 hour
> contest.)  Others drive and operate mostly on back roads where there is
> little traffic and record everything on tape recorders, voice recorders, or
> whatever.  The solution you come up with is part of your own operating
> technique and your bag of tricks.  Obviously safety is an issue, as it is
> with multi operators.  Mobiles should be required to obey the speed limits
> and other traffic rules and always put safety first.
> 
> I hope this adds something to the discussion.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Hal W1NN
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ron Wetjen" <wd4ahz@gte.net>
> To: "Florida QSO Party" <fqp@kkn.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 7:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [FQP]Mobile Categories
> 
> 
> 
>>Tom Horton wrote:
>>
>>
>>> As an old county hunter mobiler like Charlie and Ed (KN4Y), I totally
>>>agree with you!
>>>Single operator meaans just that, in my opinion.
>>
>>What you want is a distinction/clarification between single op/single
>>driver ... and single op/with driver?
>>
>>I don't know how many actually do single op/with driver ... but this
>>hasn't come up before.  (I think there may have been a couple rare
>>instances in the past.)
>>
>>If it's something that needs to be addressed, share your thoughts!
>>We're open and willing to discuss changes and clarifications to the
>>rules ... and any proposed changes are carefully considered, and
>>discussed among FCG members, before a decision is made.
>>
>>This is "our" QSO Party - both the Florida guys AND the out-of-staters
>>who keep coming back and supporting it ... so what ever makes it fair,
>>equitable, and enjoyable for EVERYONE is our main goal and objective.
>>
>>Let the discussions begin ...
>>
>>Ron
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>FQP mailing list
>>FQP@kkn.net
>>http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
>>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 



From wc4e at innet.com  Wed Apr 30 00:58:31 2003
From: wc4e at innet.com (Jeff WC4E)
Date: Tue Apr 29 23:21:53 2003
Subject: [FQP]WC4E's FQP identity crisis
Message-ID: <02be01c30ecc$c480d2c0$010212ac@wc4e>

Other FQP where I have no idea who I am and when. 
I had to work Saturday and partially on Sun so couldn't do much seriously. I wanted get on and give out QSOs to everyone.
Wow, what activity! Seemed there were more people looking for FL this year! Well done by all the out of state ops! You guys were on top of it!

Sometime Saturday evening my mic plug got an intermittent so I decided to go CW only for all my other calls. (Darn the good luck) When I got bored, or it slowed down, I changed counties errrr.. sorry calls. What fun being fresh meat on the bands!

     WC4E LP Mixed    N4AO CW LP  KG4BOA CWLP    WK4R CWLP   N2AN/4 CWLP
         CW    SSB       CW           CW            CW          CW
10       0      0         7            7             0           0
15      16      2        71           34            10           9
20      90     47       104          146           102          95
40      78      3        43            0             3          13
Total     236           225          187           115         117
Mults      80            58           55            46          46
Points   67,200      52,200       41,140        21,160      21,528
Aprx Time 4hrs        3 hrs         2hrs           1hr          1hr

With Beacon Bill on SSB and some CW here with mobiles, I'm sure no one missed PAS on any mode.

73
 Jeff WC4E - PASco County

From nf4a at knology.net  Wed Apr 30 00:07:57 2003
From: nf4a at knology.net (NF4A)
Date: Tue Apr 29 23:26:40 2003
Subject: [FQP]RE: Mobile Single Op assisted
In-Reply-To: <3EAF311F.4070102@gte.net>
Message-ID: <NEBBKJEIHCNOJGJPHIDLOEBBGKAA.nf4a@knology.net>

As a single op/single driver, I can see the need for 3 mobile categories:

1. Single Op: meaning one person in the vehicle doing both the driving and
operating

2. Single Op Assisted: meaning more than one person in the vehicle with only
one person operating during the contest

3. Multi Op Unlimited: This one would be wide open....multiple drivers
and/or operators...any combination.

These are similar to the categories in many contests....I would be happy to
fund the additional plaques for the 2 extra categories.

NF4A


From ku8e at bellsouth.net  Wed Apr 30 09:42:18 2003
From: ku8e at bellsouth.net (ku8e@bellsouth.net)
Date: Wed Apr 30 07:58:59 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
Message-ID: <20030430124218.MOZM3682.imf43bis.bellsouth.net@mail.bellsouth.net>

Hi...

