[ILQSO] Apologies from N9JF/M

[n9jfcountyhunter at gmail.com]

My mobile activation yesterday was "fraught with peril".  Okay, that's too
poetic.  At any rate, I'm sure I sounded like a complete idiot much of the
time.  I had ongoing issues with the mag mount holding 40/20/15.  I THINK
it's a problem with the ground connection in the mag mount, but there was no
way to fix it on the road.  For some reason, the tuner compensated quickly
on 20 meters, but on 40, the output would drop to zero sporadically.  I
might send a call and then couldn't send my county.  I'm sure there were
many who tried to work me and just shook their heads and went on.  I finally
moved the 40 meter resonator to the front mag mount in place of 80, which
was acting fine but no one was calling.  From that point on, it performed
like a champ.

 In addition, the mobile rig has no working headphone jack, so I was
listening to the speaker...from the passenger seat....with my "deaf ear"
toward the speaker.   And sending left-handed....with a side tone that
matched the sound of the tires on the road.  Much of the time, I was
"sending by feel".   So....if you thought I was distracted, incompetent,
clueless or careless....take your pick.  Quite a few of you hung in there
and made it into the log.  I have no idea how many as I was logging on
paper.  I decided at the last minute not to try to throw the laptop and
logging program into the mix.  I knew I'd hate myself the next day (I have
no idea how much yet).  Anyhow, thanks to those who persisted.

We bit off too much of a route to cover.  With three counties where we had
to stop to activate (MRCR, MASN, BROW), there was no way we could get to
GREE and JERS.   The pileups were pretty entertaining.

Kudos as always to my driver, KB9CES, who not only kept us safe but didn't
scream back when I screamed at the radio on 40 meters...early on...

The good news is that we didn't wind up 3 1/2 hours from home like last
year.  Instead, we were 45 minutes away, and there was a catfish dinner to
be had.

73, Jim N9JF