[MiQP-Mail] W8CAR mobile score and story

[Dan Kovatch]

             Michigan QSO Party

Call: W8CAR
Operator(s): W8CAR
Station: W8CAR

Class: Mobile Solo Op LP
QTH: mi
Operating Time (hrs): 9ish

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   80:  139     2
   40:  141     3
   20:   91     1
   15:
   10:
--------------------
Total:  371     6  CW Mults = 61  Ph Mults = 6  Total Score = 50,250

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Hard to operate while driving( and stopping) through some of the most 
beautiful
lake areas in the world. If I had a rod with me there would have only been 1 
county activated!!

All was well in the W8CAR mobile QSO party battle wagon as I readied to 
start the MIQP in a Lowes parking lot in BERR. I had arrived early and was 
poised to make a great start. Alas, it was not to be, 5 minutes before the 
start of the test the radio locked key down and the only solution was to 
reboot EVERYthing. This problem continued to plague me for the rest of the 
contest. Later I would find that rebooting the USBII would temporarily solve 
the problem. The problem only happened on 40 meters. I also found that I had 
a very high noise level on all bands. It only took 5 counties to figure out 
that I had the preamp on (never needed on 80-10). But that still left me 
with some noise that was finally determined to be coming from the USBII. 
Apparently, my grounding system (and is not very good to begin with) did not 
include the laptop-that will be fixed soon. Kudos to Joe, W4TV from Microham 
for answering an email on Sunday!!!

However, I did manage contacts and as the day moved on the condx seemed to 
get better. The route I had planned worked well and seemed almost perfect 
for a solo op run. For any who are looking for a good free program I found 
'TYRE' that works well with my Tom-Tom-just mark your route with dots-rename 
them if you wish and load it into your GPS thingie and away you go. 20 was 
surprising and I must have worked more DX than ever. DL3DXX must be in my 
log 10 times and once on 40! I worked more counties than last year as 80 had 
good short skip and in several counties I worked locals-great job in getting 
the activity up.

My wife asked how much time I spent getting ready for the contest and I said 
about 12 hours already.  She nodded knowingly and said something to the 
effect that all good things take more time than you think. In the end I had 
a great time and thanks again to all the guys who worked me in all the 
different counties.

Don't forget OQP is only 4 months away!!! PLUS, we may have just as many 
deer as MI ;} Seriously, can K8MR count the deer as a county mult?! RULE 
CHANGE-anyone who hits a deer gets bonus points!!! (Need state trooper 
verification)

Kudos to all who worked hard to get everyone on and excited about a fun 
party!






Dan W8CAR