I agree 100% with Hal. Plus I don't think we want to encourage people to try to
drive and operate at the same time. I think that's too dangerous. (done that and it's not worth the risk!!)

                    Jeff KU8E

> 
> From: "Hal Offutt" <Hal@japancorporateresearch.com>
> Date: 2003/04/29 Tue PM 11:13:30 EDT
> To: "Florida QSO Party" <fqp@kkn.net>
> Subject: Re: [FQP]Mobile Categories
> 
> Ron, Jim, Tom and Everyone,
> 
> Discussion you want, discussion you get, Ron.  I'm happy that you FCGers
> are willing to consider rule refinements to make the FQP better.
> 
> I studied the current FQP rules and here's my take on this.  The FQP has two
> mobile classes:  "single operator" and "multi operator."  If my
> understanding is correct, both categories permit two bodies in the car and
> allow someone to operate and someone else to drive. The only real difference
> is that in the "multi operator" category, the ops get to switch off.  In
> terms of competition, these two styles of mobile operating are essentially
> the same:  both have a devoted driver and a devoted operator.  In two ten
> hour contests like the FQP, operator fatigue is not a major factor, so it is
> fully conceivable that under the current rules, a "single operator" could
> beat a "multi operator."
> 
> The problem is that these two categories provide no place for the operator
> who either likes to do everything by him/herself or can't find a driver and
> has no choice but to go out on his/her own.  If these folks have to compete
> against mobiles who have full time drivers, it is, as Tom points out, very
> unfair.
> 
> I would argue that in mobile contesting, the major distinction is whether
> there is one person in the car or more than one person in the car, not
> whether there is only one radio op or more than one radio op.  If you are
> to have two categories (which the FQP justifiably has), I think it makes
> sense to separate them in this fashion.
> 
> Therefore, I would suggest that the current "single operator" category be
> defined as Tom suggests:  one person doing everything.  I'm am not
> suggesting the creation of a new category, just a refinement in the
> definition of the current "single operator" category. That's pretty much
> what it is anyway, from what I can see.
> 
> Solo mobiling is a learned skill very much like SO2R.  It takes a lot of
> experience to get good at it.  Some ops never feel that they can drive and
> operate so they minimize their driving and spend most of the contest parked
> somewhere.  They will usually hang out near four county intersections and
> try to work all the bands and modes before moving into the next county.  (In
> last year's PAQP, by design I only drove 140 miles during the 22 hour
> contest.)  Others drive and operate mostly on back roads where there is
> little traffic and record everything on tape recorders, voice recorders, or
> whatever.  The solution you come up with is part of your own operating
> technique and your bag of tricks.  Obviously safety is an issue, as it is
> with multi operators.  Mobiles should be required to obey the speed limits
> and other traffic rules and always put safety first.
> 
> I hope this adds something to the discussion.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Hal W1NN
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ron Wetjen" <wd4ahz@gte.net>
> To: "Florida QSO Party" <fqp@kkn.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 7:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [FQP]Mobile Categories
> 
> 
> > Tom Horton wrote:
> >
> > >  As an old county hunter mobiler like Charlie and Ed (KN4Y), I totally
> > > agree with you!
> > > Single operator meaans just that, in my opinion.
> >
> > What you want is a distinction/clarification between single op/single
> > driver ... and single op/with driver?
> >
> > I don't know how many actually do single op/with driver ... but this
> > hasn't come up before.  (I think there may have been a couple rare
> > instances in the past.)
> >
> > If it's something that needs to be addressed, share your thoughts!
> > We're open and willing to discuss changes and clarifications to the
> > rules ... and any proposed changes are carefully considered, and
> > discussed among FCG members, before a decision is made.
> >
> > This is "our" QSO Party - both the Florida guys AND the out-of-staters
> > who keep coming back and supporting it ... so what ever makes it fair,
> > equitable, and enjoyable for EVERYONE is our main goal and objective.
> >
> > Let the discussions begin ...
> >
> > Ron
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > FQP mailing list
> > FQP@kkn.net
> > http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 

From ku8e at bellsouth.net  Wed Apr 30 09:50:24 2003
From: ku8e at bellsouth.net (ku8e@bellsouth.net)
Date: Wed Apr 30 08:07:01 2003
Subject: [FQP]Mobile Categories
Message-ID: <20030430125024.PJAA4805.imf47bis.bellsouth.net@mail.bellsouth.net>

Jim...

