[OhQP-mail] KJ9C/m - 8 hours in Ohio

[Mel Crichton]

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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)

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.

Mel KJ9C


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