Writeup | New England Scores | Scores from Outside New England | Breakdowns of Top Stations | Soapbox Comments
W/VE Stations Outside New England
K6CSL – Not a big score, but I had fun. I hope to do more next year.
K0GEO – Thanks for the QSO’s. Hope to have more time next year!
K0JPL – As usual, lot of activity.
KD2JC – First timer in this contest. Nice group of guys and had fun. See you next year.
KE0G – Elecraft K3/10 at 5 watts to a 74′ broad-band dipole up 50′, fed with ladder line and a Matchbox tuner. Lots of activity, thanks to all who joined in from New England. Made for a brisk QSO Party, and I enjoyed it from this end. Thanks for your copy of my QRP ! C U next time.
KF4UCC – Nice contest, I Like the NEQP. Born, raised, and graduate of Stamford (CT) High School class of 1956.
KJ4LTA – Thanks, Had a lot of fun, weather turned bad Sunday here.
KK4CIS – Thanks for a fun contest.
KQ1X – I had a blast!
KQ6X – Fair condx. Sure would have liked to hear a ME station.
KV8Q – WOW!!! Another good time playing three contests at once in an attempt to wear the knobs off of two perfectly good radios. We sure had the noise on 80 once the sun went down. Other than that, this was fun once again. Thanks to all of the portable, rover, mobiles for all of the Q’s and new counties. Here are the leaders: (QSO’s/Counties) WA1Z 6/5, K1KI 3/3, W1UJ 2/2. I’ll be looking for all of you again next year.
N2WN – My FIRST county sweep in a QSO party ever! Saturday was much quieter from a QRN perspective, but plenty of QSOs to be had, exceed both in count and counties worked. Somehow didn’t hear any of the mobiles at the start of the contest, but made up for lost time. Many thanks to all the hard workers, contester and mobiles who took time out to make this fun for the rest of us.
N3KN – More QSOs than last year! Thanks to everyone who played in the contest.
N4ARO – Managed 4 hours operating on Sunday. Great participation by NE guys. Always a fun contest.
N4BFR – Thanks, had fun.
N4PN – Another fun NEQP… This is still one of favorites among all the coics of contests… Thanks to all and especially the mobiles…
N4RWH – Great contest. I had a GREAT time and am looking forward to next year. I believe there were a good number of people participating in this contest. You guys did fantastic!!!
N5AQ – Had a great time. My ears are still ringing. Loved it. need more NE stns.
N7VEA – I worked both 7QP and NEQP again this year
N8XX – Great show! Band conditions were Reasonable this year, but most of my effort was to try to contact Indiana Stations on 80 and 40. Thanks to the organizers for a FB party!
N9FN/m – Thanks for all of the great QSO’s from the NEQP participants too!
NF4A – Never could get a solid run going on 20ssb. Don’t know if it was my low power or lack of activity from 1 land… Others seems to be running NE stations. Missed 6 hours on Saturday due to my 45th high school reunion. Missed CALVT, ESSVT, and HMPMA for the seep. N1MM sez I have 65 counties but I only have 64 (missing 3).
NG7Z – Lots of fun with three parties going on.
NO2D – Always enjoy the NEQP, as I lived in Mass back in the 60’s and 70’s. Especially enjoyed saying hello to Carman, K1LKP.
NQ2W – Lots of fun…whenever I had a chance to sit in front of the radio. Thanks to all of the participants and especially to the organizers. Great contest. Hope to hear you all again next year…oh yeah, thanks for hearing my QRP signal!
VA3OR – Only had 30 minutes but enjoyed each minute.
VE2EZD – Thank you for this great contest
VE4VT – Great fun as always. Conditions much better this year . Just wish I could have devoted more time!.
VE5KS – Had a great time. I just wished that 10 mtrs would have opened up.
W2BEE – I had a great time in a few hours of operating. I was going to stop and at about 45 QSOs and then realized the contest went on for many more hours, so I was able to add another 20+ QSOs to the log.
W2UDT – Missed hours of contest time both days due to other volunteer commitments but still had fun. No 20M backscatter this year and 40M seemed to be the best band from here. Couldn’t raise anyone on 75M SSB Sunday. Guess the loops go back up! Great NE turnout once again even though my score was much less than last year. CU all again.
W4QO – Tnx to all. One Watt here.
W6A (WQ6X) – While there were several QSO parties and the ARI contest this last weekend, NEQP had the more rare counties on although I couldn’t hear that many from my temporary SF bay area location.
