[FQP]Fwd: [NCCC] FQP W6YX LP

[Georgek5kg at 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 at 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