[FQP]FlQP NJ4M/M M/SMixed LP
Ron Wetjen
wd4ahz at gte.net
Mon Apr 26 14:16:48 CDT 2004
Florida QSO Party
Call: NJ4M/M
Operator(s): WD4AHZ, K4LOG, BRITNEY
Station: NJ4M
Class: M/SMixed LP
QTH: FL
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
40: 52 0
20: 897 431
15: 32 1
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 981 432 CW Mults = 522 Ph Mults = 285 Total Score = 181,550
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
(posted numbers are totals from all counties. County breakdowns
are below.)
FQP 2004
Our FQP plan, was to make sure we operated both modes from each
county, in order to give everyone a chance at working the
county. Several weeks ago, I looked over the planned activity
from each county we'd be in, and noted if one mode was favored
over another. We'd try to concentrate our efforts on the mode
that was lacking. Friday night, I checked again, and it was
pretty much evenly split as more stations posted their plans.
So, our plan was modified to evenly split our time on each
mode, or until we worked everyone who called us. Our
"navigator" plotted our course, and determined how much time
we'd be in each county. We stuck as closely to this schedule
as possible.
Headed out early Saturday morning in order to scout out our
second operating location (MON), since we had problems with
it last year. "Plan B" didn't work out (couldn't get the SUV
with it's porcupine of antennas under the trees). We though we
had figured out a "Plan C", but after retracing our route to
check our milage, showed us we were about 2 miles short of
being in MON! "Plan A" at our "secret location" had us
covered, so we were ready to go!
Saturday went as planned, with the "usual" pileup as folks
found us in a new county!! As we headed into our home
county (SAR), the CW pileup began, and within seconds of
each other, I had had 2 folks say thanks for the "Sweep"!
WOW! Saturday went so well, that we were back at our
starting location about 10 minutes before things shut down
for the night.
Saturday, we started about 20 minutes late, but no problem.
We didn't plan to put in our full allotted time in our first
two counties (SAR, MTE) anyway, since we covered them Saturday
night, and there would be several other mobiles covering them
later on Sunday. The middle part of Sunday, would bring us
into parts of the state we hadn't been before, so we didn't
know what to expect along the way. We headed north, and took
the backroads into some pretty country! (Who says Florida is
flat?)
We then turned East to cover some interior counties in the
center of the state ... and that's when trouble started.
First we missed a turn due to traffic (and a poorly marked
intersection), and we had to backtrack slightly, to find it.
OK, back on course through the backroads ... only 15 minutes
or so behind schedule. Not too bad.
We keep pressing on ... then it hits us! What looked like a
nice, quiet country road on the map to our "navigator",
actually put is into the middle of the "Disney World" Tourist
Trap ... and the traffic, development, and road construction
that goes along with it! Great ... we're sitting in traffic
hitting every red light along the way, while our operating time
keeps slipping away, and we fall further behind schedule -
about an hour at this point! (By the way, our "navigator"
has been fired.) By this point, we're both frustrated, and have
thrown our time schedule for each county out the window! We
start looking into changing our route, to get us home quicker.
From here, our original plan was to hit OSC, OKE, HIG, HAR,
and if there was time left, MTE and SAR. We decided to change
our route, to OSC, OKE, HIG, DES, and then hopefully MTE.
With new route in hand, we set off again ... and we're finally
back on track along the country roads, handing out QSO's and
making good time. With the clock winding down on the FQP, K4LOG
is working guys on Phone in DES, and we get a last minute
request to switch to CW. A quick QSY into a mistuned antenna,
and we hand out another "Sweep" at the buzzer!
Throughout the day Sunday, we had several requests to go back
to MTE, which we hoped to be able to do towards the end on our
way back home. Unfortunatly, when the FQP ended, we were about
10 minutes or so from MTE. Hopefully the guys that were still
needing it, had a chance to pick it up from someone else passing
through.
Highlights:
OJ's!
The pileups! What a blast.
The "Sweeps"! Congrats to those who made it!
K4LOG pulling out calls through the line noise garbage, while
I'm looking out the window, not copying a thing! (I must work
too much CW, and have totally tuned out SSB!)
Lowlights:
Our "navigator" steering us wrong and into major traffic,
putting us an hour behind schedule.
LINE NOISE!!! Sorry to those guys who called us, and we either
had trouble with, or couldn't hear at all! The line noise was
just awful at times, and we couldn't hear anything but the very
strongest signals.
73,
Ron, WD4AHZ
Richard, K4LOG
Britney
County Breakdown
CTY 40CW 20CW 15CW MULT 20PH 15PH MULT
BRO 45 27 14 1 11
CHA 52 26 38 19
CIT 53 27 12 19
CLR 27 23 20 13
DAD 42 23 5 4
DES 71 31 58 26
GLA 24 16 35 24
HAR 5 61 32 16 15
HEN 42 25 25 18
HER 40 11 31 8 7
HIG 38 23
HIL 39 23 10 8
LAK 38 16 24 20 11
LEE 40 26 21 16
MON 48 24 13 11
MTE 45 12 27 6 5
OKE 43 21
ORA 53 24 23 14
OSC 37 5 21 18 15
PAL 34 22 30 19
PAS 4 4
SAR 2 54 29
SUM 42 20 17 14
TOT 52 897 32 522 431 1 285
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