W8KNO – Weather was beautiful and I worked outside. Conditions were great when I played. Thanks to everyone.
W9OL – Great Fun. I operated all 3 qso parties on the same weekend. All CW. Still never know how to log multiple counties in one qso.
W9QL – I had a good time, as usual. However, heavy storms kept interrupting and severelyimpacted my operating time. Still managed to do a little better than last year and was able to work some new counties. Hope to see you again next year.
WA5SWN – Got my “clean sweep” of all six states! Had to terminate (just when things were getting good!) because thunderstorms rolled in too close for comfort. Even so, better score than last year.
WB5BKL – Limited time – but had fun.
WD3K – Thanks to all for a great contest again this year.
WD3R – Could not work the whole contest as had other engagements for the weekend but had fun anyway.
WN1GIV(N4BP) – Too many activities to put in a full effort this year.
DX Stations
G3LIK – Lots of QSB on the bands Difficult to put data on when station in more than one location, tried duplicate QSO’s but came up with Dupe Thought there would be more stations involved Good to have SD for loging
LW3EX – First time entry, vy nice party with good cndx on 10, 15 & 20m enjoyed a lot. Congrats NEQP! Enjoyable party. FB #1 Op TU all.
M0CFW – K3 + single 5m wire on balcony with ATU. RBN running for ARI contest so Multi-OP entry. thanks for QSO see you next yearVK4TT – G’day to all in test. Used “SD” by EI5DI worked very FB
New England Stations
AB1OD – I should apologize to those who worked (or attempted to work) me while I was running CW. You see, while I am fortunate to be skilled in certain areas…when it comes to languages, spelling and rhythm, I suck. Morse code lies at the center of the Venn diagram of many of my weaknesses. But, ever since it dawned on me that DXing and contests are much more fun if you can operate CW, I’ve had a masochistic determination to get some level of proficiency. This weekend marked the first time I’ve spent attempting to run CW for any length of time. I’ve tried running a couple of times in the past…and I quickly realized that I still needed to crawl a bit longer. Many stations that worked me can probably attest that I am still not ready to run…but at least this weekend I was willing to get up and stagger on after falling flat on my face.
This weekend was also notable for another reason — the stork, cleverly disguised as a UPS guy, delivered to me a bouncing baby K3 recently. This weekend’s contests were its first workout. There have been a few moments of operator error in reconfiguring software and generally getting used to the new baby, but it’s probably better to get over the worst of it now, before WPX CW. Perhaps one day I’ll become a decent enough operator to merit the rig.
Lots of activity Saturday, not much on Sunday. 20 and 40 were typically busy, 15 was a quiet (away from the 7O6T mega-pileup). 10 was virtually dead. 80 seemed a little lean. Locally, the noise level on 15 and 20 were elevated, but
80 seemed not-horrible. I had planned to spend some time fishing for Q’s with RTTY, but ARI DX congestion interfered with the idea Saturday, and on Sunday 6O7T fired up their RTTY station. The new antenna I put up a couple of weeks ago came in handy for a few contacts, particularly on 40m. Definitely not as good as a beam, but given the restrictions imposed by spouse, town, and proximity to an airport, I’ll take what I can get. Thanks for the Q’s; see you during the WPX-CW.
Rig: K3-100 Antennas: 80m Carolina Windom @ 65′; 160m Carolina Windom @ 35′
AF1T – I couldn’t get on for the beginning, I hope everyone enjoyed the contest!
K1B (W1WBB) – **1×1 S/E call to celebrate CTRI Contest Group 20 Year Anniversary** Operated as Multi-Op Single Tx using spotting cluster…and just 100 watts! Great fun using the S/E 1×1 c/s. Brand new S4+ nearby power line noise created havoc on weak signals. Noise blanker not fully effective so apologies to those I could not pull out. Limited op-time each day with numerous interuptions. Busy Saturday S&Ping the 7QP/INQP/ARI stns mixed with running. Decent condx but not as good as expected/predicted. Activity seemed less this year…many chasing 7O6T and other DX??
Thanks to all who called in… and the organizers/sponsors who do a great job in support of NEQP. Rig: Aging Icom-737 @ 100w. 5-band Hexbeam on 10m-20m; 88′ wire doublet (bi-directional NE/SW 20m EDZ) on 20m/40m; OCF dipole 40m/80m. N1MM logger.
K1BV – This is a great little contest!
K1ESE – Lots of fun!
K1HT – I had much less time than I expected.
