Well, the Illinois QSO Party for 2008 is history, and the KC9FQV had yet another even more successful year! Here are the raw score stats:
Net Operating Time: about 5 hours
Contacts: 117
Multipliers: 68
Claimed score: 7,956
This year, I operated with Matt, KC9HRH, who provided the comfortable ARC Comm trailer that we used from the park behind Plainfield Village Hall. We operated the TS-2000 using mainly phone. My goal was t
o try pushing digital modes this year, but due to antenna issues, that just did not happen. As the Cubs say, maybe next year... :-)While Matt was playing with some antenna designs that he wanted to try, I setup the Perth Outbacker on the roof of his pickup and began. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the Outbacker, I was not getting a whole lot of instate action. I went out after a little while to help Matt, and after a few frustrating trys, we realized the issue, hard to make a standard dipole, etc with a 4:1 balun! The wrong balun accidentally got ordered. So, we got out the 'backup dipole' (cut for 80m) that I had in the trailer, and strung that up, and then started to rock! We both had a great time, and I think I might even be able to convince Matt to do it again next year...but we'll stay closer to home this time!
