<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>Hello,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It was my first ever mobile operation. I intended to cover 6 counties--we only did 4. I thought that the set up was working when I left home but I should have paid more attention to the fact that I had not actually made a contact with it. I did not make the first contact until almost 3 PM local time. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>What I learned after about 2 hours was that I could not run more than 40-50 watts without overloading the tuner and radio. When I unplugged the tuner and turned the drive down I started making contacts. I also had to use a clip lead to patch around a broken connection in my computer interface. So there was lots of troubleshooting and driving and not much operating. I should have re-connected the tuner but I had lost interest in tinkering.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>At the last minute my sister K8OVV decided to make the run with me so we had a few laughs along the way and she did some driving which helped. She is already talking about next year and doing better. She knows her way around Northern OH--I do not. So there will probably be an improved K8AAX/K8OVV mobile operation next year.</DIV>
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<DIV>We operated from 4 counties: Worked 20 states and 3 OH counties--All CW</DIV>
<DIV>Fulton: 23 Q's</DIV>
<DIV>Williams: 17 Q's</DIV>
<DIV>Defiance: 2 Q's</DIV>
<DIV>Henry: 16 Q's</DIV>
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<DIV>Closest we got to another mobile that I know of was W8CAR we worked him when he was in Defiance county and we were next door in Henry County. We worked quite a few NJ--a few FL--one CO.</DIV>
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<DIV>I think that I will continue my troubleshooting of the mobile and plan on next year. It was actually a pretty good day.</DIV>
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<DIV>Paul K8AAX</DIV></td></tr></table>