2004 New England QSO Party

by Tom Frenaye, K1KI – frenaye@pcnet.com

Writeup | New England Scores | Scores from Outside New England | Breakdowns of Top Stations | Soapbox Comments

Introduction

Springtime in New England is a nice time of year. The first weekend of May also brings with it the New England QSO Party, and 2004 was its third year. Connecticut and Rhode Island take on a nice green color as the leaves on the trees have started to come out in early May. As you go further north the green fades to grey and in northern Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, the leaves haven’t started to show, some of the high hilltops still have some leftover winter snow, and many of the lakes and ponds are mostly covered with ice. But summer is around the corner – the scenery changes fast at this time of year.

The number of logs jumped 15% to a total of 295 in 2004, mostly from non-W1 entries. The number of QSOs reported was 49,720, way up over 2003. All New England counties were active – logs from eight mobiles covered 86 counties, plus there was one group (K1JB) who operated portable from several counties and a couple of other mobiles who didn’t submit logs.

Propagation

As the sun’s 11-year cycle heads towards the minimum, QSOs were hard to find on 10m, though there were still more than in 2003. More than half of the total QSOs were made on 20m, and surprisingly 80m had more activity than 15m did.

80m40m20m15m10m
QSOs made by W1s3,14110,22219,5781,193 157
Different stations worked 408 1,695 3,750 302 58

As in past years, the K-index summary from NOAA is shown below. Basically it shows that there were no significant solar storms during the contest, but with an index of 3 on the first day and 2 on the second, there is room for a little improvement. More information on this can be found here: http://www.sec.noaa.gov

Mobiles

Several new mobile efforts were present in the 2004 NEQP – N1JEO/m, N1RR/m, N1SV/m and W1VE/m all made an impact. Actually, Charlie “The Wiz” N1RR/m turned in the top single operator mobile score while covering 13 counties, dethroning previous champ Tom, K1KI/m, who managed to operate from 23 counties. Charlie had a few less QSOs but pulled over the top by catching some additional multipliers. Ed, K1EP/m, finished in the top three again while passing through 16 counties.

John, W1XX/m, was joined by Bob, K1XA, this year and the team again took top honors in the multi-operator mobile category while moving around in four Rhode Island counties, and set a multi-op record at the same time.

Mobile activity really helps to spice up the contest – so if you have the inclination to try it out in 2005, there are several people willing to help you out.

USA/VE/DX results

Check here for detailed results –> Score detail
and for band-by-band info for the leaders –> Band-by-band

Paul/N4PN seems to try something different each year in the NEQP. The first year he was SOLP from Georgia, and had the top score. In 2003 Paul entered as SOHP from Florida, and again had the top score. In 2004 he was SOHP from Georgia and had a NEQP record score with 507 QSOs, all 67 counties and 48,173 points. Paul puts in a full effort – and you can see from the table below he doesn’t stay on any one band or mode for long. He doesn’t take much time off either…

N4PNMay
1st
May 2nd
Band/UTC2021222300010203041st day13141516171819202122232nd dayTotal
10 CW0333
10 SSB03144
15 CW033288
15 SSB031711212
20 CW24177131441479673763163107
20 SSB4334102319311336211518111413851112245
40 CW961751024021418102666
40 SSB4236582812331
80 CW41463271128
80 SSB111303
Total CW24116132142016511117101187611171112101212
Total SSB4334142522979116472115181418211151133295
Total673530382423272562752431262621242222121212231507

Other stations with big single operator scores were all from the 4th call area with Jim/K4PV in Florida the closest competition to N4PN with 30,600 points, followed by John/K4BAI in George and Bert/N4CW in North Carolina. In the Low Power category, Charlie/NF4A made 301 QSOs in 61 counties for his leading 28,548 points. Dave/N4IG in Florida and Ned/K1GU/4 in Tennessee each managed more than 20k points. Breaking into the 4th call area dominance were Keith/WA3HAE in Pennsylvania, who was 2nd in the SOLP category just behind K1GU/4, and Tom/N2CU in New York with a 4th place finish. Being close to New England isn’t necessarily an advantage when a large percentage of the QSOs to be made are on 20m.

Top scorers from further west were led by Rex/K7QQ with a big 18,468 points and 5th place SOHP with 171 CW QSOs in 54 counties. Also doing well from the west were Paul/K0JPL in Missouri and Californians Rob/K6RB and Bob/W1RH/6 in the HP category and Bill/K5WAF from Texas, and Mike/K5UV from Oklahoma.

