[PaQSO] Like Apollo 13

[Peter Albright]

As my partner-in-everything-XYL-driver Laurie, KB3GLX, crossed us into CRA,
the last county of our itinerary at 2143 Sunday afternoon and I scrambled to
make at least 10 Q's, I could not help but think of Apollo 13.

It all started a few months ago, when we decided to do the 2012 PAQP as our
first mobile contest. The plan was simple. I was going to do my best without
buying anything more than necessary to put a station on the air from our
Jeep. I had a deep-cycle battery, a K3, a laptop computer, a three-magnet
antenna mount, and an SG-237 SmartTuner. My only purchase was a $25 102"
whip from Radio Shack. If I had fun, next year will be all-out.

Laurie was on board for this. You have to understand, Laurie suffers from
motion sickness unless she is driving. She is always the DD. The weekend
before, we had driven to Philadelphia to celebrate the first birthday of our
seventh grandchild. Laurie was psyched, ready for another road trip. After
some discussion about strategy, I left the itinerary up to her. That was the
smartest decision I made all month. We logged at least ten contacts in each
of 21 different counties.

In spite of my good intentions, preparation was Spartan. In the two weeks
before the contest, one adult kid wrecked a truck in Ohio, one had a
domestic crisis, the state showed up to inspect on a complaint (health
care), several unexpected and unavoidable meetings materialized, and more.
I found time to remove the shotgun passenger front seat and replace it with
a small table for the laptop. I sat my own rear end in the back seat, with
the K3 strapped with bungee cords to the top an empty beer case to my left.
I plugged things in and made sure everything lit up. Lesson number one - the
beer case should not have been empty.

Because I was behind in grading papers - my moonlighting job - we did not
hit the road until 1945 Saturday afternoon. It did not take long for me to
realize that I was working in S9 noise. My apologies to every operator who
had to repeat info, over and over. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your
repeats. Lesson number two - bond everything to ground.

I also discovered that some metal parts were somewhat hot with RF.  Let's
just say that this might be an understatement. Like one of BF Skinner's
dogs, I quickly learned to keep my left hand away from the exposed shell of
a DB-9 serial connector and my right flank away from the seatbelt hardware.
Another side effect of the loose RF was that it killed the F keys of
wireless keyboard I intended to use. Because the laptop keyboard was at a
very uncomfortable position, I jumped back and forth. Wireless keyboard for
logging exchanges and laptop keyboard for F keys. Lesson number three - bond
everything to ground.

Did I mention that I made the idiotic mistake of upgrading my N1MM files
right before we left? Yep, that's right. My reflexive F key definitions were
gone, and I was not familiar with the NEW process for redefining them. If I
sounded like I was struggling, perception reflected reality. Lesson number
four - update and test software ahead of time.
To make things worse, I had grabbed an old surplus MFJ key just in case I
might need to send something manually. I sent a LOT manually. Next year, the
good Bencher gets bolted to my left leg. Lesson number five - surgically
implant key mounting hardware in left leg.

As it got dark, we headed south from MCK to CRN county. We also went
downhill. Down. Down. Down. I asked Laurie if we were below sea level.
Signals faded, and it became difficult to make any contacts. I made a bad
mistake by sending the county as CAM for the first few Q's. Cameron, it
makes sense. Again, my apologies to those who I goofed up. CR_P in CRN.
Lesson number six and seven -use topographical map to plan itinerary, and
review memorized county abbreviations.
We turned around in Emporium and headed back uphill, but the signals did not
return. CR_P again. I accurately guessed that one of two things had
happened: either the rapture, or a solar event.

We headed up and out to POT. Out of the mist came the lights of the new
Westgate hotel in Coudersport. Laurie made a quick left-right, and we
stopped for the night. Sign on the door says something like, "If you are a
gas well worker, take your boots off." Pizza delivered to the door. Lesson
number eight -don't use EMPTY beer cases as rig table.
Sunday AM, we headed out shortly after the starting gun. We missed one turn
and missed SUL. It didn't matter. (Remember, I ended up with only 17 minutes
to make 10 contacts in CRA.) We hit LYC, MTR, NUM. Somewhere in there,
Laurie stopped at a Subway to grab lunch while I operated from the parking
lot. One of the two cigarette lighter fuses blew, and I had to perform
emergency 12VDC splices. Lesson number nine - run DC line to primary car
battery.
After eating subs, we got on I-80W. Did you know that the NUM/UNI county
line runs through the middle of a rest stop? Lesson number ten - get a
better map.

The situation deteriorated when the other cigarette lighter plug crumped.
Shuffle connections. Strip and twist wires. Hey, the silver lining is that
with the battery charger out of the circuit, the noise drops to S7. The dark
cloud is that the computer is down to only 25% battery charge, and I have to
reduce the power output of the K3 to 40W. I limit myself to eleven or twelve
Qs per county, then turn off the rig to conserve battery power.
Laurie is pushing the speed limit, trying to get me to Crawford.  The
computer can't be trusted. The K3 is cranked down almost to QRP. I switch to
a paper log just as we cross the county line into CRA. The first few Q's are
painfully slow. Will we squeeze in ten?

Made it, with two or three minutes to spare!

Next year - rent an appropriate vehicle. Install extra batteries and a
linear. Talk Steve, WA3A, and Jackie into joining us. See lessons #1 - 10.