by Tom Frenaye, K1KI – frenaye@pcnet.com
Writeup | New England Scores | Scores from Outside New England | Breakdowns of Top Stations | Soapbox Comments
Introduction
The ARRL’s year of the State QSO Party generated a lot of extra activity for the NEQP in 2009, with the number of logs received up 13% and almost 86,000 QSOs reported. Hope you had a good time. There were some tough callsigns to copy… was it N1NN or NN1N, or W1QH or W1QK or W1KQ? How about N1WXQ or N8WXQ? YO7ARY/W1 stumped quite a few. There were almost 700 different New England callsigns reported in the logs, and W1 stations reported almost 7,000 different callsigns in their entries – and that was after the log checking!
The beginning of the contest overlaps with the popular Indiana QSO Party and the 7th Call Area QSO Party, so it can be fast and furious, and confusing. When conditions get better the activity from the Italian DX Contest will also blend into the mix. On Saturday night things slow down a bit, and on Sunday most of the action is just in the NEQP. That last hour or two was a rush for most stations!
If you’re preparing for the 2010 NEQP, take the time to read this article, check out the detailed scores, and read through the Soapbox comments. You’ll find plenty of hints from others – and perhaps inspire you to operate a little longer this year!
Propagation
Sunspot levels for the NEQP in 2009 were very similar to those in 2008 and 2007 – pretty much the bottom of the sunspot cycle and no real chance for significant 15m or 10m activity – except for some Sporadic E propagation on 10m if anyone ventured out to find it. The chart below shows the K-index was low, indicating no geomagnetic storms – and that meant that on the bands that were open, primarily 20m during the day, 40m during the late afternoon and night, and 80m after dark, signal levels were quite good.
Activity at the end of the contest was particularly good, with QSO rates increasing significantly as people moved from 20m to 40m to 80m as the sun set on New England. Overall, about half of all QSOs made during the contest were made on 20m – the short skip even allowed K3TW in Maryland and N8II in West Virginia to work a good number of NE stations.
| 80m | 40m | 20m | 15m | 10m | |
| QSOs made by W1s | 7,482 | 17,021 | 29,338 | 1,884 | 554 |
| Different stations worked | 927 | 2,701 | 4,864 | 442 | 259 |
| QSOs made by non-W1s | 2,779 | 7,967 | 12,841 | 1,113 | 338 |
| Different stations worded | 149 | 302 | 539 | 84 | 83 |
Mobiles
There were logs from nine mobile efforts in 2009 – covering 99 counties, primarily in northern New England.
Brian/NJ1F and Len/KB1W operated as NE1QP/m (nice call!), making 560 mostly CW QSOs from 19 counties – venturing through all counties in Vermont plus some in New Hampshire and western Massachusetts. They set records for multi-op mobile in 13 VT counties and one in NH, and now hold the multi-op mobile record for New England. Bruce/WW1M/m and Dan/N0HF teamed up for an effort in 10 Maine counties – splitting their time between SSB and CW.
Bob/WA1Z/m had the largest mobile QSO total with 1195 of them, all on CW. He found his way to 12 counties in Maine and three in New Hampshire, setting 5 county records. His 151 QSO effort for 12,382 points in Somerset County ME was the largest mobile score ever from any county by a mobile station in New England. He needed nine more multipliers to have the top score. Tom/K1KI found 86 multipliers to go with his 1126 mostly CW QSOs to set the New England low power mobile record, plus 11 county records, while motoring through 20 counties – all 14 in VT, 3 in MA, 2 in NH and one in CT.
Les/N1SV/m had the highest SSB mobile totals and visited 10 counties. Ed/K1EP/m also made QSOs from 10 counties – his story is below. Thanks to Charlie/N1RR/m, Doug/K1DG/m and Jack/W1WEF/m for their mobile efforts as well! Charlie/N1RR/m set two new RI county mobile records, and now owns all five county records from RI after setting three others in 2004.
K1EP/m – 10 counties
The weather turned out to not be a factor, at least where I was driving, which turned out to be about 500 miles. I got a late start because the weather was so nice on Saturday morning, as I stayed at the Nearfest flea market a little longer than anticipated.
On Saturday, the plan was to make a counterclockwise loop around eastern and central Massachusetts, starting in Franklin. I got to Franklin by the start of the contest, but unfortunately, I could not find a suitable place to operate until 20 minutes into the contest. Murphy had started to pay a visit by then. For some inexplicable reason, the first dozen or so QSOs had the time stamp off by an hour and a half. By the time I noticed it, it had corrected itself. Must have been a feature of Windows that I wasn’t aware of. Although the location I picked wasn’t great, I stayed there for the first hour. I found another location shortly after that and did another half hour there.
