[ILQSO] KJ9C Rover

[James Funk]

Mel, you are an animal.  I tried running mobile without a driver a few
times (INQP once, MOQP twice) and it is a zoo.  

One commentary we will definitely be wanting post-contest is how
everyone felt about the addition of the "Rover" category.  The special
"everyones" will be those of you who tried it this time and those who
elected to remain "mobiles".

I can't help you with the N1MM issues; I was a TrLog beta-tester and
still like it.  Yeah, find an 11-volt laptop :)

As for the log-checking, I don't think anyone will get dinged for your
logging glitches.  That's one advantage to being "mostly manual".

73 and thanks a heap!
Jim N9JF

-----Original Message-----
From: ilqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:ilqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mel Crichton
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 7:25 AM
To: IL QSO Party
Subject: [ILQSO] KJ9C Rover

"Rover" is appropriate.... this QSO party was a dog. Spent three days
getting everything ready and shook down. Spent a lot of money on
inverters and DC adapters and a laptop that I did not use. For once I
had no RFI problems in the computer or rig, but using N1MM for the first
time on my Win XP laptop caused a number of problems..... never try to
use a mouse while driving on downstate Illinois'  finer gravel roads. 

Apologies for disappearing in the middle of a run... sometimes I warped
to the wrong VFO (N1MM), a couple times I blew a fuse - once on the
laptop plug (it DOES draw more than 3 amps), once to the rig.... the
battery booster overheated (odd), and I had to QRP to 70 watts for the
last 7 1/2 hours.... not a lot of dB loss, but probably noticeable.... I
tried to give N9UM a number of unique mults, but he never heard me. And
he was LOUD. In general SSB was poor, but I did make a few 75 meter
QSOs... a rarity.

Because of the strange way N1MM logs comments, I am not sure if my log
shows the county that I was in correctly.... I did not catch this glitch
until late in the day, so there's a chance that stations worked just as
I crossed a line got the right county from me but were logged wrong by
me.

Still not sure that my log has every contact in it.... about half as
many as last year but it did not feel like I was running half as fast.
There are no major gaps, but maybe MM did not log all the contacts it
flagged as dupes. There were a couple holes in the log for fuse
replacement and rest stops....  If the log checkers are handing out a
lot of Not-In-Log dings to others who say they worked me, then we'll
withdraw the log. On the other hand, maybe it really was a down year,
but at my advanced age it felt fast.

Got to stop on three 3-county corners and one or two county lines (when
the deserving were heard in the pileup). Worked few IL mobiles, and had
to go to 80 around sunset to get my first IL county.

485 CW, 42 SSB, 997 QSO points, 40 SPC, 26 counties = 65 K points....   

Next year - buy a good Win 98 laptop that will run on 11 volts and go
back to TR for logging. 

Anybody want to buy a nice Compaq Armada with Win 98? Needs 16 volts to
run.

Mel KJ9C
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