Bill/K4LTA from Tennessee ran away with the QRP category and found 100 CW stations in 46 counties to work. The multi-operator category was won by Dan/N0HF (+Bruce/WW1M) from Colorado after a 2nd or 3rd place finish the first two years. Doug/VA3DF led all Canadian scorers with his 115 QSOs and 45 counties while running QRP power – and set the Canadian record at the same time!

The top DX score came again from Ged, LY3BA, with 238 QSOs in 61 counties and 23,607 points, beating all but three USA SOHP entries! Gerd/DL5AWI was second while setting the German SOHP record and Hal/DL5MC turned in the top SOLP score – a new DX SOLP record. A number of people were quite happy to work Dave/K1ZZ who operated from 4U1ITU as well.

There were new records set in the multi-operator category in five states, in SOHP and SOLP categories in 12 states each, and in SOQRP in six states.

New England results

Check here for detailed results –> Score detail
and for band-by-band leaders –> Band-by-band

This was the year for Rick/KI1G to win the High Power category from New England. Rick put in a full effort from his Kent County RI located, balanced his activity about 50-50 between CW and SSB, and totaled 1532 QSOs and 106 multipliers resulting in 241,786 points. As with N4PN outside of New England, Rick kept at it for the full contest period with few breaks and regular band and mode changes. Dennis/NB1B stayed on CW for the whole contest from Bristol County MA and came in second and newcomer (to the NEQP) Bill/NT1Y from relatively rare Orange County VT. Ken/W1NG was a close fourth and Art/W1RZF nailed fifth place.

KI1GMay
1st
May
2nd
Band/UTC2021222300010203041st day13141516171819202122232nd dayTotal
10 CW044411313
10 SSB046111212
15 CW314441081324138589
15 SSB44515114122933
20 CW/rtty10241716112152421811321025133649200352
20 SSB10367601539284224162458110466934338622
40 CW8852814211568211323180
40 SSB442727311275
80 CW267181910699115
80 SSB101112283041
Total CW10242017891995324041842622540353317381821331749
Total SSB107676015833733722293125101210110497063411783
Total1021118777104102956943790647156654545271108788847421532

In the Low Power category, Pete/W1RM found the formula for victory from Hartford County CT with 841 CW QSOs and 82 multipliers for 137,924 points. Following Pete were Randy/K5ZD using club station AK1W from Worcester County MA and Ann/WA1S from Hillsboro County NH. Bill/K1EV used his QRP station to make 195 QSOs and the top QRP score.

Dave/K1TTT and his team of Brian/NJ1F Tom/W1TO and Mike/WM1K continued their dominance of the multi-operator category with 1330 QSOs and a multiplier of 116. Dave/KB1H with Chris/N1XS kept close but their 1241 QSOs and 96 multipliers had to settle for second place for the second year in a row.

Logs were received from stations in all counties. Quite a number of records were set – view them here –> NEQP records

Who are the “Multiplier Kings”?

Who worked all of the counties in each New England state?

Congratulations to N4PN for working all 67 counties in New England. N4IG found 63 of them, WA3HAE and K4BAI worked 62, and NF4A and LY3BA logged 61 counties. Working all Rhode Island counties turned out to be the easiest – 52 stations worked all five of them!

