[FQP] KJ4LQX - Brief Wrap-up

[Marty Grove]

It was my first FQP and I had a great time, in spite of all the various
issues that came along (antenna fell down, lost power, N1MM logger learning
curve, other distractions, etc...).  Worked as a single operator, fixed
station, SSB only, in Okeechobee County (OKE) for the entire weekend
(although I only managed about 10 of the 20 hours allotted for the contest).
The conditions were rough; I only worked stations on 20 and 40 meters.  I
never heard a single station on 15 meters and a faint station or two on 10
meters.  

My equipment was an IC-7000 attached to an LDG IT-100 tuner.  Antenna was a
G5RV jr., strung across a couple of trees about 20 feet up.  I had
tremendous noise on 40 meters pretty much the entire weekend, 20 meters was
typically noise-free.  Next year, or better yet hopefully by Field Day I
plan on coming up with a better antenna than that G5RV... maybe a portable
beam or hex beam system.  I'll have to give it some thought.

One of my favorite highlights from the weekend was Sunday afternoon for a
couple of hours or so where it seemed like nearly all the QSO's I logged
were other Florida counties checking in.  I logged about 23 counties in
about 2 hours, 11 of those were concurrent.  It was good to hear, even if it
was briefly, from some of the other Florida contesters.  

I 'was' pretty happy with my score until I started reading some of the other
scores coming in from some of the other hams.  Actually, I'm still happy
with my score, but some of these other scores are absolutely amazing!  Yeah,
better get busy with a new antenna real soon!  Hihi

All-in-all, I managed to get OKE logged for 210 other hams.  Final tally for
me was:

40m - 79 QSO's
20m - 131 QSO's
55 Mults
Score:  23,100

... already looking forward to next year....

Marty / KJ4LQX