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Michigan QSO Party<BR><BR>Call: K8IR/M<BR>Operator(s): K8IR KG9GH
N9JUD<BR>Station: K8IR/M<BR><BR>Class: Mobile Multi-Op LP<BR>QTH:
UP<BR>Operating Time (hrs): 11.5<BR><BR>Summary:<BR> Band CW Qs
Ph Qs<BR>--------------------<BR> 80:
103 2<BR> 40:
258 34<BR> 20:
278 15<BR> 15:
14 <BR>
10:
<BR>--------------------<BR>Total: 653 51 CW
Mults = 69 Ph Mults = 31 Total Score = 135,700<BR><BR>Club: M&M
ARC<BR><BR>Comments:<BR><BR>At the top, I need to thank my drivers: Eric, KG9GH,
who has been with me for 5<BR>years, and Chris, N9JUD, came along to find out
what this contesting is all<BR>about. We started in the rain, and spent
the last half of the route in an<BR>April snowstorm. Eric and Chris are the
heroes for taking care of the hard<BR>part. I just came along for the
ride.<BR><BR>The weather slowed us down so that we missed the last two planned
counties. We<BR>hit DICK at 0402. It also affected us in other ways. I had a
couple of good<BR>runs on 40 phone earlier in the contest, but I discovered in
Houghton County<BR>that no one could seem to hear us, except for ourselves, as
distorted audio was<BR>coming through the car radio speakers (the radio was
off). There seemed to be<BR>some RF feedback when using the 75/40 meter
phone antenna. I had to turn down<BR>requests for SSB later in the
contest. We checked the system this morning<BR>before taking down the
antennas, and all was well, again. I'm thinking the<BR>ice/snow buildup on
the antenna and guy ropes may have caused the problem. <BR>Hopefully I won't
have to worry about antenna icing again for several years.<BR><BR>On to the
contest. What a difference a few sunspots make. 20 was
smoking,<BR>with some huge pileups of both US stations and DX. We had 9 EU
countries in<BR>the log. It was nice to see 15 open again. 40
was in good shape with plenty<BR>of activity up to the end. 80/75 activity
was scarce during the day. They<BR>were noisy enough at night that we had
a hard time being heard, although there<BR>was a pipeline into nearby
Wisconsin. <BR><BR>The log by county:<BR><BR>DELT 50<BR>SCHO 72<BR>MACK
45<BR>CHIP 44<BR>LUCE 41<BR>ALGE 57<BR>MARQ 56<BR>BARA 68<BR>HOUG 63<BR>KEWE
52<BR>ONTO 57<BR>GOGE 25<BR>IRON 74<BR><BR><BR>Thanks to everyone who called in
and especially to those who followed us around<BR>the route. At least 10
stations were in the log 10 or more times. K8MFO found us<BR>the most, 17
times.<BR><BR>It was my 10th MIQP trip, and certainly one of the most
memorable. I'm ready<BR>for spring, but there's more snow in the forecast
this week!<BR><BR>73<BR>Jim<BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>