Don, K8BB and Uli, KK8I decided to participate in the 2006 Ohio QSO Party as a mobile station. Don had done this before, twice in Michigan and once in Ohio, where he and Ken, W8MJ won the mobile category in 2004. For Uli, it was a first time mobile operation.

Taking off from Uli's home at 6:45 am. Our starting location was still 215 miles away.

We stopped at the Vermilion Valley I-80 Service Plaza some 50 miles before our starting point in Cuyahoga county in order to set up the antennas. That 17m radiator withstood all efforts to shorten it, in order to resonate on the 15m band.

This exercise brought us a few weird looks from other travelers.

Here is our route across 24 counties in 12 hours. We were in motion for about 75% of the time and covered 410 miles (660km) during the contest.

A stop near the Ashtabula / Trumball county line. Really few folks around...

Don, K8BB operating the IC-765 radio.

The cockpit, equipped with a Garmin 2720, a notebook with Microsoft Streets&Trips and a GPS mouse. The computer sits perfectly on a custom-built wooden shelf. Also noteworthy is the color coded list of travel distances across the counties: Short (green), medium (yellow) and long (red). Our plan was to enter a new county every 30 minutes, so we would know how fast we had to drive in each of the counties.

Another scenic operating location in Columbiana, near the Carroll county line. We had 43 contacts with European stations from our truck during the contest, 12 of them alone from Columbiana and Carroll counties.

Here is Uli, KK8I operating the Morse keyer and trying to make himself comfortable without hitting the power window switch again with his right knee.

Even in the final hours of the contest, you have to be ready for checking off a new multiplier on the mult sheet at any time.

The primary purpose of the trip was the contest, hence we missed many potential good shots of the landscape, Amish horse-drawn buggies, operator rage or joy, etc...

(picture from the Internet, but it really looks like this!)
The contest went very well. We made 769 contacts with 122 multipliers (Ohio Counties and US States, counting once on Phone and once on Telegraphy) for a claimed score of 176,168 points which is slightly above the current record in that category (click here for the more detailed report on the 3830 reflector). We got home at 2am, tired but happy.

See you in the next contest!

Don, K8BB and Uli, KK8I