STATE QSO PARTY CONTEST FOCUS ON LONE STAR STATE

By Jamie Dupree NS3T 

Texas has always seemed a little larger than life, and that's true in ham radio contest circles as well, as to work every county in the Lone Star State, you're going to need some luck to find someone active in all 254 Texas counties.

"In 2006 we activated 244 counties," says Texas QSO Party coordinator Chuck Sanders NO5W. "I'm hopeful that we will achieve the 254 goal. If not, we should come very close."

Obviously, many of those counties will be found by tracking the various mobiles making their way around the state, and Sanders has zeroed in on that with a special web page to help you plot mobile routes.

"The web page is something I'd wanted to do," said Sanders, who says producing maps of the mobile routes "could be helpful in generating interest in the Texas QSO Party."

The routes of various mobiles - and their maps - are available at http://www.no5w.com/CQxRoutePlans.html.

Using CQ/X software, Sanders says it's possible to generate a map that can also tell you when the mobile will cross into the next county.

"From the statistics I’ve been seeing it’s getting a decent level of activity," said Sanders

Sanders has his own map available, as he'll be operating CW only as a mobile this year, with the same route he took in 2006.

Sanders predicts a very strong mobile turnout this year for the TXQP, after a slow start in recruiting active ops.

"It has been building nicely in the last week and we now have some really serious mobile efforts that have been announced with the possibility of at two more on the way," said Sanders.

One of those again plying the roads will be last year's mobile winner, Bill Wells WW5X, who made over 1900 contacts on the road.

"Yes I am running it again," said Wells. "I have almost always done this completely solo, running from county line to line."

Wells admitted to radio-sport.net that he probably got a bit lucky last year to end up the winner.

"Some of the lines I stopped on last year were out in the middle of a cotton field and others weren't even that accessible."

"Almost didn't make it out of a 3-way line last year," said the Oklahoma City ham. "The 'road' was really just a far-flung fantasy dreamed up by a utility company for powerline access and naive me, I tried to drive on it!"

Wells not only won the top mobile award in 2006 for the Texas QSO Party, but the Oklahoma QSO Party as well. He said he expects to activate about a dozen counties this year.

"We will see if (my strategy) still works this year."

Other defending champs from 2006 include John Dvoracek KE5C, who won top single op honors from K5TR. The multi winner was at Bob Pack's, NX5M, while Richard King K5NA anchored the mobile-multi winning team.

The out of state winners are some very familiar names when it comes to state QSO party honors. Paul Newberry N4PN won high power from Georgia and Jerry Fiore N4JF won QRP from Alabama.

One familiar call that may be heard a lot this weekend is Bob Harder W0BH, as he plans to mobile his way through 33 Texas counties.

"My route is a big 650 mile circle which covers all the counties in the Texas Panhandle region...plus more to the south," said Harder. "Including the trip down from Kansas and return, the total will be over 1200 miles."

For those of you who want a glimpse of Harder operating from his Chevy Van, check him out at QRZ.com.

"Operating from home is always fun, but since I love to travel, the enjoyment of planning a route and then running the route as a mobile is hard to beat," said Harder.

"Luckily, my XYL Loma (K0WHY) likes to travel, too," W0BH admitted. "Her favorite hobby is bird-watching, so part of route planning is to find interesting county or county-line stops for her as a nice break from driving."

Contest organizers of course hope for a good turnout this year. 2006 brought in 271 logs.

"Certainly the internet and email make getting the word out easy," says Sanders NO5W. "We will continue to use these to keep the event in front of the two main participant classes: county hunters and contesters.

The Texas QSO Party runs from 1400z September 29 to 0200z September 30 and again from 1400 to 2000z on Sunday September 30.