K1LI – Got on the air as much as possible Sunday following NEARfest and between bouts of garden work to hand out the “rare” Orleans County multiplier. I was surprised to work over 100/hr even in the limited and sporadic times I was on. Worked a fair number of EU off the back of the beam. AD1C moved me to 10, but otherwise that band was dead. I was actually happy to get out of having to work the 7QP and INQP stations so I didn’t have to figure out their exchanges!
K1LKP – I had a lot of fun and as always a pleasure to participate in the event. A sincere Thank You for all your hard work you perform to make this happen.
K1MGH – This was my first contest ever. I had 74 contacts within the time frame. All but 15 were using digital modes (PSK31 and JT65) and I don’t believe that any of the receiving stations were participating in the contest. Are those digital contacts legitimate contacts for submission on my log? [yes]
K1RK -This was the first operation from the FARA club station on the Otis ANGB. We all enjoyed the activity … thanks for all your efforts!
K1WHS – I spent most of my time on ten meters CW, (4 hours) and had few contacts to show for it. The remaining 3 hours time was spent on 40CW and I made many contacts there. I tried calling CQ with my little dipole and was working about 60 per hour. I am comfortable at 20 WPM. I really had a bunch of fun working a few small pileups, and stayed with CW for the whole time I was able to operate. I did much S&P ing too on 40. I did manage to work two SSB QSOs on ten meters. I had the good fortune to work AF1T, Dale, and W1AIM, Chip in VT at the same time Sunday afternoon. That gave me another band to make me more than eligible to apply for the Chip & Dale Award. This coveted document is earned if you can contact Chip and Dale on six amateur bands. Now I have worked Dale AF1T on 28 through 10 GHz (11 bands) and Chip on 28, 50, 144, 222, 432, 903, 1296, 2304, and 10 GHz. The award is replete with pictures of the famous chipmunks, Chip and Dale, and is a great addition to any ham shack wall! On 40 Meters I worked 128 Qs in 20 sections 10 meters 38 Qs in 21 sections Some highlights for me was easily working a UA3 on 40 on Sunday afternoon about 5 pm. On ten meters I snagged KH6LC on Saturday and worked DL5AAX on Sunday (who was chasing NEQP calls!) along with F6DMD. This was rather late in the day, I think about 4 PM! Signals peaked on the direct path. I was amazed that I worked one more multipliers on 10 meters than 40 meters. Who woulda thunk it? That could also mean my 40 meter antenna is a real dog!!
K1XM – I had an antenna problem that couldn’t wait, requiring trips up the tower both days and to a hardware store in between. I also was working on the antenna switching system demo that I’m bringing to Dayton – and I really should not tryto solder while operating a contest. About a week ago I received two more enormous plaques for last year’s NEQP. Ithink I’m about halfway to being able to build a dog house out of them. Hopefully I didn’t win any this year. About the most exciting thing that happened was hearing W5QLF send his state wrong twice before getting it right. Which is to say it was a fairly dull contest.
KA1WPM – Graduation activites kept me from operating very much this year. Things seemed somewhat quiet on the bands Sunday morning. I think it is really about time I started working on CW seriously!
KB1KMF – Didn’t have much time this year, but had a good time when I was on!
KB1NTY – Just testing the water on my first contest, operating at a leisurely pace. Had fun and made some great contacts. 15m and 40m were good, but 20m was unkind to me.
KB1VIB – The conditions were not as good as 2011, but it was still a fun time. Thanks for another great year of a contest. I even jumped on CW this year to try to pull in some more points since conditions were not that great.
KB1VUN – My first NEQP. Great fun, will be back next year!
KB1VWQ – This is my first QSO Party
KB1W – Had some major computer problems so minimal time on. Fixed the computer yesterday tues. so things should be good now.
KM3T/m – Drove around just to give out some Q’s – hope everyone had fun. May be more ambitious next year.
N1AIA – Good time. Coulda done better, but oh well, there’s always next year.
N1API – I got off to a horrible start! I downloaded all the N1MM new files updated the countries and calls list and then found out that I had the wrong QSO party selected. I could not find the NEQP and thought that it was not supported in N1MM. So I went back to CT DOS with no radio and packet support, (that’s why the first 10 QSO have no frequency. Every time I made a QSO it defaulted back to 20 meters CW. After about 10 QSOs I was ready to give up. I did a quick download of CTWIN and all the support, country, call sign and database files. Fortunately I was able to move the bin file over so did not have to renter the QSOs. So I lost a good hour and a half. 10 Meters was horrible and almost non existent. 15 meters was poor 20 was my meat band. Also I wish more Non NE stations would call CW, especially on CW. As always I like to suggest a “tribander” class for those of us who have no 40 and 80 meter capabilities. Also an “assisted” class would be nice.