Worked all Connecticut counties (8)
CallQTHCategory
LY3BALithuaniaSOHP
N0HFColoradoMS
N4IGFloridaSOLP
N4PNGeorgiaSOHP
NF4AFloridaSOLP
Worked all Massachusetts counties (14)
CallQTHCategory
K4PVFloridaSOHP
N2CUNew YorkSOLP
N4PNGeorgiaSOHP
Worked all Maine counties (16)
CallQTHCategory
N4CWNorth CarolinaSOHP
N4PNGeorgiaSOLP
Worked all New Hampshire counties (10)
CallQTHCategory
K4BAIGeorgeSOHP
K4PVFloridaSOHP
N2CUNew YorkSOLP
N4IGFloridaSOLP
N4BPFloridaSOLP
N4PNFloridaSOHP
WA3HAEPennsylvaniaSOLP
Worked all Rhode Island counties (5)
CallQTHCategory
AB7RWWashingtonSOLP
AF5PLouisianaSOHP
DL5AWIGermanySOHP
DL5MCGermanySOLP
HB9ARFSwitzerlandSOLP
K0ADMinnesotaSOHP
K0JPLMissouriSOHP
K1GU/4TennesseeSOLP
K3EGEPennsylvaniaSOLP
K3MDPennsylvaniaSOLP
K4AMCTennesseeSOLP
K4BAIGeorgeSOHP
K4BEVTennesseeSOLP
K4LTATennesseeSOQRP
K4PICGeorgiaMS
K4PVFloridaSOHP
K5KGFloridaSOHP
K5WAFTexasSOLP
K6DGWCaliforniaSOLP
K6RBCaliforniaSOHP
K7QQWashingtonSOHP
K8IRMichiganSOLP
K8ZTOhioSOQRP
K9ENWisconsinSOLP
KH2DFloridaSOLP
KJ9C/mIndianaSOLP-m
LY3BALithuaniaSOHP
N0HFColoradoMS
N0YOKansasSOHP
N2CUNew YorkSOLP
N4BPFloridaSOLP
N4CWNorth CarolinaSOHP
N4GMFloridaSOLP
N4IGFloridaSOLP
N4LRGeorgiaSOLP
N4MMVirginiaSOHP
N4PNFloridaSOHP
N6NFTexasSOQRP
N6ZFOCaliforniaSOLP
N9KOIllinoisSOHP
NF4AFloridaSOLP
NN6DXCaliforniaSOLP
NW7MTMontanaMS
PA3ARMNetherlandsSOLP
VA3DFOntarioSOQRP
W4ARMFloridaSOLP
W4STBFloridaSOHP
W9YQWisconsinSOLP
WA3HAEPennsylvaniaSOLP
WB9CIFIndianaSOHP
WC4EFloridaSOLP
WD0BMSSouth DakotaSOHP
Worked all Vermont counties (14)
CallQTHCategory
LY3BALithuaniaSOHP
N4PNGeorgiaSOHP

What about the New England stations?

Single operators AF1T and KI1G worked all 50 states, as did the multi-op team at K1TTT. KG1E found 49 and three others put 48 states into their logs. No one worked all of the Canadian multipliers but NT1Y and multi-op KB1H each found eight different provinces. Twenty New England stations worked 20 DX countries or more.

Worked all US States (50)
CallQTHCategory
AF1TMER NHSOHP
K1TTTBER MAMS
KI1GKEN RISOHP
Worked at least 20 DX countries
CallQTHCategory
AF1TMER NHSOHP
AK1WWOR MASOLP
K1FKARO MESOHP
K1KI/m23 countiesSOLP-m
K1TTTBER MAMS
K2LEBEN VTSOHP
KA1ZEXWOR MASOLP
KB1HWIN CTMS
KG1EESS MASOHP
KI1GKEN RISOHP
N1APINHV CTMS
N1RR/m13 countiesSOLP-m
NB1BBRI MASOHP
NT1YORA VTSOHP
W1ACTDUK MAMS
W1KTWOR MASOLP
W1NGNHV CTSOHP
W1RMHAR CTSOLP
W1RZFWOR MASOHP
W1UFNAN MASOHP
WA1SHIL NHSOLP
WA1ZROC NHSOLP

Club Competition

Looks like the Yankee Clipper Contest Club ran away with the club competition this time! Since they sponsor the plaque for the top club competition score, the plaque will go to the CT-RI Contest Group. Good efforts from the Meriden ARC (CT) who generated five entries, and the Contoocook Valley RC (NH) and the Falmouth ARA (MA) with three entries each. Make sure to add your club name to your entry next time.

ClubCountScore
Yankee Clipper Contest Club412,197,614
CT RI Contest Group8418,603
Contoocook Valley RC3110,231
Nashua Area Radio Club154,473
Framingham Amateur Radio Association139,156
Hampden County Radio Assn137,240
Candlewood ARA235,523
Meriden Amateur Radio Club531,874
Hampden County Radio Assn.223,913
Green Mountain Wireless Society122,000
Fall River ARC116,182
Capeway RC210,179
Narraguagus Bay ARC15,544
Old Men14,653
Falmouth Amateur Radio Association33,617
Waterbury ARC13,120
Cheshire County DX ARC13,078
Ellsworth Amateur Wireless Association11,770
Newport County RC11,170
Southern Vermont ARC1946
NE QRP1156

Activity by County

It took a lot of coordination and a little luck, but all 67 counties were available in the 2004 NEQP. Only two stations were on in 12 counties, while the hardest appear to be Coos NH, Essex VT and Franklin MA, Middlesex CT, Nantucket MA and Orleans VT with only one station in each. Middlesex MA took the honors for the highest activity with 933 QSOs from 28 stations.

