[TAC] 2013 MiQP Adventure K8MM & K8MAD/P

[Ian Hill - K8MM]

MiQP 2013 K8MAD
portable operation from Sanilac and Tuscola counties.


Last year, in the interest of putting some of the more rare counties on 
the air for a few hours, I decided to do a portable FD style operation 
from Tuscola county. This year I decided to add Sanilac county to the 
list as well. Both counties are close to home and an easy drive for me.

Since the place I operated from last year in Tuscola county was under 
several feet of flood water, I decided to use google to find another 
park to operate from. Using the satellite view part of google maps I 
looked at some parks from the air to see if there were any antenna 
supports (trees) close to a parking area andI found two great .

The first place I operated from was Marlette, MI in Sanilac county and 
when I first arrived there the WX was 32 degrees, windy and snowing. I 
walked around a little and found a great tree to hang the G5RV in. As I 
was hanging the antenna there was another car in the parking lot 
watching me do my thing and as I finished hanging the antenna the car 
left. Remembering that I had brought a magnetic sign with me that said 
"amateur radio communications" I stuck it on the door facing the road 
and climbed into the car, cranked the heat on high to thaw out and began 
operating. It wasn't a mere 2 minutes after the car left that I see the 
cops coming down the street toward me. They pulled into the parking lot 
and took a look at the wire and coax in the tree, then the sign on my 
door and fortunately after a brief pause, they left.

By the time everything was ready to go I was a few minutes late for the 
start of the contest. I thought I'd give 20 CW a quick look to see what 
was happening there and found a spot to call CQ. A N4 came back to me 
and he went into the log at 16:09z. Next an OM station called me and 
spotted me and a small pile-up ensued. That went on for about fifteen 
minutes with a couple other EU stations making it in the log then things 
slowed down a bit so I went to 20M SSB. I tried to find a spot in the 
general class portion of the band and worked a handful of US stations 
but never did get much of a run going so I decided it was time to go to 
40M SSB.

On 40M, I tuned around a bit and worked a couple guys then found a spot 
to call CQ. In previous years I didn't have a voice keyer so my CQ'ing 
on SSB wouldn't last very long and I missed a lot of mults because of 
it. This year was different as I took the time to record and edit 
several wave files and let N1MM call CQ for me and soon I had a nice run 
going. After a half hour the rate fell off and I moved down to the CW 
segment. Like before, I tuned around a bit and worked a couple guys then 
found a spot to call CQ. This turned out to be a smart move as I spent 
the next hour and twenty minutes running on that frequency before things 
slowed down and it was time to make another band change. Since 40M CW 
was so good I thought I'd go to 20M CW and see how it would treat me.

On 20M I quickly found a spot to call CQ and had a nice twenty minute 
run with a couple stations moving me to SSB. Things slowed down a bit 
again so I thought I'd give 15M a check. When I got there, 15M CW it was 
pretty quiet but I decided I'd call CQ for a couple minutes and see what 
would happen. After a minute or so CQ'ing I was answered by a loud 
French station and it was clear the band was wide open to EU but after a 
couple more minutes of calling without a reply it was time to make 
another band change.

Remembering that sometimes guys would be on 80M CW during the day I went 
down there and had a look but only found one station calling CQ and 
after we worked nothing else was happening so it was time to go back to 
40M SSB and try to work some of the mobile stations. I did some S&P 
hoping for some of the mobiles but didn't find and so I found a spot and 
called CQ again. This time I was able to have a little over an hour run 
before things slowed down. By this time it was 20:15z and almost time to 
pack up and head to TUSC. I did another scan of the band and fifteen 
minutes later I put my last qso from Sanilac county in the log. I stayed 
an hour longer than I had planned but the nice long run on 40M SSB and 
the station I heard from GENE with a pretty high serial number took the 
pressure of to getting back home to put that multiplier on the air.

I was happy with the 240 Q's I made in five hours and felt that I gave 
ample opportunity for MiQP'ers to work SANI on both modes on several bands .

It was still cold, windy and snowing when I took the antennas down and 
the ground was all muddy from all the rain we've been 
getting...completely opposite WX of last years MiQP. As I rolled up the 
antenna and coax I tried to think ahead and make everything easy to 
deploy when I got to Tuscola county.


TUSCOLA County.....

I took the cross country route (is there any other?) from SANI to TUSC 
finding that there were a few detours and road closures from all the 
flooding we've been experiencing in the 'Thumb'. Upon arriving in 
Millington, MI I found the park I was looking for and did a quick drive 
around to find a good spot to hang the G5RV. My search located two tall 
white pine trees the perfect height and distance apart. After two shots 
with my sling shot I soon had my support ropes in place, tied to the 
antenna and began pulling it up into the trees. This time the wind was 
blocked by a nice wooded area of tall pines and I wasn't freezing by the 
time I hopped back in to the car to operate. I took a quick look at the 
clock and was pleased that I only had an hour and forty minutes of off 
the air time between tear down, a pit stop for gas, transit time and set 
up in a new location.