N1EP – First time contest as QRP. Quite a challenge!
N1EVK – Second attempt in the NEQP. ICOM 735, 100 watts 15M Bazooka and Cobra Ultralite SR
N1NK – I thought band conditions were soft. I did not work anyone on 10 and only 1 on 80 although I could not operate into prime 80 time. Most was cw as I could not get a consistent rate on ssb on any band except for 40 early Saturday evening. I did work a dozen or so EU but no Caribbean, SA or Asia. I did work KL7 but not KH6. Rig is K3/100 with P3 on the side. Antenna is 3 el steppIR at 60′.
N1RLR – This was my first attempt at “Contesting” and while I don’t have and never will have a “Big Gun” type of a station, I did enjoy every contact that I made.
N1YX – This is always a fun event. Too bad I could not spend more time in it, less than 3 hours overall. Even had mini pile-up going for 20 minutes or so Sunday afternoon on 20m CW when bunch of EU stations called me on the back of the beam.
NA1GB/m – Not bad for last minute attempt; SUFMA should be less rare this year!
NT1Q (W1XG) – NEQP rules say to log “county line” QSOs as (two) separate QSOs… Does this apply hen I worked NG7M when he was at the corner of 3 counties in 2 states? Just wondering…. [NE stations log it as two QSOs, one for each state] Sometimes felt like I was in rthe 7QP more than the NEQP, the way propagation seemed to switch. In the whole weekend, only heard/worked two stations in the Indiana QP. Received a call on 40SSB from NG1P operating as “solar station” on “Bear Muntain, Maine” with no further information given. Looking up Bear Mountain shows eleven different peaks, across six counties, with that name – all in Maine! Want to thank Ronnie WD4LTF a blind operator in Alabama for taking the time to convince me that my power supply was going bad.
NU1O – This was my first NE QSO Party after 24 years of amateur radio. I really enjoyed the 7th area contest at the same time. It brought out some of the rarer states.
NZ1MT – This is my fist time participating in the NEQP. It was great fun.
W1AEC – First time operating, running 100W into G5RV @ 25ft. See you again next year!
W1EBI – I actually spent a lot of this time trying to resolve a delay problem with N1MM Logger. It took around three seconds between hitting F3 and when the “TU” message was transmitted. Lots of advice from users, but it was solved by opening a new database. Sorry if I worked you while sounding like a lid, I was impatient, so often I started sending by hand when the CW message started burping out!
W1END – Rig was FTdx5000 (150w) and Butternut HF6V vertical. Second day turned out better than I expected. Fun activity.
W1EQ – I just took down the 3L Steppir so I could get some maintenace done to the Wilson Tower. I decided to use my 160 inverted L in NEQP. The ATU on the K3 allowed me to operate all bands. I made the same q’s and mults as last year with the one antenna. So I guess I just started a new category SOAB1A.
W1JQ – Not a big effort here–smallest yet. Having some problems with my back, which made it hard to put in many hours. And had to deal with an old laptop that died when coffee was spilled on it. Anyway, enough whining. About half the QSOs came in those last 20 minutes; nice run on 40M.
W1KBN – Tom, KB1KDU, and I [N1QD] had a blast operating the NEQP from Northeastern University in Boston!
W1SFR – I’m a new ham (2/28/2012) and this is my first shot at a contest.
W1UE – Being tied up on Saturday precluded me doing a serious SOHP effort this year, so I chose to do a small DXpedition with Eric KV1J to Suffolk County, Ma. Unfortunately for us, there seemed to be plenty of SUFMA Qs available this weekend, but we still had a fun time setting up and operating. We set up in Winthrop, Ma, at the Yacht Club, right in the takeoff path of Logan Airport. Every 10 minutes or so another jet would take off, and things would get very loud. We both had K3s, a small generator to run them and the laptops, and the antennas were varied: a multi-band, quick set up antenna that Eric has, a pair of phased 20M verticals, a full-size 40M vertical, and dipoles for 20/15M at about 6 feet off the ground. Why 6 ft? That was about as far up the pole as I could reach! I operated CW, and Eric ground it out on phone. Thanks to everyone for the Qs! Did manage to work about 10 Europeans including 4 UAs, and as far west as KH6 and south as LU. Maybe next year another SOHP go, but as a small DXpedition this was a lot of fun!