 It was interesting that when MRRC first took over the OQP and MQP that we had nothing in the rules on the rovers whether they could be multi-op, single-op or whatever. The first couple years the K8AQM guys took advantage of this by operating mobile as a multi-multi !!! I think they were just 2 transmitters - one on 40 and the other on 20/15/10. After they started winning every year against the rest of us using one transmitter we changed the rules......

                           Jeff KU8E


> 
> From: "Jim White, K4OJ" <k4oj@tampabay.rr.com>
> Date: 2003/04/29 Tue PM 11:46:11 EDT
> To: Hal Offutt <Hal@japancorporateresearch.com>
> CC: Florida QSO Party <fqp@kkn.net>
> Subject: Re: [FQP]Mobile Categories
> 
> Hal,
> 
> As one of the ackonwledged experts at the QSO Paty game your input is 
> much appreciated!
> 
> I know I value your input and welcome others to also contribute thier 
> thoughts... the day when the FCG had a lunch meeting in Melbourne at 
> Francos Ristorante we opened the topic of what if the FCG were to 
> sponsor the Florida QSO Party was a momentous one.  We had voices from 
> every walk of operator there and it showed... we had CW guys, phone 
> guys, QRP guys - super station owners and guys who had never HF mobiled 
> (including me!)
> 
> Out of that "think tank" we learned that few have acquired the taste for 
> anchovies on a pizza and a basic set of guidelines as to how to shape 
> the rules of a good state QSO Party we all would participate in!
> 
> There have only been minor changes to the rules, including several years 
> ago when we re-thought the weighting of the QRP multiplier.  We made a 
> change to the QSO Party rules at that time, and in keeping with a desire 
> to have the records mean something the previous years scores were 
> re-weighted as far as the "records" were concerned - it would not be 
> fair to ask a new guy to compete against a record set when a different 
> set of rules were in force!  Not many sponsors will do something as 
> momentous as this - it ain't an easy undertaking but, for the FCG it 
> meant we stayed the course as far as having a quality product... sorta 
> ISO2000 I think, George!
> 
> If there should be a change to the mobile single operator category I 
> would anticipate we would asterik the records noting that potential 
> difference.
> 
> I think I speak for the club in saying that we are open to ideas for 
> improving the FQP and while we may not adopt a given idea it does not 
> mean we do not want to hear of it.  As a club we will decide to either 
> incorporate or not incorporate any changes to the FQP.
> 
> My take thus far:
> 
> Mobile operations:
> 
> Single Op Unassisted Driving - A single individual performs all 
> operating functions and also does all of the driving of the mobile vehicle.
> 
> Single Op Assisted Driving - A single operator performs all operating 
> functions but has an assistant that drives the mobile.  The driver may 
> not perform or assist in any of the operating done by the entrant... 
> failure to follow these guidleines will result in the entry being 
> recategorized as a Mobile Multioperator entry.
> 
> I.E. the Duck and Doc Categories....
> 
> 73,
> 
> Jim, K4OJ
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hal Offutt wrote:
> > Ron, Jim, Tom and Everyone,
> > 
> > Discussion you want, discussion you get, Ron.  I'm happy that you FCGers
> > are willing to consider rule refinements to make the FQP better.
> > 
> > I studied the current FQP rules and here's my take on this.  The FQP has two
> > mobile classes:  "single operator" and "multi operator."  If my
> > understanding is correct, both categories permit two bodies in the car and
> > allow someone to operate and someone else to drive. The only real difference
> > is that in the "multi operator" category, the ops get to switch off.  In
> > terms of competition, these two styles of mobile operating are essentially
> > the same:  both have a devoted driver and a devoted operator.  In two ten