The next stop was supposed to be Hampshire, but before I realized it, I was in Hampden. I figured N1BAA was in Hampshire and would give out a lot of the county, so I skipped it. It was there that I discovered that I was having problems with the 12V to the radio. The radio is sensitive to voltage and would shut down if it dropped below 11V. Apparently the powerpole connections that I had, which were several years old, had loosened up enough that there wasn’t good contact and the IR drop would cause the radio to cut out intermittently, sometimes in the middle of a QSO. I thought I had fixed it and decided to press on to the next stop, which was Worcester at a Mass Pike rest stop. I spent some more time there debugging the problem and when it got worse, I finally gave up for the night, about three or four hours earlier than I had planned. I figured going back home, getting some sleep and attacking the problem in the morning would be a better idea. I ended up with about 150Qs, which wasn’t great.
Sunday morning, I redid many of the powerpole connections to the radio and accessories, which greatly improved the situation. I found some of them had worked their way loose and weren’t fully inserted in the plastic connector. A good thing to check periodically. I headed out to my first county, the usually rare Suffolk, spending about an hour there and fixing the last of the 12V problems again. I got there early and picked a good location, working RD3A in another contest before the start. Next stop was Essex, only staying about a half hour there. It seemed that the rate was slowing down a bit and it showed in the next two counties, Rockingham and Strafford, where I only had a total of about 35 Qs. It picked up in York at the I-95/Route 1 rest stop. This rest stop links I-95 and Route 1, so I got off of I-95 to find lunch.
I did find a good lunch, but the traffic and slower cars on Route 1 wasted a lot of time getting to Cumberland. It was late afternoon at that point and the rates had picked up. If I hadn’t had so many problems and wasn’t so tired, I would have done another couple more counties up in Maine, but decided to head home and finish up the last hour in my home county, Middlesex. [and he set a new MA mobile record]
Overall, rates were better this year than in previous years. There were times when the meter was over 200 and stayed over 100 for nearly an hour. Most of my activity was on 20 and 40. I tried 15 and didn’t hear too much, so I never ventured to 10. 80 would have been fine if I stuck it out Saturday night. But 80 also affects my engine control circuitry and since I had to idle the car to maintain a decent operating voltage, I didn’t operate there a lot.
I apologize to those when I might have suddenly stopped transmitting in the middle of the Q. At times the radio would cut out and a power reset would set the radio to 5W. There was a time when the signals were loud enough that I kept running at 5W! QRP mobile is not something I would recommend, but it did work for a while. Thanks again for all the Qs and hope everyone had fun. I hope to fix all those annoying problems by next year.
USA/VE/DX Results
Check here for detailed results –> Score detail
and for band-by-band info for the leaders –> Band-by-band
USA Outside New England
Bob/WA1FCN used some packet/Internet assistance to run up the biggest total in the multi-op category, a a new USA record. His mode-balanced effort from Alabama came in with 34,782 points, not far ahead of Jim/AD4EB from Tennessee and Barry/N2BJ who set a new record from Illinois..
The competition is getting tougher each year, but Paul/N4PN has been able to keep ahead of the crowd every time. Paul managed to break his own 2004 single operator high power record with 278 CW and 392 SSB QSOs, working all 67 counties for a final score of 63,516 points from Georgia. Just a bit further to the south, Bob/N4BP operated using his orginal WN1GIV callsign and came in second with over 500 total QSOs and a sweep for 49,312 points from his Florida QTH. Ralph/K1ZZI also put in a big effort from Georgia with the highest CW-only total of 364 QSOs and 60 counties for 43,680 – and found that to have the best chance at working all 67 counties you really have to operate both modes. While the southeast seemed to have the best location for a good shot at New England, Paul/K0JPL came in 8th from Missouri and Dennis/N6KI grabbed the 9th spot.
A huge number of entrants (195) found single operator low power to be their category. Mike/W9RE rose to the occaision and came out with 293 QSOs in 63 counties for the top score of 36,918. The next four scores came from the 4th call area, with Charlie/NF4A in Florida coming in second and also had 63 counties. Dick/N4ARO in Tennessee was third, just ahead of Dave/N4IG from Florida. Steve/NA4K took fifth place from Tennessee, and John/K0IO snagged 6th place with 200 CW QSOs. The rest of the top ten were Paul/W8TM OH, Sejo/N3UA VA, Bob/W4RQ VA and Walt/N4AAI TN. Of note is Dave/W9QL with 196 SSB-only QSOs from Illinois – he had more SSB QSOs than all but two multi-op and two high power entries. Steve/KD0CVZ provided out first entry from North Dakota – leaving only Hawaii with no entry in the NEQP.