CountyStateQSOsStations (min 2 logs)
AddisonVT433
AndroscogginME482
AroostookME1663
BarnstableMA24010
BelknapNH323
BenningtonVT2554
BerkshireMA3683
BristolMA30012
BristolRI2415
CaledoniaVT433
CarrollNH1712
CheshireNH603
ChittendenVT1464
CoosNH211
CumberlandME788
DukesMA1952
EssexMA46012
EssexVT171
FairfieldCT2249
FranklinMA111
FranklinME463
FranklinVT302
GraftonNH1187
Grand IsleVT512
HancockME2546
HartfordCT3928
HillsboroughNH52218
HampdenMA21210
HampshireMA322
KennebecME542
KentRI4696
KnoxME273
LamoilleVT302
LincolnME575
LitchfieldCT283
MerrimackNH2085
MiddlesexCT291
MiddlesexMA93328
NantucketMA941
NewportRI1093
New HavenCT75121
New LondonCT2987
NorfolkMA1965
OrangeVT3754
OrleansVT141
OxfordME292
PenobscotME2496
PiscataquisME513
PlymouthMA1617
ProvidenceRI31610
RochesterNH85517
RutlandVT1372
SagadahocME884
SomersetME282
StraffordNH885
SuffolkMA533
SullivanNH694
TollandCT1473
WaldoME934
WashingtonME2756
WashingtonRI3748
WashingtonVT262
WindhamCT5638
WIndsorVT1846
WindhamVT183
WorcesterMA72516
YorkME294

Certificates!

We’re sending out participation certificates to everyone with 25 QSOs or more, and printed results to everyone who sent in a log. Thanks to Scott/N1AIA for doing the certificate design work, and to Bill/K1GQ for turning out the many certificates this year. Bill also deserves credit for finding some nice quality paper to print them on.

NE county map2004 New England QSO Party
Plaques and Special Awards
NE county map

Certificates were awarded to the top scorers (25 QSO minimum) in each
New England county, U.S. state, Canadian Province and DXCC country.

Special plaques have been awarded to these top scorers:

CategoryDonorWinner
USA – single operatorSouthborough Rod & Gun Club (W1SRG)Paul Newberry, N4PN
USA – single operator low powerLaci Radnay, W1PLCharles Wooten, NF4A
USA – single operator QRPJoe Zdrojowy, NY1SBill O’Kain, K4LTA
USA – single opr(W5-W6-W7-W0)Huckleberry Mtn Contest ClubRex Maner, K7QQ
USA – single opr(W2-W3-W8-W9)Jim Monahan, K1PXKeith Pederson, WA3HAE
USA – any category (California/Nevada)Calif QSO PartyNorthern California Contest ClubRob Brownstein, K6RB
USA – multi operator – single transmitterDave Robbins, K1TTTDan Norman, N0HF(+ Bruce Herrick, WW1M)
Canada – single operatorChris Terkla, N1XSDoug Ferris, VA3DF
DX – single operatorYankee Clipper Contest ClubGedas Lucinskas, LY3BA
DX – Russia – any category
(min 50 multipliers/200 QSOs)
Dmitri Y Jikharev, N2OW/RA9USU(no winner this time)
Clean Sweep – Not First, but FurthestDennis Egan, NB1BPaul Newberry, N4PN
New England – single operatorYankee Clipper Contest ClubRick Davenport, KI1G
New England – single operator – low powerSouthborough Rod & Gun Club (W1SRG)Pete Chamalian, W1RM
New England – single operator – QRPBlackstone Valley Amateur Radio ClubBill Birtcher, K1EV
New England – mobileBoston Amateur Radio ClubCharles Morrison, N1RR/m
New England – multi operator mobileBrian Szewczyk, NJ1F, in memory of James Szewczyk, WB1EYMJohn Lindholm, W1XX/m (+ Bob Halprin, K1XA)
New England – multi-singleWellesley ARSDave Robbins, K1TTT (+ Tom Homewood, W1TO, Brian Szewczyk, NJ1F, Mike Perry, WM1K)
New England – school clubChris Terkla, N1XSWorcester Polytechnical Institute Wireless Association/W1YK (Isaac Waldron, KI1W + Jeff Rosenberger, N3SX)
New England – CW onlyAndy Bodony, K2LEDennis Egan, NB1B
Connecticut – single operatorCandlewood ARAKen Bolin, W1NG
Maine – single operator Merrymeeting ARA, Androscoggin ARC, Yankee ARC, Portland Amateur Wireless Assn, Piscataquis ARCJoe Zdrojowy, NY1S
Massachusetts – single operatorFramingham Amateur Radio AssociationDennis Egan, NB1B
New Hampshire – single operatorNH-ARRLAnn Santos, WA1S
Rhode Island – single operator CT/RI Contest GroupRick Davenport, KI1G
Vermont – single operator Bob Raymond, WA1ZBill Hein, NT1Y
Maine – single operator high powerAugusta Amateur Radio AssnDave Bowker, K1FK
MA – Hampden County – single operatorHampden County Radio AssnJim Mullen, KK1W
New England ClubYankee Clipper Contest ClubCT-RI Contest Group – WA1RR

