N4T,N4cwz NC QSO Party CW Rover

[dave collins]

NCQP N4T(N4CWZ) Cnty Exped LP
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Sun, Mar 1, 9:39 PM (9 hours ago)
to me
                    North Carolina QSO Party - 2026

Call: N4T
Operator(s): N4CWZ
Station: N4T

Class: Cnty Exped LP
QTH: nc
Operating Time (hrs): 10

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
   80:
   40:  438
   20:  253
   15:
   10:
    6:
    2:
----------------------------
Total:  691     0       0  Mults = 70  Total Score = 145,160

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

riding and typing on a keyboard in the back seat of an f 150 is an acquired
skill,especially heading thru the hills.. I just got home  Dont know how
many
counties we ended up with,activating.... long day but.... it was "grand
Fun"  Dont even know if this is the right category :)  thanks for the
q's and thanks to everyone that followed me on the bands as I went thru the
counties.. Thanks  Dave n4cwz


*TLDR  I had a great time *
Ok this is going to be one of my longer post  So thats whay I put "to long
didnt read" :)

Ok this was an "experience" I had a blast.. Well we all miss Tripp,N4NTO
and I had really planned on doing this event with him but never had the
chance.....  So I got the call N4T in his honor... Mike N4GU told me how to
get a 1x1 and it was truly easy!!  Applied for
it and got it in a couple of days.. Ok preparation.. There is a podcast I
listen to and one of the fellow VE6LK.says when preparing for an adventure
like this "one is none,two is one"  So a backup for everything  I had that
mindset when I went into this . So i made sure
I had a backup for everything.. I didn't but I tried.. I met a buddy online
and he is a CW phenom. Went from 0 to 35 wpm in a year!!  Incredible,so I
had asked if he would come and work the event with me,he lives in Tennessee
and ended up work got in the way so he
had to backout about a week before.. He felt bad,so I wracked my
brain,wondering who would drive for me... My great friend Ed.. We've been
friends for 30 plus years!!!  But he doesn't really "get" ham radio,but for
me,he would do anything.. So he said he was good to go.
Backing up a little,I stopped in Raleigh at Jim's K4QPL's and he graciously
offered for me to borrow his screwdriver antenna.. And man did that thing
work awesome!!!!  Incredible.. I had noooo idea.
Ok Friday got here and I was making cables,oh,ran the entire event on
battery and had 78 amp hr between two of them and I knew it would be
close.... So I ordered another 50 amp hr just do have because to run out of
battery,8 hours into the event and not being done
well mad,wouldn't have been a good term for what i would have been.. The
battery got here,they left it at the apartment office and I picked it up 10
minutes before they closed on Saturday...... I was sweating that .  So I
wired up power poles to it,and I knew I would
be good!!!!
So my buddy gets here at 830 and we're off.. I had a route,version
1.11111111119,literally did it that many times,but the final one was done..
I ran aprs on my phone,downloaded a county line app,that I need to cancel
today and we were off.. . Now there are 10 "rare"
counties in NC and several were up in the "hills" Allegheny?,Ashe?,anyhow I
had 5 of the 10 on the route. I truly know why they are rare,especially
mobile. More on that in a minute..
So my buddy gets in the truck,now he's one of those kinds that takes 20
minutes to adjust his seat,get everything just right,u know the type,but
we're off.. Everything was working well,batteries good,antenna perfect..
The day was nice.. It was going to be a great day and it was... We started
in Davie,which was on the "rare" list and then we started moving.. Now
backing up,I had worked the naqp rtty contest with the corncrib and took
the last leg of the contest,had a blast but didnt get alot of sleep the nite
before... So i stopped and got a couple energy drinks.. Thank goodness for
them.. So we start moving and going up in elevation. . My buddy is getting
used to the brakes in my truck,little ruff at first but he gets the hang of
it.. Now I'm telling him "take it easy on me back here" but at the same
time he was doing me a great favor!!!!!  So moving along we get up in the
hills and that's when it got interesting.. Any of yall that know 221,yeah
it's curvy..  I was holding onto the rig,with one hand,typing with the
other,and had my legs wrapped around the battery,trying to keep it from
sliding across the floor of the truck........ I woke up a little sore today
and now I know why :)  So moving onto about 3 pm,I was tired,dont really
remember about how many q's I had,remember that I'm tired and all of a
sudden,cw just sounded like a bunch of dits and dahs.. Couldn't copy a
thing!!!!! :):)  Ok,back off the energy drinks:)  Hit the water I brought,I
settled back in,but there was a couple moments of terror where I thought I
might not get my copying skills  back :):)  I cranked up the speed a little
bit,and that got the blood flowing again and the water flushed a little of
the caffeine out of my brain:):)  I settled down.
We finally came out of the hills,and then hit some towns.. I thought the
hard part was over....Au contraire:)  Going thru towns,the stoplights would
sneak up on my buddy and he slammed my head into the front seat a couple of
times with a "hard brake" at a stoplight:):)  Once a curve snuck up on him
and the "desk" that I had made tipped over and by the Grace of God,I caught
it.... now remember,every time i get into a new county,Im "fresh meat"  I
would get hammered,but at that point,it was alot of the same people,made it
sooo much easier. A couple of times I cranked the speed up to 37 to cull
the herd out,it worked and I worked the pileup pretty efficiently.  Several
times,and If I hurt anyone's feeling I apologize,someone with a bug would
call me and they had noooo business using a bug.. We've all worked ops like
that.. So in those instances to me ,I just couldn't "deal" with it and I
would QSY and the "herd" would have to look for me and they found me pretty
quickly,, All while I'm sure the guy with the bug was still calling me on
the previous frequency :):) unbeknown to him,that I had qsy'd.
We make it to the farthest  point east and I tell Eddy,"stop"lets just sit
here,I'm not going any farther east,we've done what I wanted to,it was the
last "rare" county and I worked the "herd", "let's head home"!!
We hit the interstate,85 and I'm telling u,it was like sitting at my desk
here in the shack!!!!!  nothing was sliding around,no head bobbing,my head
stayed off of the back of the front seat.. Man it was
smooooooth sailing!!!!!!!!!  When the closing bell rung,we were in Alamance
County with two more to get home,and I was happy with what we had done!!!!!
So my takeaways.. I have huge!!!!!!! respect for Bert N4cw,Jim ad4eb and
all of the "road warriors"  It's a tuff gig!!!!! but damned, looking back,
I had a blast.. Being the dx is something!!!!!  My cw skill is better,my
pileup skills are better and damned if it wasn't fun.. I need to do some
major improvements to my "setup"but I know exactly what to do and I have a
year to "cipher" out exactly how to do it,but I will not!!!!!! chose the
same route :):)  Maybe something a tick more straight and flat!!!!!  :):)
If u made it reading this far,I hope u got a chuckle outta it.. I'm
laughing and smiling typing this.. My best of 73 and thanks to all of yall
that worked me,thanks to Jim for letting me borrow the antenna,it worked
incredible and if not before,Lord willing will see I hope alot of yall at
Rarsfest.. Best 73
Dave N4cwz......ex N4T  73

--
Dave Collins
David Collins GC Inc