[Mobile-Portable] Newbie to mobile ops

[Hal Offutt]

Ed,

I've been monitoring the responses to your original message.  It looks like
you're getting some good advice from the vast reservoir of experience on
this reflector.

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed your experience in the OK QSO Party.
Unfortunately I was out of the country and could not participate.  I'd love
to get down there sometime and join the fray as a mobile.

There are quite a few of us who are mainly interested in contesting who have
discovered how much contesting from a car can be.  We are not 
died-in-the-wool
mobilers like most of the guys who inhabit this reflector, but we have
learned enough about mobiling to put together effective stations that allow 
us to
operate the contests.  Many of us take all of our equipment out of our cars
after the contest until the next contest.  I personally operate a lot using
rental cars since I presently don't have a suitable vehicle for mobiling.  A
couple of times over the years I have packed up my gear in a suitcase and
have flown somewhere to operate a QSO party in a rental car (CA, WA, TX and
FL if my memory is correct).  I'll be heading to FL again this year to
operate in this way.

You can see how I have done a lot of my mobile contesting at the following:

www.japancorporateresearch.com/W1NNMobile.html

You probably already know this, but there are a growing number of 
opportunities to enjoy mobile contesting.  TX is right in your backyard and 
their QSO Party is quite popular.  County Hunter's Contest (CW) held during 
the first weekend of May has a lot of mobile activity.  The next closest 
contest to you with lots of mobile activity is probably the ILQP.  Other 
state QSO parties with a lot of mobile activity are IN, WI, OH, MI, CA, WA, 
PA, and the New England QSO Party.  They are pretty far to go just for a 
weekend contest, but more and more people are finding this worth doing. 
Norm, W3DYA  has driven from TX several times to operate the PAQP and the 
ILQP.  One W5 has driven to FL a couple of times to operate.  A friend of 
mine from PA who will be operating the MIQP in mid April will drive to FL to 
operate the FQP the next weekend!

K8MR and I will be doing a presentation at the Contest Forum in Dayton this
year on mobile contesting.  If you'll be in Dayton, please drop in and say
hello.

73,

Hal W1NN

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Gilliland" <w5tm at earthlink.net>
To: <mobile-portable at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 1:06 PM
Subject: [Mobile-Portable] Newbie to mobile ops


> After doing the Oklahoma QSO Party with K5PX as NN5Z I'm interested in
> getting a mobile setup.  I would appreciate any suggestions on my planned
> setup.
>
> 2003 Dodge diesel (noise problems?)
> High Sierra 1800 antenna (how does it compare to the Tar Heel antenna?)
> OMNI VI Plus
> NO5W CQ/x software for QSO Parties
> WriteLog for everything else
> Earthmate GPS
> Dell Inspiron Laptop
>
> Thanks, Ed/W5TM
>
> ----
> Your Moderator: Dick Flanagan K7VC, mobile-portable-owner at mailman.qth.net