Message: thanks for the report. Interesting. Glad you had a blast.

Now for some comments that might help next trip:

1) I checked the main county hunter spotting site. W6RK.com . I found no spots for WA5LIE. I found about a dozen for N5NK. Most county hunters watch that site, and it links to the main county hunter software tracking progam called MARAC Logger. No spots, few will appear other than a very few these days that actually listen to 14056.5

There are actual 'alerts' which can be set in that program to ring bells and get county hunters on the radio for needed counties, prefixes, call combos, etc.

2) Many state QSO Parties use the state QSO Party spot site - which does not link to W6RK or the MARAC Logger Software program. There are likely a hundred state QSO Party active folks. Some will show up for a few hours - some only to qualify for the annual STATE QSO Party Challenge run by WB4AFP where you try to participate the QSO Parties for all 50 states. Some will be there the entire time. Most of those state QSO folks watch no spots, or the 'state qso party' spot site. Not W6RK.com

3) As you noted, some folks still have to work to pay off the credit card for the latest radio goodie purchase, the electric bill to keep the computer working, and food on the table. There is always 10 times more activity on weekends.

4) There are other ways to get contacts. If you are around on Wednesdays and like CWT, the weekly CWT at 1300z and 1900Z for an hour each time can get you 50 QSOs in an hour.

If you like alternatives to just counties, you might wish to check out Parks on the Air. There are many National Parks, State Parks, interesting Monuments, Historic Sites, etc in every state. Over 200 in TX. When you operate from there, you can give out both the park and the county. Makes life more enjoyable. It's a bit frustrating to drive hundreds of miles, eeking out 6 or 12 county hunter contacts. Hit a park, and you might add a couple dozen more - doing both the county and the park. That on cw. Hit a park on SSB and you might add 100Q in an hour. If you're in my camp of horrible SSB copy...bring along younger friend good at SSB for more fun - hi hi. Or stay on CW. Whatever works for you. As a note, I've made over 136,000 contacts for parks since 2016. that from over 1000 parks, monuments, historic sites, wildlife areas in 40+ states. Gave out the counties while there, too. Lots of fun.

4) Ferrites are your friends. Buy handfuls of 'HF' type toroids. Palomar is good supplier. Power leads, computer leads, keyer leads. Ground Negative lead goes to immediate ground near radio. Also the ground lead on radio. Use good shielded cables, including the 3 wire leads to the paddles. Don't use 'adapters' but put the right connector on the cable end. Adapters are 'not your friend but your enemy'. Crimp coax connectors are not your friend. Buy good US made PL-259s.

5) Other state QSO Parties - sometimes there are several QSO Parties going on at same time. You can look for and work the other QSO Party folks during contests or on weekends. Maybe between county lines or stops if you have other op besides driver and you are capable of 'mobile in motion' contacts.

> 6) There is also Monday 'slow speed' ''test' for several intervals.

7) County Hunters like different bands. Many collect 'band counties['. If you can operate on 80/40/30/20/17/15/12/10M, you'll make more contacts. Maybe some bands will work at different times during the day. Parks on the air also ouses the WARC bands. Some but not much activity on 60M - not enough spectrum and often shared.

8) Some county hunters collect 'digital contacts' (not cw). PSK, RTTY, FT-8, FT-4. Same for Parks on the Air folks. While on FT-8 you can't insert the county, grids are used, if you spot your county on W6RK.com, some county hunter folks will show up. Word of caution. W6RK is fussy. List full county name, comma, ONE SPACE, state abbreviation. Put any comment in parenthesis. Example N4CD 14056.5 Dallas, TX (US-4434)

Welcome back to county Hunting!

Hope this helps

Bob N4CD

Call: N4CD 10/3/2025

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