If you’d like to sponsor a plaque for 2005, please contact us at info@neqp.org

Special Awards
The top USA (non-New England) single operator winner: The Framingham Amateur Radio Association has donated a Lobster dinner for two from Legal Seafood of Boston to the USA single operator (non-New England) winner. For 2004 the winner is Paul Newberry, N4PN!

The top Florida score: One gallon of Paul Tibbetts (K1PT), somewhat world famous, chowdah. He will “personally prepare, deliver, and participate in the consumption of said chowdah at the time and place of the winner’s choosing.” For 2004 the winner is Jim Dunbar, K4PV!

Other top USA (non-New England) scorers: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – 250+ QSOs
N2CU WA3HAE K4BAI K4PV NF4A
Maple Syrup – 150+ QSOs

K1GU/4 K4BEV N4CW N4IG K6RB K7QQ K9EN W9YQ K0JPL

Log checking

Thanks to everyone who sent in electronic logs, it made the log checking process go much easier. There were 295 logs overall, with 242 in electronic format (82%) and 53 on paper. We took the time to convert all of the paper logs to electronic format for log checking.

For non-New England stations, cross checking was possible on 11,372 of the 13,627 QSOs reported (83.5%). Of the 621 QSOs not allowed (4.6%), the break down is as follows:

QSOsReason not Allowed
147Callsign incorrect
196QTH incorrect
4Mode incorrect
9Band incorrect
156Not in log
108Duplicate
1Time was outside of contest period
621Total of QSOs disallowed

For New England stations, cross checking was possible on 15,637 of the 36,092 QSOs reported (43.3%). Of the 1801 QSOs not allowed (5.0%), the break down is as follows:

QSOsReason not Allowed
614Callsign incorrect
552QTH incorrect
11Mode incorrect
22Band incorrect
166Not in log
430Duplicate
6Time was outside of contest period
1,801Total of QSOs disallowed

There are no penalty for duplicates – we encourage you to leave them in the log.

So, who did well in the log checking? For those outside of New England, the top ten scorers (all categories) had an average loss of 2.1%. WA3HAE at 1.1% and K4BAI at 1.3% were the best. N4DW had the biggest total (118 QSOs) with no errors (Golden Log). The overall average was a loss of 3.9%.

In New England, the top ten scorers averaged a 2.3% loss – with NT1Y and W1NG only losing 1.1%. NW1E (K1JN, opr) had 393 QSOs and no errors were detected – very FB! The overall average was a loss of 5.3%.

Logging Software

Thanks to the various software authors for supporting the New England QSO Party! Writelog continues to dominate the software chosen by NEQP participants, with CT, then N3FJP, and TR Log as the others with a significant following.

SoftwareUsers
Writelog67
CT35
N3FJP31
TR Log24
N1MM Logger16
Genlog10
NA8
Win-EQF4
MS Excel3
CQPWin3
SD2
ADIF2CAB1
DXKeeper1
JL1
jLog1
Log-EQF1
MS Word1
N3FJP Contact Log1
NEQP2ALL1
xlog1

Soapbox

You’ll find a lot of very interesting comments from NEQP participants in the many pages of soapbox comments –> soapbox

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the 2004 NEQP successful. We hope you’ll be back for the 2005 NEQP!