[OKDXA] K5YAA Rovin' Party Rambles

[okdxa@mailman.qth.net]

OKDXA Party Folks:

I took out the map this morning and decided to change routes with a swing through southern Rogers -> across Mayes -> tap Delaware -> into a tidbit of Adair -> across Cherokee and -> into Muskogee then -> Waggoner and back home for the evening.  Didn't put together an overnight in Haskell so missed Haskell and Sequoyah.  Got back home just after sunset so the distance and pace was just about right.

Tomorrow afternoon will attempt west to Pawnee, up to Osage, across Washington into Nowata, Craig, Ottawa and Mayes coming back home.  Didn't get to do any CW from Mayes and the XYL was doing the speed limit (75) through Mayes so it ended up with the smallest number of Qs next to Adair.  Mayes needs another pass.

The mobile jaunt was a ball.  Several stations hung around waiting for new mults.  A surprising number of CW Qs - 20% of the total.  The old Vibroplex Original has a large base and it stayed put on the dash just fine.  Only one instance of a 5 sounding like a large part of the alphabet when we hit a string of bumps.  A well equipped mobile would undoubtedly have a laptop with digital voice, cw interfaces and possibly a bar in the back.  Who drives around with a bug on the dash and headphones on his head?  

Ans: An OKDXAer from Rogers County operating the OKQP.

Maybe a PC next year.  That will at least remove the bug from the dash.  Another item I had to watch was making sure I made a note when I moved into another county.  I entered my mobile Qs into a database when I got home and I had to interpolate from timeframes, callsigns and little side marks on the paper where I had moved into Cherokee from Adair.  I'm pretty sure I got it right.

The pass through Cherokee on Hwy 10 was nice landscape but the very high rock cliffs on the west of the road squelched westerly Qs until we got to Talequah.  In Talequah I stuck my 40 meter stick on, listened a bit, called CQ and K5SIT gave me a call - wow the WebMaster had time for a Q.  Great signals but not much activity on 40 right then.  Broadcast was not heating up yet so it would have been possible to make some good contacts yet no one around.

Undoubtedly 20 meters was the band.  I was working Texas and then EA6LB called me with a 10 over 9 signal.  Mobile DX was EA6, EI4 and CX4.  15 seemed real long.  The Judge, K4BAI in GA said he had to turn his beam NE to work me using backscatter on 15 yet he said he was hearing Coy out west loud and clear on 15.  I never put the 10 meter stick on.  10 seemed poor from the home QTH this morning.  Some Qs but most of them DX and they wanted my name, QTH, 10-10 number and as they say "Working Conditions".  A painful pace with all that info being exchanged.

Overall a fun weekend so far and it ain't over yet.

Dave I hope your E-Mail box is a bigun.  From the action I've heard seems like their may be quite a few logs.

73 - K5YAA