[MiQP-Mail] Suggestion for Mobiles/Rovers

Thu Apr 20 16:39:58 CDT 2006

Hank et al:

The MiQP committee has done, and continues to do a great job.  However, that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.

We've had record years of participation, and that's hard to judge until after the log submission deadline.  Perhaps activity is down a little, but MiQP is still one of the best QSO parties around

One could find a category for just about everything.  Perhaps you could conjure up plaque support in Michigan for a new category, as you helped to do in Cincinnati?

Are you volunteering to coordinate #2 below?

73  Dennis KT8X
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Hank Greeb 
  To: miqp-mail at miqp.org 
  Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 2:21 PM
  Subject: Re: [MiQP-Mail] Suggestion for Mobiles/Rovers

  Several suggestions:

        1. 
       How about some one (or some committee/group within MRRC) thinking about ways to not only "cover" all the counties, but to try to make sure they are at least "semi available" to folks both within Michigan and outside the state?

        The same might hold for the Ohio QSO Party.

        There seems to be a clique which coordinates efforts amongst themselves and/or who make predetermined schedules of time/frequency for contacts.  I say this because even when the folks in Ohio publicize their routes, and approximate times they'll be in particular counties, it seems to be very, very difficult, if not impossible, to find these folks.   This was even the case last year during OQP when conditions were good to excellent, we at W8B were at a site with NO electrical noise from power lines (being at least ½ mile from the nearest power line), and the OQP web site had published lists of approximate times and frequencies.

        With the rotten conditions of the latest MiQP, any mobile who was on 40 meters was impossible to hear unless he/she happened to be within a few miles of this location.  So, only those counties covered during the late afternoon and evening hours were possible to contact on 80 metres.  I did find a few mobiles on 80 metres, some of them looking for KENT, but others calling CQ, and I then looked for them in several counties and got the multipliers.

        Maybe a "rover" category similar to the OQP could be used for MiQP?  One could "rove" amongst three or four counties for a couple hours each during the day on 40/20 metres, and on 80/75 for a couple hours.  As one fellow said to me privately, a 30' mast and full size antenna would be a great help in radiating power compared to a wimpy mobile antenna.

        2.
       Another kink to try - how about contacting the emergency coordinators (EC) of each county (or multiple counties if some EC's cover more than one county, and invite the emergency groups to participate as a training exercise and as a way to demonstrate to governmental officials that they can contact many (all?) the counties within Michigan.  These kind of data could be very useful in negotiating with county officials for space, financial resources, et. cetera.  The EC in Hamilton County, Ohio was always asking me how he could best contact other areas of the state when I lived down there.  Until this discussion, I didn't think of asking him and his fellow EC's to encourage participation in the state QSO party.....

        The roster of EC's is available at http://www.mi-arpsc.org/Section_Staff.htm

        In other words, there's more than one way to skin a cat.

        3.
       Overall, MiQP didn't seem to have nearly as much activity as other state QSO parties in which I participated.  As someone else said, Easter probably created lots of personal conflicts, and marginal propagation probably discouraged others.  

  Just a few ideas from a non-contester who happens to like a few selected State QSO parties.

  73 de n8xx Hg

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