I turned on the radio and there was K8BTT calling CQ. We worked and I 
put the first qso from TUSC into the log at 22:10z. I did a little more 
S&P and after having to explain to three different stations that I was 
in a new county and was NOT a dupe I decided it would be best to call CQ 
saying I was now in TUSC. I found a nice clear frequency and I had a 
nice forty minute run. It was starting to slow down when N4PN asked me 
to QSY to 20M SSB where we worked and then we did a quick QSY to CW and 
worked again. A quick QRZ from me netted a NU7 then DL2HBX. Uli and I 
worked on CW then we QSY'ed to SSB where we put each other in the log 
again. Nobody else called on SSB so back to my 20M CW frequency for a 
few more Q's. A couple minutes later a K0 worked then moved me to 14.151 
where we worked again. Then several other stations were calling and at 
first I thought they were calling me but it quickly became apparent they 
weren't but were trying to work K8MR/****. After the pile-up had cleared 
Jim was barely audible and I gave him a call or two but I knew he 
wouldn't hear me, so off to 40M CW.

On 40 CW I did a quick S&P sweep then found a place to call CQ. I worked 
a couple stations then got spotted and the dx cluster pile-up came. Uli 
made it into the log again with a lot of other out of state MQP 
regulars. I ran that frequency for an hour and put roughly 90 more guys 
in the log on 40 CW. By this time it was getting really close to sunset 
and things had slowed down and 40 had gone long so it was time to QSY to 
80M.

I went to 80M CW and found that it wasn't really busy yet so a CQ 
frequency was easy to find. After a couple of CQ's a DL0 answered me 
followed by a couple more guys, then I hit the dx cluster and the 
pile-up came in force. I cranked up the keyer speed, ala K8MR, and 
worked the pile down thanks to some really great ops on the other end. 
The time was now 00:30z and I had tentatively planned to pack up and 
leave by 01z so it was time to head to SSB. On 80 phone I did a quick 
sweep of the band looking for MQP stations between all of the 'pig 
farmers' and finally found a place that I could call CQ. I parked up 3 
KHz from another MQP station and got to work. I stayed there for 20 
minutes but never did seem to hit the dx cluster and things had slowed 
down and now I was only 10 minutes away from my self imposed departure 
deadline of 01Z. I looked at my qso total and noticed I was getting 
close to my qso total of 240 Q's from SANI so I decided to leave when I 
reached that mark. After another 40 minutes of flopping back and forth 
between 80 CW and SSB I reached my goal and it was 01:30z and time pack 
up. I got out of the car and realized that I left my headlamp at the 
house. Not wanting to draw attention to myself by turning on my car 
headlights, I just packed up using the light from the moon. After a half 
hour of clean up it was time to head back to my home station in GENE 
where I would finish out the contest using my own call – K8MM.

Interesting score numbers...same # of qso's in each county of 240.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SANI 240 X 120 = 42,240 with 4:19 time on and working 54 Counties
TUSC 240 X 103 = 40,170 with 3:22 time on and working 44 Counties




Back home in GENE.......

I went off the air in TUSC county at 01:30z and packed up and headed 
home to GENE county. When I got home and after a quick snack and chat 
with the XYL I went down into the shack and put the rig on 80 CW and put 
the first station in the log at 02:42z. Since I hadn't heard any GENE 
mults on CW earlier in the day I decided to make a concentrated effort 
of giving out the mult out on CW and trying to make at least 100 q's in 
the short amount of time I had left.

I did my usual quick S&P sweep of the CW band and then found a place to 
call CQ. A couple minutes later I hit the DX cluster as fresh meat and 
had a nice 30 minute run before the rate slowed and it was time to go to 
40M CW. On 40 CW I worked a couple of stations and then was called by 
Uli. We completed our CW QSO then he moved me to SSB and we worked 
again. After that I went right back to my CW frequency and was soon 
spotted on the dx cluster. I had another nice run that lasted for 15 
minutes of mostly out of state stations because of the 'long' 40M band 
conditions.

A quick move to 80M SSB only netted a few Q's so back down to CW I went. 
By this time it 03:45z and I was still 15 Q's short of my 100 QSO goal. 
I pushed hard and kept swapping between 40 and 80 CW and SSB and at 
03:57:30 I was still 4 Q's short of my goal. I decided to go back to 40M 
CW and CQ hoping for some more guys to put in the log. As luck would 
have it, my first CQ was answered by a K0 and then followed by a mini 
run of four more out of state stations putting me at 101 Q's. I still 
had 30 seconds left to spare but nobody else answered my CQ and the 2013 
MiQP was over.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

GENE 101 X 44 = 8,624 with 1:22 time on working 16 counties.


With all operating locations combined I made 581 Qso's. I also drove 102 
miles and had a total of roughly three hours of set-up, tear-down and 
transit time during the contest, which isn't too bad for two counties 
with field day style antennas and unhooking the rig and reinstalling it 
in my home station.

There were some hiccups with the computer and radio equipment. The used 
is an old Pentium II running Win98 and ver 8 of N1MM. I keep using it 
because it will run directly off the 13.8V from the car and I don't have 
to use an inverter that generates a lot of HF noise. There is a problem 
with the laptop timing and it mangles some CW characters, so I would 
have to sometimes send a marco a couple times before it was sent 
correctly. I didn't take paddles with me since I type in the 'keyer 
window' of N1MM to send CW when I'm not using a macro. I was also having 
problems with RF getting into the Rigblaster on SSB in spite of using 
1:1 transformers and torroids. I guess all that's left is to add some RF 
bypass capacitors to get rid of the RF problem.

Thanks for all the Q's and thanks to all the in state, out of state and 
DX stations that make this contest a lot of fun to operate.

73,
Ian - K8MAD/SANI, K8MAD/TUSC, and K8MM