[MiQP-Mail] K8MQP - 2005 MiQP - Multi-multi CHEB county

David Pruett k8cc at comcast.net
Mon Apr 18 22:53:05 CDT 2005


                        2005 MICHIGAN QSO PARTY


Call used: K8MQP                                        Location: CHEB

Category: Multi-Multi Unlimited      Mode: MIXED           Power: High

Callsign of Operator(s): K8BB, K8CC, KE8OC, 
W8MJ


Exchanged Information: K8MQP nr CHEB


Hours of Operation: 11:59


band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
----------------------------------------------
  80        161       322         119       119
  40        213       426         344       344
  20        134       268         369       369
  15          3         6           4         4
  10          2         4           4         4
----------------------------------------------
TOTAL      513      1026         840       840


( 1866 ) QSO points  X  ( 197 ) Multipliers  =  367,602 points

The K8MQP multi-op effort from Cheboygan county was a combination of the 
W8MJ and KQ8J/N8OS multi-op teams from past MiQPs.  We operated from a 
vacation home on the eastern shore of Burt Lake near Indian River, MI.  The 
goal was to put forth a maximum multiop effort for maximum MiQP 
exposure.  This was from a QTH which has no permanent ham station or 
antennas, so everything had to be carried in and back home again.

Antennas are the key to any portable operation, and we had that covered in 
spades.  Don, K8BB owns a 48' aluminum tiltover tower which is mounted on a 
modified boat trailer.  The tower supported 3L yagis for 20M, 15M, and 10M, 
plus held up our 40M inverted vee, while the 80M inverted vee was held up 
by a rope shot into a nearby tree.

Inside, we had a station for 40M (FT-1000MP/Titan), a station for 20M 
(FT-1000Field/AL-1200) and a station shared between 10M, 15M and 80M 
(TS-940S/SB-1000).  This gave us full time coverage of the main MiQP bands 
(40M and 20M) with a separate rig with which to attempt making something 
happen on 10M and 15M.  The third rig also allowed us to go to 80M early, 
long before 20M was finished.  Indeed, we still made a few 20M QSOs even in 
the last hour of the contest.

KE8OC, K8CC and W8MJ left Detroit at 9:00 AM and arrived at the QTH around 
1:00 PM.  We immediately started to set up the inside equipment.  K8BB 
arrived with the portable tower around 3:00 and the serious antenna work 
began.  By dark, all the antennas were up in the air and tuned, the rigs 
set up and we were on the air.  This allowed us to sleep in Saturday 
morning and get a leisurely breakfast in town before the contest started at 
noon.

Our comments about the contest echo those of others - 40M was horrible 
early, with weak signals and QSB.  After dark, signals to out of state 
picked up but in-state signals were bad all weekend.  20M was good all day 
until the last hour of the contest.  80M was our salvation for in-state 
QSOs and all the mults they bring.  K8BB went to 80M as early as 4:00 PM 
local and found people to work.

In the end, we finished about 30 QSOs ahead and about five mults behind 
what W8MJ and K8CC did from W8MJ's QTH in LIVI last year.  40M was way down 
on both modes, but 80M more than made up the slack.  20M was about the 
same.  We really tried to make 10M and 15M play, going there at all of the 
recommended activity times and CQing our brains out.  But you can see from 
the totals that we did not accomplish much.  Actually, we think that with 
the condx the way they were, 10M and 15M (particularly with scatter) could 
have provided a lot of in-state QSOs if people had gone up there.

Sunday AM we repeated our leisurely breakfast in town, then started taking 
down the antennas around 10:30 AM.  By 1:00 PM everything was packed and we 
were on the road home.  By 5:00 PM we were back in Detroit.

The trip was a lot of fun, and worked out pretty well.  We forgot to bring 
certain pieces of equipment, but between the four ops, we had enough stuff 
to get the job done.  Our thanks go to John/KN8S for the use of his 
vacation QTH, and to everyone who participated in MiQP.

73,

Don/K8BB
Dave/K8CC
Tim/KE8OC
KEn/W8MJ





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