[FQP] FW: MiQP WI9WI Mobile Solo Op LP

[Georgek5kg at aol.com]

Jim,
 
You did a great job...tnx for the Qsos from WAY UP NORTH.  Your story  is 
amazing, and you should really send it into the NCJ for us DOWN SOUTH  
SISSIES to read.  Your signal was not loud, but was easily copyable.   A few times 
you were within a few HZ from K8MR, and I had to crank down the  bandwidth 
to get you.
 
When I was working you early on Saturday, I was not hearing NE9U at  all.  
I guess that Ron's truck had a problem and, from what you wrote, they  must 
have gone back to change vehicles.  That must have been a joy!   Later in 
the day, I worked NE9U several times.  Neither of you were  smashingly loud.  
 
Jim, K8MR, by far and away the best mobile, followed by W8CAR. (Best  in 
the sense of high speed operating and rapid county  changes.)  MR, CAR and 
NE9U were Mixed, and I worked them several  times both modes (MR many times 
both modes).  Jim was moving us to 14,151  which, by the way I loaned him that 
frequency for the weekend, as it is our  proprietary FQP freq!  Later he was 
moving the pack, first to 7133 and  later to 7140.  7140 turned out to be 
the better freq, since 7133 became  inhabited by some dx stns without a sense 
of humor.
 
A point I want to make for all of our listeners is that it really helps if  
the mobiles always keep the same frequency.  That way we can map them on  
the band so we know where we know to find them.  MR would occasionally  
change his CW freq up or down a kHz or two, and this made finding him a bit  
tricky, although his signal always had the distinctive sound of a high speed  
bumble bee!
 
73, Geo...
 
PS.  Ron, now we need the NE9U story.
 
George  Wagner, K5KG
Sarasota, FL 
941-400-1960 cell  

 
In a message dated 4/23/2013 12:22:11 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
jhfitzpa at wisc.edu writes:

Florida  QSO Party Northern Division. You guys are a bunch of sissies 
driving
around  in your T shirts, sandals and underwear.

-----Original  Message-----
From: webform at b41h.net [mailto:webform at b41h.net] 
Sent:  Tuesday, April 23, 2013 4:01 AM
To: 3830 at contesting.com;  jhfitzpa at wisc.edu
Subject: MiQP WI9WI Mobile Solo Op LP

Michigan QSO  Party

Call: WI9WI
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: WI9WI

Class:  Mobile Solo Op LP
QTH: 4 counties
Operating Time (hrs):  6

Summary:
Band  CW Qs  Ph  Qs
--------------------
80:    0     0
40:  113      9
20:  102     28
15:    0   0
10:    0       0
--------------------
Total:  215     37  CW  Mults = 52  Ph Mults = 22  Total Score = 34,558

Club:  Minnesota Wireless Assn

Comments:

This one didn't quite work out  the way it was planned. The initial plan was
to
drive up from Madison  Friday afternoon to Manitowish Waters and have dinner
and
spend the  night with the NE9U crew at KK9K's cabin. I would then make a  
loop
counterclockwise through IRON, DICK, MARQ, BARA, HOUG, ONTO and  GOGE
returning
to the cabin at the end of the QSO party. About 1330 on  Friday I called 
NE9U
and he said that they were about an hour from  departure from KK9K's place
near
Wisc. Rapids. I left Madison about  1430. The snow started just north of
Wausau,
and by the time I got near  Manitowish Waters it was near whiteout
conditions. It
was wet heavy  spring snow and the roads became very slippery quickly. When 
I
got
to  the cabin at 1830 no one was there. I called NE9U and got voice  mail.
About
30 minutes later he called back and said they had some  problems with their
set
up and got held back several hours but were on  the way. I went to the 
nearby
Bear Restaurant to get something to eat, and  while there KK9K called and
said
they had had a major vehicle problem  and were turning back and would come 
up
the next morning in a different  vehicle. The long drive downhill to the
cabin
from the road had several  inches of ice on it covered with about 4 to 6
inches
of new heavy wet  snow. I worried that if I drove down it I might not get
back
up, so  rather than opting to carry all my gear down on foot that night  and
back
up the next morning I drove to Hurley, just on the WI side of  the WI/MI UP
border, and got a motel room. The 40 mile drive took over an  hour due to
very
slippery roads. The next morning it was bright and  sunny. I started the 
trip
toward IRON County about 8 AM. The roads were  quite icy due to the traffic
packing the snow down during the night. By the  time I got to Wakefield it
was
obvious I couldn't drive more than 35-40  mph safely. Parts of US 2 were
unplowed at that hour. I figured it would  take me at least 2 hours to get 
to
IRON Cty and then another to DICK. So I  turned around and went up to Hwy 
28.
It
was in better shape than 2 so I  drove to the BARA/HOUG line. What should
have
taken about 80 mins took  over 2 hours. I usually operate from waysides, 
boat
landings, county parks  and off the highway on town roads. None of these 
were
plowed and most still  had 2 to 3 feet of winter snow on them. I have no
driver
and don't  operate while moving. I don't feel safe doing it. So I found a
snowplow  turnaround and parked out of the way and got set up.  Everything
worked
fine except the 40 meter antenna but that was easily  fixed by changing the
coax.
Conditions were good. Over the next few  hours I worked my way back through
HOUG,
ONTO to GOGE, operating from  plow turnarounds. While in GOGE my RV battery
started dying. My options  were to hook up to the car's electrical system,
which
only takes a few  minutes, and continue in GOGE, hook up to the car and move
on
to IRON  Cty back through Wakefield, or go home. By mid afternoon  after
plowing
and some sun the roads were in very good condition, and  highway speeds were
fine. I figured it would take me about 80-90 min to get  to IRON. But it was
in
the wrong direction, and after operating there I  would have to backtrack
nearly
100 miles to get to the cabin or continue  on home. So I packed up and drove
the
300 miles back to Madison arriving  an hour before the contest ended. In
retrospect I probably should have  hooked up to the car battery and operated
another hour or so from GOGE.  That means running the car while operating.
There
is a bit of noise, but  it is not intolerable.

Gear: K-3 running about 50 watts (RV battery  lasts longer)
Microham keyer
Netbook computer with Writelog
Hustler  whip for 20
Texas Bugcatcher for 40

A few  stats:

County   Time   20 meters   40  meters  Total QSOs
BARA    51 min  24CW/0P   23CW/0P       47
HOUG     58      26CW/0P     18CW/0P     44
ONTO    113     42CW/27P   22CW/8P       99
GOGE    47   11CW/1P     39CW/2P        53

Hopefully next year the weather will be better.

Thanks for  all the QSOs.

73

Jim


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