The QRP group was led by Julius/N2WN with 250 CW and 45 SSB QSOs from Tennessee. His 35,425 points and 65 counties worked totalled the 6th higest score in any category and sets a new USA QRP record. Will/WJ9B came in second from Florida with a 24,852 score. Bill/K4LTA. Jonas/N0LY, and Anthony/K8ZT filled out the top five QRP winners list.
Many of the mobiles and portables outside of New England are really focusing on other QSO parties. Mel/KJ9C/m had the top NEQP SOLP-mobile score with 39 QSOs and worked 24 NE counties, and his focus was on the Indiana QSO Party. Dave/N9FN teamed up with Dave/K9FN in another Indiana QP effort, but submitted a checklog for the NEQP. They also sent a couple of photos showing how serious their effort was! By the way, the Indiana QSO Party offers a plaque to the station from New England making the best IN QP score – send in your log to the INQP as well as the NEQP.
N9FN (+K9FN)
Our INQP QTH was on Indiana State Route 26 at the Tippecanoe Co & Warren Co line. Our antennas were an 80 meter inverted vee at 50’ with the ends running NW to SE, and a 40 meter inverted vee at about 48’ with the ends running NE to SW. The rig was an Icom 756 Pro feeding an SGC SG-500 amp, to an LDG AT-1000 automatic antenna tuner. Power was supplied by a Honda EU-2000i generator through an APC
1000VA UPS to keep things going while refueling the generator. Writelog was used for logging.
Canada
Art/VE3UTT led the Canadian effort in the 2009 NEQP with 174 QSOs on CW and another 81 on SSB for 24,453 points and a new Canadian record by a large margin. Alan/VA1MM topped the high power totals with 214 QSOs for 18,928 points and a record as well. Andy/VE9DX worked hard on QRP for his 8,000 points, just short of the record. Provincial records were set by Ed/VE4EAR and Bill/VE5BF. The 16 logs from Canada were short of the record 23 we had in 2007. We still seem to fall short of the Florida QP in getting Canadian participation. Maybe not too many VE’s winter in New England?
DX
There were also some records set by DX stations. The top score was earned by Gerd/DL5AWI with 22,066 points (187 CW QSOs and 59 counties), a new German high power record, but not quite enough to topple the all-time DX record set in 2003 by Gedas/LY3BA.
Other high power country records were set by Yoshi/JA9CWJ, Dima/UA3AGW, Gert/PA3AAV, and Len/SM5AOG. Dima has his sights set on the Russian plaque but it’ll take more sunspots for him to get the needed 200 QSOs – maybe in 2010?
For a full list of current records –> Records
New England Results
The multi-operator category record was just missed by Dave/K1TTT and his crew of K1KAA, K1SFA, KB1W, W1IM and W1TO in Berkshire MA. They worked 687 CW and 1174 SSB stations, and with a multiplier of 118, just cracked the 300k mark with a score of 300,664 (a handful of QSOs short of the 301,784 point record they set in 2003). The MIT Radio Society entry W1MX was second, with more than 1200 QSOs, and a plaque for the top school club, from the county with the most activity, Middlesex MA.
While there is no multi-operator, multi-transmitter category, the W1ACT gang decided that was how they were going to have fun – and made more than 1400 QSOs from their portable setup on Martha’s Vineyard (Dukes MA). (W1ACT above)
Dennis/W1UE claimed the #1 spot in the single operator high power category from Essex MA with 1072 CW and 403 SSB QSOs, plus a multiplier of 101, for 257,247 points, breaking his own record from 2007. John/W1XX beat his totals from last year to come in second with 232,940 points from Washington RI, with 495 QSOs on CW and a big 1462 QSOs on SSB. The top CW-only SOHP score came from Mill/K1IB and the top SSB-only effort was turned in by Seymour/KB1OWT in, what used to be rare, Somerset ME, who almost tripled his score from 2008..
The single operator low power battle went to Art/K1BX in Hillsboro NH again, with 1411 QSOs split pretty evenly between CW and SSB, and a total of 165,849, shattering the old record set by W1RM in 2004. Bill/K1GQ finished a strong second, with 942 CQ QSOs from Carrol NH, followed by Paul/K1XM‘s Middlesex MA effort. The next two were just 48 points apart, with Mike/W1JQ‘s 119,184 points from New Haven CT just edging out Whit/K1EO with 119,136 from Oxford ME. The rest of the top ten were John/K1ESE, Ted/K1BV, Rick/N1DC, Don/WA1BXY and Dave/N1IX. Frank/K1MAA had the top SSB-only score with 801 QSOs.
