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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Well, that was one of the most fun MIQP's I've ever
done. It looks like the Q total is about 756. No idea on the mult
total yet.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>But things started off very badly. I really
struggled during the first hour and a half. It seemed like nobody could
hear me. 40 SSB was in great shape for picking up the in-state phone mults
but 3/4 of the stations I would call just CQ'd in my face. I changed
antennas, changed feedlines, swapped mag mounts, did everything I could thiink
of but nothing helped. My first hour ended with just 32 contacts. I
stayed an hour and 15 minutes in my first county trying to get things
working properly, which put me way behind my schedule.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Then I suddenly realized that I had turned the
radio power down to 10 watts before the contest as I tested out various antennas
and got things ready, and I had failed to turn it back up! Stupid,
stupid, stupid!!! I think it was 1:50 PM (1750Z) when this dawned on
me. I was pretty down about this because I knew that it would be a
really costly mistake for my score. But I had gone to a lot of
trouble (and expense) to get where I was, and I still had over 10 hours, so I
decided to go all out for the rest of the contest and try to
recover. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>As a little background, I completely changed
my operating style for this contest. Actually, the change started
with the Georgia QSO Party which I had done the previous week. There
were two changes: first, switching to a K3 from the old
ICOM-706MKII + antenna tuner; and second, logging on a digital voice
recorder. The K3 completely freed me from having to do any tuning or
antenna switching as I switched bands or modes, and really made a big
difference. I first recorded a contest last summer (the OQP) but still
logged everything on paper because I wasn't sure that I could rely on the
recording, but when I checked the recording later, it was fine and I grew
to trust the recording. It seemed to work well in the GQP
too. Recording the contest allows me to
pretty much keep moving throughout the contest whereas in the past I
arranged my route to keep the driving down to a minimum so I could stop
frequently and keep a paper log.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2
face=Arial> </FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The problem with the MQP is the serial
number. I knew that I could never keep track of QSO numbers in my head
while driving and paying attention to traffic and route signs. K8MR came
up with the idea to create a number check sheet and cross off each number
after I used it. This would require me to keep a pen in my right hand the
whole time, but I couldn't think of a better way, so I prepared one such
sheet for each county I planned to go through. After I got used to
this system it worked well but I think I gave out the same number a couple of
times in the beginning. I'll sort that out when I go through the
recording.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Anyhow, the last 10 hours of the contest went much
better, although because I was behind my schedule I couldn't take the time to
stop to do pick up in-state mults on 75 around dusk like I usually do, so I'm
afraid that my mult total will be pretty poor this time. But my Q total is
about 150 better than I've ever done before. If I had not screwed up at
the beginning I'm sure I could have done even better. I made it
through 15 of the 16 counties that I had planned to activate.
Unfortunately I had to pass up SHIA, which looks like it was missed by a lot of
ops.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>This time I drove up to Michigan on Friday
afternoon and stayed at a hotel in Midland, just about 30 minutes away from my
starting point. This was a really good idea, allowing me to start the
contest refreshed. It sure beats driving up from Ohio before the
contest. I passed into Ohio just about 3 minutes before the end of
the contest. I sure was tired when I got home at 2:15 AM Sunday
morning. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>It will be a couple of weeks before I have a chance
to transcribe the log. I'll post the final numbers to 3830 at
that time.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Elecraft needs to put a big red light on the K3
showing that the radio is operating at less than 100 watts!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Thanks everyone for a great time.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>73, Hal W1NN</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>