[PaQSO] Musings from CAR

[Mark Kempisty]

As I've mentioned before my personal goal is to operate from all six PA 
"regions" and this year I headed from home in BUX to CAR. 

I took Friday off of work, got the kids off to school and finished 
packing up for the trip.  Not too exciting but I kept remembering one 
more item that I needed.  In the end I ended up forgetting one thing (a 
desk lamp) but I survived with the pop-up camper's overhead lights.

My wife asked me how I intended to back the camper into the campground 
spot without her directing me and I replied that I was still working on 
that detail.  It turned out that the site was a pull-through which 
eliminated that hassle.  There were more people in the campground than I 
expected and I was leery of using my slingshot to get a line over a 
branch so I decided to go the fishing pole route.  First cast I had the 
line exactly where I wanted it.  It was a little challenging getting the 
dipole's legs around the branches but I got it done.  I also put up a 
2m/440 Ringo and a B&W Apartment Antenna for 6m. 

The DX-CC dipole performed as well as last year.  The shorting plug I 
made for 160m also did its job and I was able to tune up there easily.  
However, I don't think my 706 liked the B&W antenna.  I did not see any 
power going out and I need to take a look at that.  It may have been the 
MFJ tuner not being designed for 6m.  I only had three VHF/UHF contacts 
so the return on investment on putting the Ringo up was not too good.  
But that was three more than I would have had.

I fired up the radio and one of the first things I did was tune to WWV 
at 15 MHz to set the time.  Um, where are they?  Down to 10 MHz, I can 
barely hear them in the background.  Down to 5MHz, there they are; looks 
like the MUF is pretty low.

Contest time rolls around and I'm off on 40m.  When the rate slows down 
I figure I'll hop over to 10m and grab some mults.  Nothing!  Same for 
15m  and 20m is barely open.  And that pretty much defined the weekend.  
Last year I had about 150 Q's on 20, 15 and 10 and this year was less 
than 50.  And over the course of Sunday the noise level was creeping up 
on 40m.  By 2 PM it was a solid S5 across the band.  This year I 
actually gave 40 CW a shot to add a few more points.

I'm 1 for 3 in new things tried.  The 160m shorting plug let me get up 
there and add a bunch QSO's but 6m, 2 and 440 didn't pan out.  At least 
I didn't spend too much time on putting those antennas up.

The view from the campground with the trees changing gorgeous.  It is on 
the side of a mountain and looks out over a valley and several other 
ranges.  Makes hitting the road worth it.  I grabbed a lot of pix.  
Weather was also perfect.  A little chilly when I got up in the mornings 
but nothing too drastic.

Here is my summary:
               QSO's                    POINTS                       
MULTIPLIERS
  160/80 CW =     0            x 2.0 =    0.0       Counties Worked =   67
   Other CW =     8            x 1.5 =   12.0       Sections Worked =   39
   SSB & FM =   518            x 1.0 =  518.0           DX (1 only) =    1
Total QSO's =   526     Total Points =  530.0     Total Multipliers =  107
 
                         RAW SCORE (Total Points x Total Multipliers) =  
56710.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BONUS MULTIPLIERS:
 
   QRP enter 2, Novice/Tech enter 3, BOTH enter 5, neither enter 
1:          1
                        TOTAL SCORE = (Raw Score x Bonus Multipliers) =  
56710.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPECIAL EVENT STATION BONUS POINTS:
 
                 Number of QSO's with W3KWH            3 x 200 points = 
+    600
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MOBILE AND ROVER BONUS POINTS:  (Pennsylvania Mobile and Rovers only)
 
       Number of Counties/locations operated from:       ______ x 500 = 
+_______
       (Note: Mobiles and Rovers, minimum of 10 QSO's per County.)
 
================================================================================
                           FINAL SCORE = (Total Score + Bonus Points) =  
57310.0
================================================================================
 

-- 
Take care,
Mark N3GNW