Same out here in WTX.  I tried to get some interest last year with a presentation to our club but no one in my club entered except for me.  We have several HF mobile ops I thought might give it a try.

BTW - Congratulations on winning First Place, Outside New Mexico, Single Operator in the NMQP!

73,  Alan  N5NA

Mark, thanks for the QSO's in the NM & TX QSO parties.  I hear you quite a bit in the other state QSO parties too.  Since you're in AR maybe you could contact the ARKAN folks and offer to help coordinate the ARQP.  Apparently there is no one in that group that is particularly interested in actively promoting the ARQP.  Without someone promoting a QP and recruiting mobiles the activity level is usually low to non-existent.

Alan

Oh yeah, I forgot you'd done a review of CQ/X!  It just keeps on getting better!

I was just looking on the ARKAN website and didn't see anything about the ARQP.  The rules do come up if you do a Google search.

For logging you need to check out CQ/X by NO5W if you haven't already.  It's way cool for mobile QSO party logging!

Alan

I've heard these guys are good but I haven't dealt with them personally.

http://www.mountguys.com/product_p/sr88-yaesu.htm

Alan  N5NA

Contact Bill Plum.

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3319

I think you'll find you can copy faster in a contest than in a QSO.  All you're copying is callsigns and the exchange info and many times the exchange info is the same for each QSO.

So, get in a contest, find a loud station CQing, listen several times until you have his call and his exchange, and give him a call.  Repeat.  You'll find your speed has increased by the end of the contest.

I highly recommend a Lind Electronics DC-DC adapter.  I was experiencing similar noise problems to what you describe using a no-name DC-DC adapter.  I switched to a Lind and it is totally quiet.

They're fairly expensive.  I have an older Dell notebook computer and found one on clearance then bought a backup on eBay for next to nothing.

http://www.lindelectronics.com/

73,

Alan  N5NA

Yes, contest QSO's count toward any award.

For WAS I recommend LOTW.  I think most contesters are pretty good about using LOTW so that may be the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way.

WAZ is a CQ Magazine award.  I think you need QSL cards for that one.

eQSL is not valid for any awards except those offered by eQSL and the worked all counties award.

Those are very early modules Ten-Tec produced.  For more information see the bottom of http://www.tentecwiki.org/doku.php?id=kits .

Also http://www.tentecwiki.org/doku.php?id=ads69-79

May be one of these http://home.comcast.net/~w8kc/mr1.htm

73,

Alan  N5NA

4nec2 antenna modeling program.  Download at http://home.ict.nl/~arivoors/

Start the BARTG RTTY Sprint in N1MM and log a few dummy QSO's.  Export that log in ADIF from N1MM and compare the tags with the ADIF from DM780.  Use the search and replace function of a text editor to change the tags in the DM780 ADIF to the same as the N1MM ADIF.  Then import the edited log into N1MM.

K3.  My Orion is sitting on a shelf as backup to my K3.

The Orion is getting to be a fairly old rig.  The processor is no longer available although Ten-Tec is supposed to have a bought a quantity for future repair.  Ten-Tec has basically ended firmware development on the Orion.

Elecraft continues to develop the K3 with new accessories as well as continual firmware updates with new features.  The K3 is easily expandable so you can buy a basic rig today and add other options later.

Jeff,

I don't know if the latest DXbase will import DXbase 4.0 files or not.

I helped a guy a couple of years ago export his DXbase DOS log to DX4WIN.  You have to export your log to an SDF file, which is Space Delimited.

From there you can bring it into Excel to manipulate as needed.  KH2D has an ascii to ADIF converter at http://kh2d.net/software/asc2adif.cfm .  I think there are other ADIF converters as well.

73,

Alan N5NA