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<DIV><FONT size=2>Never thought I could find worse line noise than near
Chilicothe, but northwest Ohio takes the prize! Even the K3's programmable NB
could not kill it all, and the DSP NR did only a fair job on top of the NB.
Often the line noise level was WAAAY above most signal levels. There were some
towns so bad that I could work only the strongest stations and often had to stop
operating or drive a half mile off the highway to get away from the pollution.
Once I got further south (Darke, Preble) things quieted down and the rate
improved. I even found some nice rural areas with NO power lines where I could
relax a bit.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>Equipment all worked, even the backup laptop with the keyboard
built for a pixy's fingers. Just a little rain, and cool temperatures kept
things comfortable. Again, a solo effort.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>Ten counties activated in just over 8 hours... I could
tell that Preble was rare as soon as I hit the county line, spent a good
deal of time there handing out almost 100 QSOs. Spent less time in counties that
I knew were well covered. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>Forty meters was again the workhorse band, but 80 was so good
in early afternoon that I never got to 20 meters. Sorry, but I did
hand out the rarer counties after 40 went long, so even the west coast and
one UA3 got a shot at the good ones. Also made a number of QSOs on 75 before
dark.... after dark, 75 was brutal and 40 phone dried up. Usually I struggle on
80 CW as a mobile but at times the rate meter was over 130/hour.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>452 QSOs with a half dozen dupes, 64 CW mults and 16 phone for
about 69K points. Not a winner, but my intent was to give Ohio folks an
added shot at the northwestern mults in the limited time I had (Arrived late,
left early, still put in 14 hours driving and almost 500
miles)</FONT></DIV><FONT size=2>
<DIV><BR>On the way back to Indy I used club call W9ELI and worked another 30 or
so for the rare Indiana multiplier. Forgot who I was (kind of punchy by
then) and called one guy with KJ9C and then couldn't figure out what to do
next..... so I QSYd.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>Mel KJ9C</FONT></DIV>
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