[ILQSO] ramblings

[KI9A at aol.com]

Well, my 2 cents on rambling..
 
I have been doing the ILQP since about '93, & recall the days when  QSO's 
were far & few.
I have watched the party grow to what is now, 8 hours of high rates! I has  
gotten to a point that I am having a tough time choosing between S&P for the  
new counties the mobiles are putting out, & sheer enjoyment of  running.
 
I kept an eye on W6TK county spot net, & my telnet connection to help  out. I 
think it worked well, the counties I missed, well, I just could not hear  
them--most were spotted on 20, but, propagation kept me from hearing them.  :-(
 
Anyway, my hat is off to the guys who go mobile for this!! Putting gas  
prices aside, HOW DO THESE GUYS CONTEST WHILE DRIVING?? WOW!! That, guys, is  
amazing to me...very,very cool in book. GPS, 2 laptops, ect...that is dedication  
to the hobby folks!
 
It did pretty well for a very modest station. I just have a tribander @  30', 
& a G5RV @ 45'. My small amp only squeezes out 500 watts or so. But, I  had a 
TON of guys tell me how loud I was. So, don't worry if you only have a PW  
station, you can do well. Speaking of doing well, did you see K9ZO's score??  
Nice job Ralph!  Him & I even completed a 2 & 6 meter SSB QSO, I  guess we are 
about 200-220 miles from each other, so, don't overlook those  bands. 
 
Again, thanks to the RAMS guys, & N9JF for the hard work in making this  
happen. These guys have done an amazing job to bring the party from the dark  
ages, to IMO, one of the premier state QSO parties. 
 
Lets remember to pay back our out of state pals by getting on the air  during 
their state parties & repay them. 
 
Propagation & bands: No activity this year on 10 or 15 for me. Bands  sucked, 
but, as the sunspots rise, lets make use of these. 20 was OK, but, a few  
years ago, there was some really cool short skip that allowed us to hear each  
other in state. Keep an ear out for that in the future. 40..well, the RTTY boys  
kinda PO'd me to say the least. I know they can hear us, so, why fire up on  
top of us? I thought about dropping down blow 7.025 to escape them. 40 SSB was 
 good as usual. 80m...CW is always nice there, 75 SSB..well, can you say pig  
farmers? We might need to move away from the sugggested 3.890, seems the AM 
guys  are rockbound there or something. I had a LOUD K1 start calling his pal 
about  500hz from me on 75 SSB, I moved just a hair & kept on going, but, heard 
a  guy giving him the business about just firing up without listening. The K1 
 played dumb, but the other guy told him how non-contesters whine about us 
firing  up on them. then I joined in. I told him if he had a sked, I would have 
gladly  moved,but, not now. If he was loud here, I know I was loud there. The 
guy backed  off & apologized, & even gave me a Q! I wasn't ignorant, but, 
maybe just  a bit charming..
 
Looking forward to next year already. I have tried SO2R here in the past,  
but, small lot is hindering me too much. I changed everything back to single  
radio, but, I think I am just going to throw a 40m dipole up for the other rig  
next year for new mults.
 
73-Chuck KI9A