[FQP] FQP 2006 @ K3BZ

[Jerry Keller]

It was another fine FQP weekend, and again the Rovers were the stars of the 
show! There were many (and I'm sure I'm forgetting someone) but N1XC/M, 
K4OJ/M, AD8J/M, and KK4TA/M come to mind... they seemed to be nearly 
EVERYWHERE... a great effort, guys, and thanks for doing it again in spite 
of the high price of gas this year.

I ran SSB SOHP with a ProII, PW1 amp, 3L SteppIR, 40M vert....same as last 
year.  It was deja-vu all over again....but with a much higher noise level. 
Even so, it was gangbusters at the start, with 30 counties logged in the 
first 90 minutes. Other than a few Q's on 40M Saturday night, it was all 
20M, just like last year.  I heard there were tornado warnings in the middle 
panhandle area, so it wasn't surprising that the of 50 counties I had by 
2159Z, none were from that area.... again, like last year.

Sunday morning everyone must have been in church or sleeping late...8^)... 
because I snared only a single QSO in the first hour.  Then some QRM made me 
change freqs and after 15 minutes I discovered... to my horror!!... I was 
calling CQ at 14.267... in the MOBILE window.... sorry, guys.  I quickly 
moved to 14.277 and stayed there the rest of the day. Around 1530Z I was 
entertained for a while by some intentional interference... a few C & W 
tunes... but I ignored it and worked through it and it went away after 20 
minutes or so, just a bit of unpleasantness in an otherwise very friendly 
contest. Around 2000Z, I worked John N4HV in Leon County, and I asked him if 
he was mobile and maybe headed for Gadsden County? He said no, not mobile, 
but he COULD be and Gadsden was just up the road.... did I want him to drive 
over there? A short while later, I got a call from John in his truck and 
Gadsden went into the log.  Another great guy, Gerry AG4PZ, heard me mention 
I needed Putnam, so he got on the phone and woke up his friend Paul AG4EZ 
over there and had Paul call me. Unbelieveable!!

It was guys like John and Gerry and Paul....plus 19 hours, 59 minutes in the 
chair and no T-storms... that allowed me to beat Last Year by a good margin, 
with 429 Q's (vs 382 LY) and 62 counties (one more than LY), but alas... no 
Sweep. Of the 5 counties I missed (CAH, FRA, GUL, HOL, LIB... all in the 
middle panhandle) only 1 (Franklin) was also missed last year. I'm happy 
with my 1 additional county, although at this rate it will be 2011 before I 
get my Sweep!!

Muchas gracias to Dan K1TO and his FCG team for all the work of putting this 
thing together and making the FQP the very best....I had agreat time.... see 
you next year!!!

73, Jerry K3BZ