The QRP battle was really close, and at the end it was Tom/AA1CA on top with 392 QSOs and 65 multipliers for 50,960 from Rochester NH and Steve/AA4AK in Cumberland ME with 399 QSOs and 63 multipliers for 50,274 finishing just behind him in second place again. John/KO1H had more multipliers at 66, but fewer QSOs and finished third front Kent RI.
There are lots of other stories to tell – and a good number of records were set.
Check here for detailed results –> Score detail
and for band-by-band leaders –> Band-by-band
From Geoff/KA1IOR  I was able to spend some time on the weekend of May 2-3 operating in the New England QSO Party, and a few other concurrent events. My initial outing on the bands Saturday night produced a fair number of contacts with slow rates of mostly Search and Pounce, ending up with 43 contacts equally distributed among 20, 40, and 80 meters in just under 2 hours of operating. When I got up the next morning, I got on 20 meters and settled on a clear frequency, calling CQ. It wasn’t very long before I got into several runs, and in just over 2 hours, had another 150 plus contacts. This is a good example of how each approach brings different results: Search and Pounce leaves you free to pick and choose which stations you work, which is really good for finding and collecting multipliers. But calling CQ helps with the total number of contacts, and is the only important factor in certain contests where there are NO multipliers, such as Field Day.  Toward the end of Sunday, I got on for the end of the event, and had another productive run of 30 plus contacts in about 45 minutes. This included 14 minutes spent cracking a pileup for SV9CVY, in Crete.All told, I spent just under 5 hours making a total of 230 plus contacts, averaging over 46 QSO/Hr. I bagged a fairly rare DXCC entity, handed out a lot of Barnstable multipliers for the NEQP, and brushed up on my skills with N1MM. I learned a lot. |
What about Nantucket?
One of the toughest New England counties to work most years has been Nantucket County MA. It’s an island off of Cape Cod and only has about two dozen hams – and far fewer who are active. Dennis/W1UF issued a challenge to the hams of the Nantucket Amateur Radio Association – get on the air in the NEQP, make 100 QSOs, and afterwards we’ll all have dinner at the Nantucket Yacht Club. The picture shows the celebration!Nantucket NEQP-09 Century Club celebration lunch at the Nantucket Yacht Club. Foreground: special guest Sheila Rogoff, XYL of Mort, W2EE/SK. Back Row: Ken Blackshaw, W1NQT; Dennis Shapiro, W1UF; Judy Wodynski: Cindy Blackshaw; Susan Shapiro; Mike Wodynski, K2LEK.
Frandy’s NEQP 2009 NANMA Learning Adventure
Buddy Pole “beaming” to Cape Hatteras and Florida over the Atlantic Ocean about 200 yards from the QTH on Nantucket & N1FJ at borrowed Yaesu 897. (“The least user friendly transceiver known to man” actually worked pretty well.) S9 noise on 20 meters didn’t help much. (No problem on 80 meters, though! Why?) That tower about 1 mile away is a Loran C, I just found out. 90-110 KHz. I think their main modulation is hash. 1 megawatt? (Or is it 4 megawatts?) Back to the old drawing board! I guess it may have been a miracle I could hear anyone at all. (Loran A, which I occasionally worked on in the Navy, pretty much used the 160 meter ham band.) (Maybe I can get my wife’s uncle to buy a place on the other end of Nantucket? 🙂
67 cw and 10 Phone QSOs. I was hoping for 200 total. Got discouraged and left the island at noon Sunday. Next year: I’d rather work N4PN from 67 different counties, I think. (Okay, Paul?) A sunspot or two would help. (It reminded me of the times at W1AW recently — calling CQ and having no one come back to W1AW? Horrors!)
Accomplishments: learning out how to get the 897 up and running. Successfully using Buddy Pole and MP1 antennas. (Note: the sun wasn’t really shining…) Learning out how to program the “Code Cube” for the Palm Radio paddle. (But not in time to use it for NEQP. Got lots of practice sending!) Since it was raining most of the time, changing bands on the antennas was a pain. Maybe the MP2 motorized tuning version of the MP1? Oops, no 80 meters. I think I’ll go back to a random wire with my AH-2 or my AH-4…
Spent about $225 out of pocket, plus 330 miles on the car. (50.5 mpg on the way back at 60 mph in my Honda Civic Hybrid.) Included one night in motel near the cape, so I would have time on the island to get things up and running. I needed it!
Thanks to Larry, WB1DBY, for loan of most of the equipment I used. Now, the K-3 would make a nice portable rig, Larry…
73,
Frandy, N1FJ
Overall there were 76 New England records set in various categories, that’s up from 2008. Check out the NEQP records page –> Records
How’d you do hunting multipliers?
