[TVARC] Florida QSO Party: W3US SOABMixed HP

[w3us at casa-aloha.net]

Hello TVARC club mates and fellow FQP participants.

The Florida QSO Party tops the favorites as everyone works Florida and it's a great opportunity to run stations vs. a typical search & pounce contest.

The high level of interest from The Villages was phenomenal.  The party began with Bob, K3ZGA as 1st QSO (tnx Bob), then picked up George at K4VRC, Ken, WB2ART, Dennis, N0SMX, Joe, NK7U/4, Tom, K3WT (nice score), Ray ND8L/4, Ralph, N8RW, Paul, KM4PIH, Vince, K2ID, and Tony, K4QR.  Apologies if I missed anyone.

My original goal was to make 1000 QSOs, a personal PR.  At the end of the first day, with 845 Qs and all states except Alaska, I reset my goal to 1425 QSOs and 310K points.  This just happens to be a little over the Sumter Co record set by Pete, K2PS in 2020.  Spoiler:  I didn’t make it.  Pete’s achievement is safe for another year.

Observations:

- CW QSOs really dried up Sunday, but thankfully 20M SSB turned out to be a gold mine with endless callers and a surprising rate of 110 the last hour.

- Strong QSB was a negative factor, especially on SSB.

- My second slice was tuned to 15M most of the time, but the band was super disappointing with only 37 contacts

- Worked 20 1x1 fixed stations, but was not able to copy any of the mobiles.  I knew they were having fun as I could see tremendous pileups on the panadapter.

- Stats (just for George):  best QSO rate - 125 & 129 in the first and third hour, with a few burst rates of 150 lasting 16 min or less

In the end, I was still missing Alaska, but a KL7 (who turned out to be in Arkansas) did boost the adrenalin. 

73 to all and I hope you had as much fun.

Rusty - W3US

>                    Florida QSO Party - 2022
> 
> Call: W3US
> Operator(s): W3US
> Station: W3US
> 
> Class: SOABMixed HP
> QTH: FL
> Operating Time (hrs): 18
> 
> Summary:
> Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
> --------------------
>   40:  207       
>   20:  494    607
>   15:   36      1
>   10:            
> --------------------
> Total:  737    608  CW Mults = 77  Ph Mults = 65  Total Score = 295,360
> 
> Club: The Villages Amateur Radio Club
> 
> Comments:
> 
> Great fun, but where was Alaska?
> Flex 6600, PGXL, Hustler 6-BTV flagpole vertical and 20M MFJ Big Ear