[ILQSO] For KJ9C

[Danny Pease]

On behalf of KJ9C


Left Indy a bit late but got to Kendall county early and staked out a run
frequency on 40 meters....  forty was good all day long, so in-state folks
shouldn't complain, as 578 raw QSOs were on 40, mostly CW. Missed a few
turns, but stayed pretty close to the announced schedule. Only Murphy visit
was intermittent 80 meter antenna when moving. Had to wait until finally
parked in Wabash County to work 80.

Rig - K3/100 with separate hamsticks for 40, 20 and 80

Miles driven - 263 in the QSO parry, 620 for the day... drive time 15 hours

QSOs - 769  raw QSOs, about 850 with multi-county contacts.... Best rate -
rate meter showed a whopping 208/hour rate in late afternoon!

Counties activated - 16, starting at KEND and making it to WABA at 0025...

What I could have done better......
-  could have added 160 quick band-mode-counties as I passed N9FN's site if
their logging had been working better (5 bands, 2 modes, them in 4 counties
and me moving quickly from county to county on approach and passing by on
Hwy 49)... they were my only 2 meter QSO
-  Checked 80 meters a few times and then discovered that the rig was still
looking for a beverage antenna on that band... once I switched RX to the
hamstick  the band came alive, lots of good signals
-  Should have spent more time on phone looking for in-state mults.... only
54 phone QSOs.... called many, but I guess they did not hear me.... looks
like I will fall way short on multipliers this year
- Anybody got experience with those USB port LED lamps? Needed better
lighting on the keyboard once it got dark, the overhead in the car was too
weak. Touch typing helps but occasionally gotta look at the keyboard for
those "special" keys

What worked....
 - the weather was GREAT!!! Only ran the A/C a few times, lots of sunshine.
 - As usual the K3 is a great mobile rig. However, its NB swamped when the
big guns started calling CQ in the mobile window....time to upgrade to the
new synth board
- Lots of folks following the mobiles, I could tell when I had been
spotted... average QSO rate was 90+ per hour... not bad for a single op,
mobile or not...
-  Biggest repeat customers :  AE8M, K9CT, K9PG, K3TW, K4AMC, N9FN, K4FT,
K5KPE, K9WX, KI7MT (one of our Big Sky folks), N3RM, N4IQ, N4PN, NM9C, NW0M,
VE2FK, VE5SDH, W0GXQ, W1DWA, W1END, W2CVW, WA3HAE, WA4GQG, WA8ZBT... thanks
to all I worked, for many contacts or just one contact....

N9JF and I kind of agreed in May that I would no longer beg him to come to
Indiana to help with INQP and that this ILQP would be my last as a
mobile.... getting too old for 15 hour drives.. we'll see what next year
brings... but the 2016 INQP on May 7 will be special as it is Indiana's
bicentennial as a state,
Mel    KJ9C/m