This was the first year where more than one station managed to find and work all 67 New England counties. Bob/N4BP at WN1GIV joined Paul/N4PN with all of them in the log. Bob did it from Florida so he snagged the plaque for working all counties from the furthest distance. (The printed/mailed results showed WN1GIV with only 66 counties, that was an error caught by the log checkers at the last minute…it really was all 67.) Barry/N2BJ and Julius/N2WN were close behind with 65 counties each – and Julius did it while QRP. In all, a dozen stations found at least 60 counties. Of the 303 entrants from outside of New England, 235 of them worked all six New England states, with Vermont being the hardest one to find..
The five toughest counties to find were Lincoln ME, Franklin VT, Suffolk MA, Waldo ME, and Bristol RI.
From New England there were 15 stations who found the 48 contiguous states, and seven more who also worked Alaska and Hawaii – congratulations to AI1O, K1BV, K1SND, K1TTT, W1ACT, W1MX and W1XX. Eight stations found eight Canadian provinces – AK1W, K1BX, K1TTT, NZ1U, W1ACT, W1NG, W1UE, and W1XX. The crew at K1TTT excelled at finding DX multipliers with 62 countries in the log, followed by Dennis/W1UE at 46, and Randy/K5ZD at AK1W at 41. The low sunspot numbers made it difficult to work many DX stations, but the high USA activity more than compensated to keep the action going.
Club Competition
The Tennessee Contest Group poured in 21 scores and 269,655 points to walk away with the top club score in 2009. They more than doubled the previous high score! In a close race for second place, the Florida Contest Group edged out the South East Contest Club. Eight clubs fielded at least five entries!
In New England, the CT-RI Contest Group continued to lead the non-YCCC scoring efforts with 334,784 points. They had seven entries, as did the group from the Hampden County Radio Association.
Non-New England Club Scores
| Club | Entries | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Tennessee Contest Group | 21 | 269,655 |
| Florida Contest Group | 11 | 175,126 |
| South East Contest Club | 7 | 165,560 |
| Potomac Valley Radio Club | 12 | 154,429 |
| Society of Midwest Contesters | 8 | 113,852 |
| Alabama Contest Group | 5 | 66,356 |
| Mad River Radio Club | 5 | 46,725 |
| Maritime Contest Club | 3 | 43,346 |
| Contest Club Ontario | 3 | 31,415 |
| Frankford Radio Club | 2 | 24,612 |
| Newton ARA | 1 | 22,800 |
| Central Germant Contest Group | 1 | 22,066 |
| Yankee Clipper Contest Club | 2 | 20,973 |
| Southern California Contest Club | 1 | 19,470 |
| Central Texas DX and Contest Club | 3 | 18,746 |
| Northern Arizona DX Assn | 1 | 15,092 |
| Rochester (NY) DX Assn | 2 | 14,864 |
| Lynchburg ARC | 1 | 13,432 |
| Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado | 2 | 11,988 |
| Western Washington DX Club | 2 | 11,626 |
| Metro DX Club | 2 | 11,292 |
| Missouri DX/Contest Club | 1 | 11,232 |
| Northern California Contest Club | 8 | 11,058 |
| Providence RA | 1 | 10,780 |
| Oklahoma DX Association | 1 | 9,016 |
| Western New York DX Association | 2 | 7,492 |
| Delaware County ARA | 1 | 7,296 |
| Heart of Texas DX Society | 1 | 6,708 |
| Menominee River Radio Club | 1 | 6,513 |
| Penn Wireless Assn | 1 | 5,920 |
| Tennessee Valley DX Assn | 1 | 5,848 |
| Bergan ARA | 2 | 5,264 |
| Texas DX Society | 1 | 4,896 |
| Northern Virginia QRP Club | 1 | 4,556 |
| WC8VOA | 1 | 4,437 |
| Sterling Park ARC | 1 | 4,410 |
| Minnesota Wireless Assn | 2 | 4,169 |
| Prince Of Peace Amateur Radio Society | 1 | 4,060 |
| Northern Rockies DX | 1 | 3,968 |
| Southwest Ohio DX Assn | 1 | 3,910 |
| Northern Lights Radio Society | 1 | 3,861 |
| Russian Contest Club | 1 | 3,537 |
| Madison County ARC | 1 | 3,379 |
| Colorado QRP Club | 1 | 3,264 |
| Northeast Wisconsin DX Assn | 1 | 3,128 |
| Western ILLinois Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 3,024 |
| Redmond Key Top Contest Club | 1 | 2,912 |
| USS Wisconsin RC | 1 | 2,880 |
| Mid Florida DX Association | 1 | 2,322 |
| Eli Lilly RC | 1 | 1,800 |
| Hudson Valley Contesters and DXers | 1 | 1,700 |
| Athens County ARA | 1 | 1,656 |
| Hoosier DX and Contest Club (SMC) | 1 | 1,632 |
| Tri-Town Radio Amateur Club | 1 | 1,560 |
| Bavarian Contest Club | 1 | 1,472 |
| Boring ARC | 1 | 1,456 |
