[ILQSO] QSO Parties and "critical mass"

[jim funk]

My observations from working the TN QSO party this Sunday:

The mobiles did an excellent job; there just weren't quite enough of them to
keep out of state stations busy.  My thinking (from out of state) is that
each time I change bands/modes, I should be able to find at least one mobile
station that has changed counties.  That's the sort of action that keeps my
attention for the entire qso party period, be it seven, eight, twelve or
twenty-four hours!

Band conditions weren't too bad.  I worked TN stations on 80/40/20/15
meters.  Didn't hear any on 10, though I'm sure there was activity and we
were just too close.

I worked approximately 5 1/2 of the seven hours, including some from the
car.  If there were more than four mobiles active, I didn't find them.  I
worked 40 of the 95 TN counties and a total of 84 QSOs.

How many mobiles are needed in a state with around 100 counties to keep
everybody interested?

In the 2002 IQP, can we:

    1) Activate all 102 counties?
    2) Activate 15 mobiles?
    3) Activate 10 multi-county portables?

If so, I think we'll have a great event!

Keep those plans coming to the reflector!

73, Jim N9JF