[MiQP-Mail] N8MR/M Mobile Summary

[Michael Rudzki]

CALLSIGN: N8MR/M 
ARRL-SECTION: MI
CONTEST: State QSO Party - MI
CATEGORY: MULTI-OP MOBILE LOW MIXED
CLUB: Livonia Amateur Radio Club
CLAIMED-SCORE: 92,500

  BAND    CW QSOs    PHONE QSOs
   80       126             1 
   40       211            51 
   20        86            27 
   15         0             0 
   10         0             0 
         -------    ----------
Tot QSOS    423            79 

QSO Pnts    846            79 

Total Points       925 
Multipliers        100 
Final Score      92500 

Total operating time = 10.5 hrs

I've only been doing the Michigan QSO Party for four years, but this was the best propagation I've seen for this event. The weather was great for driving through unknown (to Lynette and I) areas of the state while playing radio. 

Our original route was to drive along I-94 from Detroit to M-25 and then take US-23 all the way to Mackinaw City. That route passes through 16 counties. We chose that route so that, if propagation was bad, we'd at least see some parts of the state that we hadn't seen previously. We didn't realize how long it would take to drive from MONR to AREN. By the time we reached that point, the sun was starting to set and we realized that it would be dark by the time we got to ALPE on US-23. At that point, my intrepid driver/navigator decided to take an alternate route - a route that would take us through a 17th county - MTMO. Surprise! 

We were limited in the number of bands we could switch to on the go. I bought a second mag mount two days before the QSO Party and had little time for experimenting. We kept the 40 Meter Hamstick on the trunk the whole time, but the mount on the roof held a 20-Meter Hamstick from MONR to AREN. Sure wish I had a third mount, as 80 CW was already hopping by the time I switched the 20 Meter antenna with the 75 Meter antenna. Many thanks to K8MR and K8CC for their top hat suggestions for the 75 Meter Hamstick. SWR was great on 80 CW, but the best SWR in the 75 Meter Phone portion was at 3.700 - 100kHz too low! The AT-7000 wouldn't tune it at 3.800, so we had to stick to 80 CW. 

After the first 100 or so QSOs in the log, our old Pentium II 233 running N3FJP's MiQP logger seemed to get slower as we added QSOs to the log. This translated into delays in responding to the stations calling. It also caused momentary delays in the CW sent via the COM port. By the time we got to about 350 QSOs, the delay between keyboard entry and program response was pretty bad. It also started giving us erroneous "dupe" warnings. 

We arrived at our hotel in Mackinaw City at 0130 UTC. After checking in and getting settled, I spent the rest of the MiQP handing out EMME QSOs parked under a street light, beside the Mackinac Bridge. A reading light is a must for night time operating. 

Getting in more Phone QSOs, having an antenna resonant at 3.800MHz, doing more S & P and stopping in more rare counties would have helped our score. But, as always, it was a great time. Lots of in-state, out-state and DX activity make it really fun. Thanks to the MRRC for sponsoring this event. 


MONR     5
WAYN    33
OAKL     7
MACO    13
STCL    38
SANI    33
HURO    69
TUSC    14
BAY    31
AREN    26
IOSC    17
ALCO    32
ALPE    24
MTMO    22
PRES    20
CHEB    38
EMME    80
-----    ---
Total    502

73, 
Mike, N8MR
Lynette, KC8NAH


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