| Lapeer County ARC | 1 | 1,368 |
| Haros RC – Budapest | 1 | 1,280 |
| Beemster Contest Club | 1 | 850 |
| Prince of Peace ARS | 1 | 828 |
| Frontier Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 714 |
| British Columbia DXC | 1 | 672 |
| Blossomland Amateur Radio Association | 1 | 609 |
| Kentucky Contest Group | 1 | 459 |
| Short Mountain Repeater Club, 910 Codgers | 1 | 352 |
| Southern Vermont ARC | 1 | 352 |
| Olympia ARS | 1 | 308 |
| Austin QRP Club | 1 | 240 |
| AARS | 1 | 180 |
| Willamette Valley DX Club | 1 | 176 |
| Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association | 1 | 156 |
| Chippewa Valley VHF Contesters | 1 | 143 |
| Loudoun ARG | 1 | 130 |
| Amsterdam DX Club | 1 | 84 |
| San Diego DX Club | 1 | 81 |
| Portage County Amateur Radio Service | 1 | 36 |
| Louisiana Contest Club | 1 | 6 |
New England Club Scores
| Club | Entries | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Yankee Clipper Contest Club | 57 | 3,422,758 |
| CTRI Contest Group | 7 | 334,784 |
| Bristol County Repeater Association | 1 | 196,648 |
| MIT Radio Society | 1 | 138,369 |
| White Mountain Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 103,174 |
| Hampden County Radio Association | 7 | 80,241 |
| Meriden Amateur Radio Club | 5 | 78,817 |
| Vineyard Amateur Radio Association | 1 | 60,512 |
| Contoocook Valley Radio Club | 1 | 55,920 |
| Merrymeeting Amateur Radio Association | 2 | 54,579 |
| Nashua Area Radio Club | 1 | 50,512 |
| Framingham Amateur Radio Association | 1 | 43,736 |
| Candlewood Amateur Radio Association | 2 | 32,412 |
| Providence Radio Association | 1 | 28,443 |
| Green Moountain Wireless | 1 | 18,304 |
| Blackstone Valley Amateur Radio Club | 2 | 13,310 |
| BSA Troop 135 Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 12,300 |
| Falmouth Amateur Radio Association | 2 | 11,417 |
| Nantucket ARA | 1 | 7,770 |
| Southern Vermont Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 6,880 |
| Waterbury Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 4,814 |
| Newington Amateur Radio League | 1 | 4,386 |
| Middlesex Amateur Radio Society | 1 | 4,033 |
| Merrymeeting Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 3,096 |
| Port City Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 960 |
| Central New Hampshire Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 893 |
| YO DX Club | 1 | 480 |
| Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club | 1 | 324 |
| North East Weak Signal Group | 1 | 150 |
Activity by County
| County | QSOs | Stations Active |
|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | ||
| Fairfield | 651 | 33 |
| Hartford | 871 | 37 |
| Litchfield | 204 | 12 |
| Middlesex | 82 | 8 |
| New Haven | 1273 | 41 |
| New London | 262 | 16 |
| Tolland | 1043 | 14 |
| Windham | 775 | 13 |
| Massachusetts | ||
| Barnstable | 339 | 16 |
| Berkshire | 1001 | 15 |
| Bristol | 551 | 33 |
| Dukes | 902 | 5 |
| Essex | 1182 | 24 |
| Franklin | 127 | 8 |
| Hampden | 563 | 27 |
| Hampshire | 190 | 12 |
| Middlesex | 3221 | 61 |
| Nantucket | 318 | 6 |
| Norfolk | 537 | 19 |
| Plymouth | 886 | 20 |
| Suffolk | 52 | 7 |
| Worcester | 1916 | 58 |
| Maine | ||
| Androscoggin | 326 | 9 |
| Aroostook | 524 | 9 |
| Cumberland | 419 | 20 |
| Franklin | 81 | 4 |
| Hancock | 243 | 11 |
| Kennebec | 363 | 22 |
| Knox | 226 | 3 |
| Lincoln | 24 | 5 |
| Oxford | 899 | 6 |
| Penobscot | 398 | 18 |
| Piscataquis | 106 | 5 |
| Sagadahoc | 220 | 10 |
| Somerset | 338 | 9 |
| Waldo | 60 | 7 |
| Washington | 97 | 3 |
| York | 108 | 12 |
| New Hampshire | ||
| Belknap | 178 | 7 |
| Carroll | 574 | 7 |
| Cheshire | 178 | 12 |
| Coos | 350 | 6 |
| Grafton | 216 | 8 |
| Hillsborough | 1416 | 33 |
| Merrimack | 310 | 12 |
| Rochingham | 1342 | 27 |
| Strafford | 315 | 12 |
| Sullivan | 307 | 5 |
| Rhode Island | ||
| Bristol | 65 | 5 |
| Kent | 567 | 16 |
| Newport | 777 | 12 |
| Providence | 756 | 32 |
| Washington | 476 | 6 |
| Vermont | ||
| Addison | 141 | 6 |
| Bennington | 202 | 4 |
| Caledonia | 171 | 7 |
| Chittenden | 197 | 12 |
| Essex | 296 | 3 |
| Franklin | 43 | 2 |
| Grand Isle | 139 | 5 |
| Lamoille | 82 | 3 |
| Orange | 100 | 4 |
| Orleans | 68 | 4 |
| Rutland | 427 | 9 |
| Washington | 124 | 8 |
| Windsor | 574 | 6 |
| Windham | 112 | 6 |
Certificates!
