[ILQSO] Thanks from K9IUA/Rover/QRP

[KI9A at aol.com]

Kevin, you sure sounded good the times we worked!
 
73- Chuck KI9A
 
 
In a message dated 10/18/2010 8:43:59 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
k9iua at yahoo.com writes:

Don't  have a score yet - the logs will get looked at tonight and tomorrow 
(I know it  is not good) - but I want to thank all who worked the 
peanut-sized signal of  K9IUA/Rover/QRP.  I don't know why I do it (a QRPer at heart 
and blood),  but QRP from mobile Hamstick antennas is always a challenge, yet 
I do it again  and again.  I'm obviously not in it for the points (although 
it is  depressing when they aren't very high), but more to support the 
cause, my  club, and to get a drive around rural northwestern Illinois each 
year.   The weather this year was perfect!

While you guys are raving about 80  and 40 meters this year, I say thank 
goodness for 20 meters!  Without 20  meters, I wouldn't have much of a score 
at all.  Worked F5 several times,  HA once, as well as Nova Scotia.

Forty meters (the lowest band I can go  with my mobile setup) is always a 
challenge for me.  The problem is  two-fold - my tuner just barely gets me a 
good match (and this year I was  plagued with problems in two of the 
counties that wasted huge amount of time -  a loose connection or something in the 
tuner that I need to diagnose) and I  can't hold a frequency.  Usually by my 
last stop, Jo Daviess County late  in the afternoon, I do quite well on 40, 
with 20 usually dead by then.   But the reverse was true this time - I did 
well on 20 (probably because I was  one of the last willing to use the band 
at that time of day), and barely got  anywhere on 40.  With RTTY taking out 
much of the operating space on 40,  you guys with your stronger signals held 
court over all the rest.  I  couldn't compete.  I soon as I find a 
frequency, after a QSO or two,  someone walks right over me and takes it over, like 
I didn't exist.  Oh  well.  But 40 meter was nice earlier on, before
there was so much RTTY  and before my tuner gave me trouble, as I did get 
some very nice in-state  multipliers who answered my CQ.

This year I was plagued with  problems.  Besides the already mentioned 
intermittent tuner short, the  battery in my Bencher keyer/paddle combination 
died in my second county.   And the spares I had brought also turned out also 
to be dead.  So for two  counties I had to operate using my spare setup, 
which is a plastic Whiterook  portable paddle into the rig's keyer; while 
functional, my keying gets far  worse than my already mediocre keying on a good 
day, as I the action is all  different and the rig's keyer is I believe the 
opposite mode than I am used  to.  It wasn't until my fourth county that I 
finally drive through a town  with a Casey's open that could sell me a new 
9-volt battery (spending the $5 I  had been saving for supper).

Always next year.  Thanks for the  QSOs!

Kevin, K9IUA

P.S. A special public apology and thank you  to KV8Q.  I had problem with 
his call every time he worked me.  I  obviously still have trouble with V's 
and 4's despite all my years of doing  CW, because every time he called I 
wanted to make his call out to be K4ZQ or  something else.  I owe him a beer or 
something, as he hung in there and  worked me multiple times throughout my 
operation.  Thanks, Tom!  I  will have to check the log later, but either 
Tom or my old friend, John,  AA5JG, worked me the most times.
--  
-------------------------------------
Kevin Anderson, Dubuque IA USA,  K9IUA
k9iua (at) yahoo (dot)  com
-------------------------------------




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