[PaQSO] greetings from K0BAK/R

[Pete K0BAK via PaQSO]

Had a fun time operating rover for my first mobile HF contest last year; liked it so much I also participated mobile in VA & MD parties this year. Looking forward to going out again this year in PA, with several rover station improvements.


Thanks:
- To those on this reflector who answered my questions last year about HF roving. Helped this rookie to have the confidence to go on the road.
- To N3XLS, a true gentleman, who relinquished his calling frequency on a crowded band and spotted me to let me run in Juniata and give out that fairly rare county to a couple dozen contesters.
- To Mike Coslo, who patiently helped me to fill out the multiple form submissions for county operations.
- To KD8MQ, for recently posting the analysis of PQP results to rank rare counties. I am starting to use this information to plan my rove this year to visit as many rare ones as I reasonably can.
- And of course, thanks to Mr. Coslo and all the other many volunteers who make all this possible.

I "won" the rover division last year, but there were only two rover entries. Let me again suggest that the rover versus mobile distinction be eliminated, with the rules changed to allow any type of antenna be used by a mobile, PROVIDED THAT ALL EQUIPMENT INCLUDING ANTENNAS AND POWER MUST BE CARRIED IN OR ON THE VEHICLE. This is a common stricture for contest rules for roving in both state QSO parties and VHF contests, and eliminates the use of large fixed antennas (pulling up at friend's fixed station and using his tower and beam antennas for instance). Let the mobile stations decide on the tradeoffs between setup time versus performance, rather than having a separate class of mobiles.

Already looking forward to this year's Party,
-- Pete K0BAK