September/October 2000 NCJ

Trooper was eating lunch across thelittle park and called for road service; Ionly lost an hour!Or when I stopped on a road in thewoods in northwestern Pennsylvania toinstall my 80-meter Hustler resonator inplace of the 10-meter in my four-resonatorassembly and a car pulls up behindme and a woman gets out. She doesn’tknow me except I’m a ham—as is herhusband, and it turns out I’ve known himfor several years. I suggested sheshouldn’t be stopping in the woods tomeet other hams, but she said she knewit wouldn’t be a problem ’cause hamsare friendly people!Or when I drove through a fast-fooddrive-in and my antenna banging on thebuilding overhang woke me up! Samewith motels and my garage door when Igot home!My wife used to drive for me and Iremember one funny thing that happened.I was urging her to drive faster tothe next county line when she wasstopped by a state trooper who gave hera warning. Now I thought that was reallyfunny! I never complain about her speedanymore, though!I wish I could tell you why I do it, really!I don’t operate mobile to win or getawards—got too many plaques on thewall and certificates in the file to meanmuch.Obviously I enjoy CW! And I enjoyhearing calls that I’ve known for a longtime, some from the late ’60s. Basically,I guess it’s CW, old acquaintances showingup unexpectedly, and an opportunityto meet some friends in person.I started mobile operation in ’67 as afavor to give out counties to a group ofcounty hunters on 40-meter CW. Fromthere, it just seemed natural to runcounties in state contests—they alwaysattract county hunters and they reallyappreciate it!Michigan QSO Party—K8CCIn the past thirteen months, I’veparticipated as a mobile entry in threestate QSO parties. I usually team upwith Ken, W8MJ. We take turns drivingand operating.Mobile contesting is a lot of fun ifyou’re operating from the target state. Itis also a great equalizer—hams whocannot set up a competitive contest stationat home due to antenna restrictionsor TVI/RFI can be a “mobile big gun”from the car.It is not difficult to put together a goodmobile contest station. In our case, wedon’t have a permanent mobile installation,so we assemble a temporary mobilecontest station in the back seat ofmy Jeep. We use an ICOM IC-756, alaptop logging computer with a paddleand keying interface, and a Heil headset32and foot switch. Antennas are fastenedto the roof of the vehicle with a multimagnetmount. The entire setup can beinstalled or removed in a couple of hours.Mobile operating in state QSO parties—particularlyfrom rare or uncommoncounties in the target state—canmake you a pretty popular station. Otherparticipants will follow you from countyto county or between CW and SSB,often generating instant pileups. In thethree state QSO parties I’ve participatedin so far, we’ve totaled almost 1,800QSOs in 36 hours of operating for anaverage rate of 50 per hour.The key is to think like a big gun andoperate aggressively. Call CQ as oftenas you can, and switch bands or modesto keep the rate up or to work multipliers.In short, operate pretty much like youwould at home.To sum up, mobile contesting is funbecause it’s different and good rates arepossible. It’s also a great way to get toknow your home state. So far, we’veactivated 52 of the 83 Michigan counties,and have a goal to operate fromthem all. Only 31 more to go!Georgia QSO Party—K4BAI andK2UFTThe biggest lesson I learned in theGeorgia QSO Party last year with Dick,K2UFT, was to put a lip or edge on theoperating table or bench. Twice whenDick braked suddenly (such as when acounty line suddenly came into sightand was about to interrupt a good run)the Bencher paddle tumbled off onto thefloor of the truck. The second time ithappened I couldn’t repair it. I was afraidwe were going to be stuck using thekeyboard function of NA (which is difficultfor me, but not impossible) or limitedto SSB operation when Dick reachedinto his bag and produced anotherpaddle.I think it is much safer to have a driver.I had asked my son (a non-ham) to drivefor me—thinking it might help us “bond” abit—but, as you can imagine, as the weekendapproached, he found he had a conflict.Fortunately, Dick offered to team upwith me. We had a ball alternating drivingand operating duties while running manysmall south Georgia counties.I haven’t had a HF mobile rig of myown for years, so I borrowed an old truckcomplete with a mobile rig and antennasfrom a local club member—Ted, W4DUF.Unfortunately, his IC-706 had no CWfilter installed and no antenna tuner (hisantennas were tuned for SSB). So, wewired up an inverter and used my IC-736(with a CW filter and an ATU). Ted hadequipped the truck with some extra batteries,but we still had to be going 50MPH or so or the RF power dropped toabout 40 W.I haven’t made definite plans for thisyear’s party yet. My buddy WA4ILO hasa mobile rig and others have mentionedthe possibility of operating, but the eventis shortly after my scheduled return fromSlovenia and I will have a lot of catchingup to do at the office and at home. ■