[FQP]Mobile Categories

[Jim White, K4OJ]

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
> 
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