> > hour contests like the FQP, operator fatigue is not a major factor, so it is
> > fully conceivable that under the current rules, a "single operator" could
> > beat a "multi operator."
> > 
> > The problem is that these two categories provide no place for the operator
> > who either likes to do everything by him/herself or can't find a driver and
> > has no choice but to go out on his/her own.  If these folks have to compete
> > against mobiles who have full time drivers, it is, as Tom points out, very
> > unfair.
> > 
> > I would argue that in mobile contesting, the major distinction is whether
> > there is one person in the car or more than one person in the car, not
> > whether there is only one radio op or more than one radio op.  If you are
> > to have two categories (which the FQP justifiably has), I think it makes
> > sense to separate them in this fashion.
> > 
> > Therefore, I would suggest that the current "single operator" category be
> > defined as Tom suggests:  one person doing everything.  I'm am not
> > suggesting the creation of a new category, just a refinement in the
> > definition of the current "single operator" category. That's pretty much
> > what it is anyway, from what I can see.
> > 
> > Solo mobiling is a learned skill very much like SO2R.  It takes a lot of
> > experience to get good at it.  Some ops never feel that they can drive and
> > operate so they minimize their driving and spend most of the contest parked
> > somewhere.  They will usually hang out near four county intersections and
> > try to work all the bands and modes before moving into the next county.  (In
> > last year's PAQP, by design I only drove 140 miles during the 22 hour
> > contest.)  Others drive and operate mostly on back roads where there is
> > little traffic and record everything on tape recorders, voice recorders, or
> > whatever.  The solution you come up with is part of your own operating
> > technique and your bag of tricks.  Obviously safety is an issue, as it is
> > with multi operators.  Mobiles should be required to obey the speed limits
> > and other traffic rules and always put safety first.
> > 
> > I hope this adds something to the discussion.
> > 
> > 73,
> > 
> > Hal W1NN
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Ron Wetjen" <wd4ahz@gte.net>
> > To: "Florida QSO Party" <fqp@kkn.net>
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 7:47 PM
> > Subject: Re: [FQP]Mobile Categories
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >>Tom Horton wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>> As an old county hunter mobiler like Charlie and Ed (KN4Y), I totally
> >>>agree with you!
> >>>Single operator meaans just that, in my opinion.
> >>
> >>What you want is a distinction/clarification between single op/single
> >>driver ... and single op/with driver?
> >>
> >>I don't know how many actually do single op/with driver ... but this
> >>hasn't come up before.  (I think there may have been a couple rare
> >>instances in the past.)
> >>
> >>If it's something that needs to be addressed, share your thoughts!
> >>We're open and willing to discuss changes and clarifications to the
> >>rules ... and any proposed changes are carefully considered, and
> >>discussed among FCG members, before a decision is made.
> >>
> >>This is "our" QSO Party - both the Florida guys AND the out-of-staters
> >>who keep coming back and supporting it ... so what ever makes it fair,
> >>equitable, and enjoyable for EVERYONE is our main goal and objective.
> >>
> >>Let the discussions begin ...
> >>
> >>Ron
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>FQP mailing list
> >>FQP@kkn.net
> >>http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> >>
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > FQP mailing list
> > FQP@kkn.net
> > http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> FQP mailing list
> FQP@kkn.net
> http://kkn.net/mailman/listinfo/fqp
> 