Certificates were mailed to everyone who made at least 25 QSOs – we hope you’ll be back again in 2010 to earn another one!
Plaques and Special Awards
Special plaques have been awarded to these top scorers:
| Category | Donor | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| USA – single operator | Southborough Rod & Gun Club (W1SRG) | Paul Newberry, N4PN |
| USA – single operator low power | Dave Sumner, K1ZZ in memory of Laci Radnay, W1PL | Mike Wetzel, W9RE |
| USA – single operator QRP | Vern Brownell, W1VB | Julius Fazekas, N2WN |
| USA – single opr(W5-W6-W7-W0) | Huckleberry Mountain Contest Club | Paul Haefner, K0JPL |
| USA – single opr(W2-W3-W8-W9) | Jim Monahan, K1PX | Tom Warren, K3TW |
| USA – single opr low power (W2-W3-W8-W9) | Whit Carter, K1EO | Paul Kirley, W8TM |
| USA – California/Nevada | Calif QSO Party – Northern California Contest Club | Dennis Vernacchia. N6KI |
| USA – multi operator – single transmitter | Dave Robbins, K1TTT | Bob Beaudoin, WA1FCN(+net) |
| USA – single operator – CW only | K1EL Keyers | Ralph Bates, K1ZZI |
| Canada – single operator | Chris Terkla, N1XS | Alan Prosser, VA1MM |
| Canada – single operator low power | Gerry Hull, W1VE/VE1RM | Art Tolda, VE3UTT |
| Canada – single operator – CW only | Bud Hippisley, W2RU | Gary Bartlett, VE1RGB |
| DX – single operator | Yankee Clipper Contest Club | Gerhard Kaiser, DL5AWI |
| DX – single operator low power | Pete Chamalian, W1RM | Peter Dintelmann, DL4FN |
| DX – Russia – any category (min 50 multipliers/200 QSOs) | Dmitri Y Jikharev, N2OW/RA9USU | (no winner this time) |
| Clean Sweep – Not First, but Furthest | Dennis Egan, W1UE | Bob Patten, N4BP (WN1GIV) |
| Golden Log – no errors | Jim Spears, N1NK | Tom Schwinn, W4NBS |
| Top Club | Florida Contest Group | Tennessee Contest Group |
| New England – single operator | Yankee Clipper Contest Club | Dennis Egan, W1UE |
| New England – single operator – low power | Dave Hoaglin, K1HT | Art Hambleton, K1BX |
| New England – single operator – CW only | Andy Bodony, K2LE | Bill Myers, K1GQ |
| New England – single operator – QRP | Blackstone Valley Amateur Radio Club | Tom Doubek, AA1CA |
| New England – mobile | Boston Amateur Radio Club | Tom Frenaye, K1KI/m |
| New England – mobile – rookie | Bob Raymond, WA1Z | Les Peters, N1SV/m |
| New England – mobile – multi-single | Brian Szewczyk, NJ1F, in memory of James Szewczyk, WB1EYM | NE1QP/m (Brian Szewczyk, NJ1F + Leonard Bean, KB1W) |
| New England – mobile – County Expedition Award | Huckleberry Mountain Contest Club | Bob Raymond, WA1Z/m |
| New England – multi-single | Wellesley Amateur Radio Society | Dave Robbins, K1TTT (+Mike DeChristopher, K1KAA, Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA, Leonard Bean, KB1W, Blake Edwards, W1IM and Tom Homewood, W1TO) |
| New England – school club | Chris Terkla, N1XS | MIT Radio Society, W1MX (Tim Dunn, KT1D, Ryan Kingsbury, AG4ZP, Ben Gelb, N1VF, and Andrew Mui, K2TJ, oprs) |
| Connecticut – single operator | Candlewood ARA | Michael Loukides, W1JQ |
| Maine – single operator | Merrymeeting ARA, Androscoggin ARC, Yankee ARC, Portland Amateur Wireless Assn | Whit Carter, K1EO |
| Massachusetts – single operator | Framingham Amateur Radio Association | Dennis Egan, W1UE |
| Massachusetts – single operator low power | Chuck Counselman, W1HIS | Paul Young, K1XM |
| New Hampshire – single operator high power | Mark Pride, K1RX | Dale Clement, AF1T |
