[TAC] 2013 MiQP Adventure K8MM & K8MAD/P

Tue Apr 23 06:11:23 EDT 2013

Good Job.  We are leaving Florida tomorrow and should be back in 
Grayling this weekend.  Lets do some blue gill fishing this year

Martooooonie
On 4/22/2013 11:39 PM, Ian Hill - K8MM wrote:
> 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
> ______________________________________________________________
> TAC mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/tac
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:TAC at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>

____________________________________________________________
How to Sleep Like a Rock
Obey this one natural trick to fall asleep and stay asleep all night.
http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL3241/51765e4bdb7af5e4b2b5ast04duc