From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Wed Apr 30 10:15:38 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Wed Apr 30 08:34:29 2003
Subject: [FQP]K4FQP/m Score summary
Message-ID: <143.fff53f8.2be1267a@aol.com>

K4FQP/m Scoring.  Operating summary to follow:

Total Q's:  1849
Total Multipliers:  119.  (CW - 71, SSB - 48)

                  10 M           15M             20M               40M
            CW  SSB   CW  SSB     CW  SSB       CW  SSB
QSO's      7       0      86     16   1467    176         97      0

Total Counties Activated:  41
Wrong turns:  3
Worst Assumption:  Monroe HWY 94 was passable at 50 mph.

County Activity- QSO'S:

Saturday - Day 1
PAS:    13
HER:    21
SUM:    19
CIT:    39
MAO:    31
LEV:    46
ALC:    37
GIL:    33
DIX:    30
LAF:    64
TAY:    24
MAD:    26
SUW:    45
HAM:    35
CLM:    48
UNI:    60
BAK:    29
NAS:     5
DUV:    20
CLA:    33
BRA:    36
PUT:    90
VOL:    66
FLG:    53

Sunday - Day 2
ORA:    11
OSC:    38
BRE:    26
IDR:    35
STL:    82
OKE:    54
MRT:    24
PAL:    89
BRO:    28
DAD:    31
CLR:    126
MON:    76
LEE:    96
HEN:    40
GLA:    75
CHA:    51
DES:    66

Our write up will follow.

Op's George K5KG and Jim VE7ZO.



George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell



From n4rs at netpath-rc.net  Wed Apr 30 10:41:34 2003
From: n4rs at netpath-rc.net (Tom Pennebaker)
Date: Wed Apr 30 08:58:28 2003
Subject: [FQP]
Message-ID: <001e01c30f1e$38578080$36c36bd1@pavilion>

Jim, K4OJ wrote;
Single Op Assisted Driving - A single operator performs all operating 
functions but has an assistant that drives the mobile.  The driver may 
not perform or assist in any of the operating done by the entrant... 
failure to follow these guidelines will result in the entry being 
recategorized as a Mobile Multioperator entry.

Jim I have a problem with this. I do ALL the driving, ALL the operating, ON the fly. My xyl does the logging when she is along....She does not drive EVER...Other than that you're right on the money.....Tom N4RS
From nf4a at knology.net  Wed Apr 30 09:51:25 2003
From: nf4a at knology.net (NF4A)
Date: Wed Apr 30 09:10:28 2003
Subject: [FQP]
In-Reply-To: <001e01c30f1e$38578080$36c36bd1@pavilion>
Message-ID: <NEBBKJEIHCNOJGJPHIDLOEBKGKAA.nf4a@knology.net>

I disagree with Tom....ANY assistance, be it logging, driving or operating
should set the entrant apart from "single op unassisted"

NF4A


From nf4a at knology.net  Wed Apr 30 09:56:51 2003
From: nf4a at knology.net (NF4A)
Date: Wed Apr 30 09:15:53 2003
Subject: [FQP]FW: Mobile Single Op assisted
Message-ID: <NEBBKJEIHCNOJGJPHIDLCEBMGKAA.nf4a@knology.net>

Please make the change in my earlier email to clarify the "logging"
task....the additions to my original suggestion are in ALL CAPS....



As a single op/single driver, I can see the need for 3 mobile categories:

1. Single Op: meaning one person in the vehicle doing both the driving,
LOGGING and operating

2. Single Op Assisted: meaning more than one person in the vehicle with only
one person operating during the contest....THIS ASSISTANCE CAN BE IN THE
FORM OF DRIVING AND/OR LOGGING FOR THE SINGLE OPERATOR.

3. Multi Op Unlimited: This one would be wide open....multiple drivers,
MULTIPLE LOGGERS and/or operators...any combination.

These are similar to the categories in many contests....I would be happy to
fund the additional plaques for the 2 extra categories.

NF4A


From Georgek5kg at aol.com  Wed Apr 30 22:57:06 2003
From: Georgek5kg at aol.com (Georgek5kg@aol.com)
Date: Wed Apr 30 21:16:22 2003
Subject: [FQP]K4FQP/m Soapbox
Message-ID: <145.10654ef0.2be1d8f2@aol.com>

K4FQP/m

Operators:  George K5KG and Jim VE7ZO

       Well, it certainly has been a treat for me to participate as an FCG 
mobile and experience what I had head so much about.  It is a great contest 
and as it seems to have gained the critical mass that makes the fun and 
participation grow exponentially.  Congratulations to the FCG for the 
promotion and execution of this terrific event.

Strategy:

    Although most of our contesting pleasure is derived from the grace and 
subtleties of the CW mode, George and I decided that we would attempt to 
balance phone activity for overall score and to provide opportunity for out 
of state operators to work some of the rarer counties on a different mode.  
We ended up making Q's on all bands but on 10M and 40M, it was CW only.  By 
far the most successful run on SSB was by George on 20M Sunday morning, 
perhaps because the band had not become crowded enough to overwhelm our puny 
signal.  As conditions and activity grew throughout the day, any effort to 
sustain runs on phone was thwarted by base stations, although a few diligent 
ops did find us.  During these excursions, we never got the sense that we 
were being spotted in the same way as on CW, and the rates reflected that.    
As a final note, in spite of the excellent publicity and recognition factor 
that the K4FQP call sign generates, it is a mouthful on phone and was 
reminiscent of having to use S581I during an earlier time.  We yearned for 
the simplicity of the N4 Trembling Oscillator call sign being used solely on 
CW.