| Rhode Island – single operator low power | CT/RI Contest Group | Don Rosinha, WA1BXY |
| Vermont – single operator | Bob Raymond, WA1Z | Mill Moore, K1IB |
| Vermont – single operator low power | West River Radio Club | Mark Mokowski, K1PU |
| Maine – single operator – high power | Augusta Amateur Radio Assn | Dave Bowker, K1FK |
| Maine – Kennebec County | Kennebec Amateur Radio Society | Bill Mann, W1KX |
| Massachusetts – Hampden County – single operator | Hampden County Radio Assn | Jim Mullin, KK1W, oper of WB1Z |
| New England Club | Yankee Clipper Contest Club | CT/RI Contest Club |
If you’d like to sponsor a plaque for 2010, 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 2009 the winner is Paul Newberry, N4PN! Other top USA (non-New England) scorers: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – 250+ QSOs WA1FCN N2BJ AD4EB K1ZZI K3TW N2WN N4ARO N4CW N4IG N4PN NA4K N8II NF4A W9RE WN1GIV |
Log checking
Thanks to everyone who sent in electronic logs, it made the log checking process go much easier. There were 493 logs overall, with 458 in electronic format (93%) and only 35 on paper. This is 13% more logs than last year – and thye smallest number of paper logs ever, many thanks! We really appreciate logs from those who competed in the 7QP, MARAC and ARI contests on the same weekend. We always take the time to convert the paper logs to electronic format for log checking. There is no penalty for duplicates – we encourage you to leave them in the log.
The efforts of Tom/W4NBS should be noted. He made 182 low power QSOs and we found no errors in our log checking. Others came close, but Tom’s effort put him at the top of the list for the Golden Log plaque.
For non-New England stations, cross checking was possible on 23,811 of the 27,033 QSOs reported (88.1%). Of the 1081 QSOs not allowed (4.07%), the breakdown is as follows:
| QSOs | Reason not allowed |
| 279 | Callsign incorrect |
| 365 | QTH incorrect |
| 140 | Not in log |
| 174 | Duplicate |
| 87 | Bad mode |
| 34 | Bad band |
| 2 | Time was outside of contest period |
| 1081 | Total of QSOs disallowed |
For New England stations, cross checking was possible on 29,717 of the 58,705 QSOs reported (50.6%). Of the 2,270 QSOs not allowed (3.9%), the breakdown is as follows:
| QSOs | Reason not allowed |
| 606 | Callsign incorrect |
| 900 | QTH incorrect |
| 227 | Not in log |
| 478 | Duplicate |
| 14 | Bad mode |
| 13 | Bad band |
| 32 | Time was outside of contest period |
| 2,270 | Total of QSOs disallowed |
Logging Software
Looks like N1MM software still dominates for logging the NEQP, followed by Writelog and N3FJP’s software again.
| Software | Entries | QSOs |
|---|---|---|
| N1MM | 121 | 23,201 |
| Writelog | 57 | 11,965 |
| N3FJP | 85 | 10,315 |
| CT | 17 | 6,346 |
| NA | 6 | 2,084 |
| GenLog | 12 | 1,004 |
| TR Log | 8 | 918 |
| MS Excel | 4 | 698 |
| JL | 1 | 679 |
| CSV | 1 | 323 |
| Win-Test | 2 | 271 |
| CQPWIN | 1 | 190 |
| Win-EQF | 4 | 171 |
| CU2JT | 1 | 169 |
| Ham Radio Deluxe | 5 | 156 |
| (19 others) | 27 | 892 |
Soapbox
Be sure to browse through the extensive “Soapbox” comments and stories! You’ll find some interesting advice and some good information about the 2009 event.
Thanks
As we look to the upcoming 2010 contest, sunspots numbers are really increasing so it looks like the number of QSOs should increase on 15 and 10 meters. Let’s hope the sun’s geomagnetic activity is low at the same time!