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K6JSS KB9ZUV W9LJ W9THD KT9L N4YHC K3GHH NG7Z W9GT WB9ICL WB9LRK NQ2W NU9DE VE5KS KK4CIS K9JIG N3KN N9LYY KJ9C N8XX K9DUR Started out working a bunch of 7-landers on 15m & then switched to 40m, which was definitely the money band. Made Q's on all bands but 160m & 10m. 160m antenna is down & didn't even try 10m. Picked up a bunch of new counties, more than enough to get me past the 60 needed for the basic WAI award. Thanks to WN9O/M, AE8M/M, KJ9C/M, & WB9CIF/M for most of the new ones. Tim, N9LF, worked me on 40m SSB to complete all 92 counties for his WAI -- congratulations! Then Mel, KJ9C/M, popped in, & I was able to log Vigo County for myself. (Man, he was loud! But then, he was just across the river from me.) It seemed that the strongest signal on 40m was ALWAYS WN9O/M, with N9FN a close 2nd. QRN was low on 80m, but couldn't hear very many stations. I quit about 3 hours early -- had some stuff to do to get ready for church the next morning. W4UCZ K9NN ND3R WT9U/r Planned the route with Google Earth looking for decent spots to park the vehicle that would be out of everyone's way. That really worked pretty well. I put those coordinates in the Garmin GPS and was able to drive right to them. The Whitley/Kosciusko location was a bit busier than I had anticipated but I was off the road so not an issue. Like several of the others I have magnetic signs that say "Amateur Radio Exercise" on them so I don't get hassled too much. One guys stopped there and didn't have a clue what ham radio was. NW9O saw the signs and stopped for a chat @ the Marshall/Fulton line. The Elkhart County sheriff stopped by my last location with 10 minutes to go and said no problem, didn't even ask for my ID. He said they have lots of people sit on that remote cul de sac and smoke dope so he always comes down there to check. Nice to finally have some propagation on 40m and work a number of other mobiles. W9NWN This year was a first for me as far as going out and working alone. My antenna worked great as well as my radio ( will be the last time I am sure since I bragged on them ) I was able to hear everyone that transmitted even the mobiles. Did not get all of the counties that I wanted but 48 is better than no counties so I have a goal for next year. Had a couple of issues that will get worked out over the next few weeks, for me the weather was perfect, had a very low noise place to work at, did start getting static crashes lots of QRM later in the evening. Looking forward to next year and getting everyone in the log again as well as more. And agree with comments that 40 was the money band and really quiet, 75 really noisy. Location: Carroll, Co./ Field Day type portable setup. / Lowpower(100-watts) / 40/75-80 (NVIS) antenna / Ten Tec Eagle / SSB only N9KOG I would have to say, though, my favorite contact was to a guy 16 miles away from me on 75 meters. I live in Floyd County and he's up in Washington County. He asked me to send him a QSL card so his friends would believe he made a contact on 75m that close. Anyways, it was a very fun day. W9THD 40 meters was very nice through the entire QP and it was fun to find the mobiles out there on both CW and SSB. This was a great band to run on and whenever it slowed down I would either switch modes or jump back to the higher bands. Later in the day I spent a considerable amount of time on 40 and closer to sunset went to 80 meters to pick up what I could. The 80 meter loop is a great antenna for working in-state contacts on that band. I just wish I had been able to find more contacts there. 80 meters is a pretty difficult proposition for the mobiles, but I sure wish there were more fixed stations in state that were active on that band. They would have been easy pickings. The only concern I had technically was with the N3FJP software. I used version 2.0 for the first time. For the other state QSOP I was forcing their county abbreviation by placing a dash after the state abbreviation. But it appears to me that when I did that it was counting it as a new multiplier, even if I had worked that state before. So I spent 30 minutes after the contest to edit my log and take those county abbreviations out, just leaving the states. So I didn't include a claimed score in my log. Made a total of 229 SSB contacts and 156 CW contacts. I made a conscious effort to remind myself to work CW for the extra points, but I think my ratio between modes is probably pretty close to last year, so I'll have to make an even greater effort next time. Worked 75 Indiana counties, thanks in large part to the mobiles. I'm going to have to get after my friends next door in Noble County, which kept staring at me from the COUNTY REMAINING list. Thanks again to everyone who makes INQP possible. KJ9B KJ9D (N9NS, op) N9LJX I am EXTREMELY disappointed that I have more SSB qso's than CW. I just couldn't stir up the action. Thanks to the mobiles! Mel found me on phone several times. WN9O is just always loud! And the air mobile was cool to work. W9I AA8HH on CWAA8HH on SSBK8CD and W9NIOK8CD, K8DV, AA8HH and W9NIOK8CR on SSBK8DV on CWSSB stationW9NIO on SSBW9NIO, K8CR and AA8HHN9FN On the Elkhart/St. Joseph lineDipole end in ElkhartDipole end in St. JosephInterior viewParkedK9FN (CW op)N9FN (SSB op)Night viewKV9W/p This photo from 2011...KJ9C/m WA6KHK Got some rovers this year. Good job! You had to compete with 7QP and NEQP! WN9O/r Congrats to N9LF for working Ray in Vigo county (his 92nd county for WAI) during the INQP. What a treat he must have had working Ray. BTW - he had a great signal during the INQP. We must have missed him while we were close to TIPP around the 0000Z time as the skip may have been too long for a short hop qso. N4VA contacted me before the contest and he made a point to work us as much as possible. He needed Wabash County for his LAST contact for the USA County Hunters award. He worked us a few q's into that county. I am sure it was a memorable contact for him. Congrats Larry!!!We are still sorting out the logs as most mobile & rovers will likely do (especially with the added NEQP & 7QP q's we made). Most certainly I will let the log score itself after we send it into Tim. This was certainly a memorable INQP for me and not for the better. Murphy hit a few times and oh well.... I will have to tear down a flag pole mast and replace some of the inserts as some have cracked and broke during the not so harsh winter we had. These problems caused some setup and teardown delays, so we did not get to run portable as much as we have in the past. Repairs will be made so the pole extends and collapses more easily. It will certainly be ready for next year. The mobile setup had a Kenwood TS-480HX connected to a Predator antenna. Wow this antenna really works! I just need to get the engine noise down. I had a conversation with Dave, N9FN, about the pile-up we had on 40 CW, but we couldn't hear them due to the engine noise. I guess more testing will have to be done before next years' event. We also had a K3 setup on a mobile whip (20 meters), but just after we moved from our initial position the rig seemed to have some issues. The receiver de-sensed and the power output went from 100W to 38W output. We also smelled some electrical burning in the vehicle and as you may have guessed it was the K3. We were only into the INQP for an hour and the rig was toast! I will be contacting Electraft to see what my options are. I don't know what happened, but it sure put a damper on the excitement of the INQP. I think we worked most of the mobile stations. We did not hear the aero mobile (we got on that band too late) or AB9LE/m (not surprising as we worked CW most of the time). We worked many stations multiple times and if I can figure out how to get the info out of Writelog, I will see which station worked us the most. No Margaritas on Cinco De Mayo, but plenty of mucho kudos to the stations that followed us around (even the mobiles!). It was great hearing the KJ9C, WB9CIF, WT9U & AE8M mobile stations work us so much. And what about the portable stations that set up for this event!! Great job! Lastly a BIG THANKS IN ADVANCE to Tim, N9LF, and Mike, N9NS, for the upcoming log scoring. I can't imagine how much effort they put into scoring this event. Thanks guys!!! Even with a dead K3, we are looking forward to the 2013 INQP. Pictures from INQP 2003WN9O mobileW9IUW9IU |