Equipment:

       It is hard not to say too many good things about the organizational 
ability and commitment of George to providing a first rate station.  His DX 
experience has ensured that there are multiple back ups and contingency plans 
for each emergency anticipated.  We had three selectable verticals mounted on 
the roof of the Explorer with one position being either 10M or 40M.  A laptop 
with external keyboard was used for logging with WriteLog driving an ICOM 756 
Pro-II.  The station ran well during the contest with a couple of antenna 
glitches only as the verticals on 40M and 15M would lose resonance 
periodically.  By far the biggest hindrance was the S6 noise from the DC/DC 
converter for the laptop that we never did wholly cure on 15M.  In order to 
hear properly on that band, the converter had to be disconnected and we 
occasionally stopped the car to dig out the weak ones.  There were a number 
of multipliers lost in that noise, in particular KH6D?
Routing:
    
       The severe storms on Friday night and Saturday morning centered in the 
lower half of the state caused us to reverse our operating plans on day 1 to 
the northern half.  Luckily, this did not conflict directly with the planned 
activities of the other declared mobile operations.  We started in PAS and 
did a clockwise pass over the top of the state with a day one objective of 27 
counties but ultimately ended with only 24.  Things were going swimmingly 
until in the darkness of Palatka we missed a turn and ended up backtracking 
in the woods of Flagler and Volusia for several hours.  We tried to brighten 
up overnight in a Holiday Inn Express but Deltona was a long way from the 
next day start south of Osceola.  Therefore the clockwise sweep of the 
southern half of the state was compromised the next day as well and we 
activated 17 of the planned 21 counties.  Although we ended up spending more 
extended time in some counties than we originally planned, we had decent 
rates, especially on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, so I'm doubtful 
that the score would have changed appreciably had we achieved the overall 
county goals.
    
       The two highlights of the trip occurred in the southern part of the 
state.  One was when we parked on the top of the levee overlooking Lake 
Okeechobee, shut the car off and worked 15M.  It was seldom quiet during the 
trip and this respite was rare.  The second was the trip into Monroe county 
and moving gators around so that we could turn the vehicle around.  Kinda 
neat for someone from Northern Ontario.
    
       Did I mention the last two hours were a gas?

Thanks again,   Jim VE7ZO

Essential Numbers:

Total QSO's: 1849  (CW 1657, SSB 192)
Total Mults:   119    (CW - 71, SSB - 48)
Estimated Score:  834,428
 
                   10 M           15M             20M               40M
            CW  SSB   CW  SSB      CW  SSB       CW  SSB
QSO's      7       0     86      16    1467    176         97      0
 
County Summary:

Cty     CW      SSB  Rate Q/hr

Saturday
PAS     13              156
HER     21              97
SUM     19              114
CIT           38        2       55
MAO     31              155
LEV     43      3       79
ALC     35      2       92
GIL           30        3       94
DIX         27      3       106
LAF     51      13      70
TAY     22      2       80
MAD     22      4       82
SUW     43      2       142
HAM     35              131
CLR     38      10      90
UNI           54        6       106
BAK     18      11      134
NAS         5               120
DUV     20              120
CLA     32      1       73
BRA     29      6       103
PUT     83      6       65
VOL     64      1       120
FLG     49      3       80
Sat Total   822     80

Sunday
ORA     11              94
OSC     29      9       58
BRE     17      9       60
IDR     19      16      131
STL     54      27      107
OKE     53      1       125
MRT     23      1       160
PAL     82      7       74
BRO     23      5       58
DAD     22      9       49
CLR     112     14      79
MON     65      11      76
LEE     93      3       107
HEN     40              200
GLA     75              180
CHA     51              153
DES     66              165
Sun Total   835     112
FQP Total   1661    192


George I. Wagner, K5KG
Productivity Resources LLC
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax
201-415-6044 cell