[PaQSO] W3ZI M/M summary and comments

[John Unger]

Ten hams (and one first-rate cook!) from northern Virginia invaded Berks 
County for the PAQP this year and set up a Field Day type M/M station with 
the callsign W3ZI for the weekend. It was a great success, and we all had a 
terrific time! Here are our preliminary numbers:

BAND   CW    SSB
2       0     11
15     35      4
20     64    757
40    316    384
80    226    327
160    30     23
-----------------
       671   1496

We have a total of 144 mults (including 67 PA counties!!!) and worked the 
N3SH bonus station 23 times.

So our total score looks like it will be about 383,392!

Operators: W3ZI, AI2C, NC4S, W4AU, K8SYH, NA4MA, K3HE, WA9LAZ, KF4TJI, KF4TJJ

COMMENTS:
The plans for the 2006 invasion of Berks County by the Loudoun Amateur 
Radio Group (LARG, from Loudoun County, Virginia) more or less evolved over 
about six months. For many years one of our members, Bill, K8SYH, had 
operated as a portable station in the PAQP from a campground in the rare 
Somerset County; I had operated out-of-state from Virginia for many years; 
and Norm, AI2C, operated /3 from his family farm in Berks County last year 
part time.

Originally, we thought it would be fun to mount a mini-M/M or M/2 operation 
from that same location in Somerset, but as interest was generated and it 
looked like we may have as many as a dozen operators, Norm, AI2C, 
generously offered to let us use his family farm in Berks for our 2006 PAQP 
operation. However, we were not going to have the luxury of just showing up 
and operating at a "real" M/M station. The only permanent antennas at 
Norm's farm are 40 and 80 meter dipoles.

The planning evolved over a couple of months, and we finally zeroed in on a 
M/M station with 5 HF rigs. Mark, W3ZI, decided to accompany us and let us 
use his FB callsign; that made things easier. The stealth LARG caravan 
sneaked into PA on the Friday morning before the QP and began setting up. 
Norm had been there a few days before us and had erected a second dipole 
for 75 and a big, low 160 meter dipole. He had also put up his 15 meter 
3-element beam on a 40' ladder. We arrived with our secret weapon, the 
club's trailer-mounted 60' crank-up tower which we used to put up a 
4-element beam for 20, along with a 2M vertical. We also put up a 40 meter 
vertical loop on a 40' mast, which would be used for the CW station on that 
band. Our final configuration looked like this:

Station 1 (W4AU), 40 CW - TenTec Omni VI+, 40M vertical loop.

Station 2 (AI2C), 40 SSB - Kenwood 440, 40M dipole

Station 3 (NC4S), 20 CW&SSB - TenTec Omni VI+, Alpha 78, 4-ele beam

Station 4 (W3ZI), 80 CW, 160 CW&SSB, and 15 CW&SSB - Kenwood 850, dipoles, 
and 3-ele beam for 15M

Station 5 (W3ZI), 75 SSB, 2FM - Kenwood 2000, dipole, Diamond vertical.

The only problem with our setup was with occasional interference between 
the two 40 meter stations even though the two antennas were separated by 
about 300'.

Without an exception all of us had a fantastic time and our results far 
exceeded our expectations. We had a clean sweep of the PA counties, worked 
all the ARRL sections except AK, PR, and VI, and worked 8 of the 13 
Canadian provinces.

Thanks to everyone for all the Q's, and our hats are off the those intrepid 
mobile ops who seemed to be occupying a new county every time we turned 
around. For me personally it was great to return to the Keystone State. I 
was first licensed in 1956 as WN3GOI up in the "Back Mountain" region of 
Luzerne County, and this was the first time I had operated from PA since 
about 1961! I can't say what our plans are for next year, but keep an eye 
out...

tnx es 73 - John, W4AU


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