W1UJ/m – What a great adventure! First HF Rover ever for all of us. Extra special thanks to the “Driving Miss Jay-sie” guys N1WK on Saturday and KB1SBC Sunday. We had great WX and good company! The audio was pumping through the hi-fidelity cassette-to-1/8 audio converter. The car and rig were so quiet that the motor turning the non-existent cassette spindles is heard. The K3 is a fantastic, versatile rig. No noise from the car with an installation that started only the week before.NO5W and N5NA Were huge help getting me going on with the fine GPS Enabled mobile contesting software CQ/x offering support before during and after. GPS took N1WK and W1UJ off-roading in Wareham MA at the beginning. Ending up turning around in the middle of a cranberry-bog crossing bridges that were probably weight-rated for carts. This had the questions of the far-away planned routes could be.. bad….. Thankfully, all was better than great after!
The worst road and worst county goes to RI. The roads were bone-chattering going through NEWRI, and we spent an amazing amount of time for only a single QSO from KENRI, and that was not easy. Thank you AB1OD. Most scenic is NH into VT. I think cheapest fuel was central NH (North).
2 fantastic dining experiences. Saturday started at New England Amateur Radio Festival (NEAR Fest) in NH and Sweet Sausage from the ‘truck’ in the middle of NEAR Fest.(Hot was considered, until the reality of the long trip ahead was also considered) then to Wareham/PLYMA to make sure KB1SBC was ready at home and went to a local restaurant where a fine home-style (Turkey Croquettes, Stuffed Chicken and I forgot what N1WK had…. but all was 5 star) Sunday was North of Lake Winnipesake NH. They were generous with the Corn/Lobstah dishes, Surf-Lobstah & Turf-Steak tips Corn Cobb & 2 potatoes, Lobster-Corn Chowder, Corn Fritters.
The scenery was awesome and the event was awesome. Will try something new next year hopefully. K3 100w / High-Sierra Motorized antenna / CQ/x from NO5W GPS Enabled Software Just CQ’d high in the band while chatting through the ride. Thanks for following us around!
WA1VIL – No love digital QRP so it was all CW. Great fun!
W1WIU – Thanks to all the orginizers for another fun NEQP. Ran 100 watts for CW and 400 watts for SSB. G5RV up 40′. Lot’s of familar calls from other state’s QSO parties. Thanks for the support. Hope to see you all again next year.
WA1Z/m – Radio: Elecraft K3, 100 watts. Antennas: Hustler monoband resonators 80-15 (also had 10 with me, but never used). Resonators mounted on Hustler MO-2 masts. Two antenna mounts available on the rear hatch. Logging: Computer logging on laptop powered by combination of internal batteries and sealed jump-start batteries, Writelog. T-Shirts: Sat: 2011 California QSO Party, Sun: PJ4X FCG-inspired “Orange Crush” Thanks again to Tom, K1KI, for organizing another great NEQP!
After two years of talking about it, Kurt, W6PH, and I finally teamed up in the NEQP this year. Kurt did the driving and I did the operating. Kurt says he enjoyed listening to the action fed into the car stereo AUX jack.
The K3 and Win-Keyer were set up on a homemade table secured to the backseat. The laptop and CW paddle were situated on a lap desk on, well, my lap. This worked well and I managed to stay comfortable with this configuration for the duration of the contest.
Two Comet antenna mounts were installed on the back of the car for quick switching between two bands. These are trunk-lip mounts that are not designed to be used with the medium-duty MO-2 masts. To make the antennas
very secure, I constructed a harness made from PVC sections that extends from the car’s roof rack for added stability – I don’t do any mobile operating outside of NEQP to justify drilling holes for a more substantial antenna mount.
Kurt kept us on schedule the whole weekend through our 24 county changes in 20 total counties. Conditions both days seemed very good. However, activity seemed low. We averaged about 45-60 minutes in each county, for the most part. We tried to drive straight through big counties and had planned stops in smaller counties to increase operating time. In hindsight, even 45 minutes is a little too long when activity is low.
Highlights:
– Having VK4AAR call in on 20 Sunday morning.
– Best observed 60 Minute Rate peak was 105/hour on Sunday afternoon.
– Dedicated group of guys that work this contest every year. Thanks guys!
– No major technical issues during the contest, except for a mishap with a CW paddle that got damaged when it fell of my lap on Sunday (sorry K1GQ and KO1U for QLF moment)
– County plan was executed by Kurt flawlessly.
– OT: Watching bicyclists tackle RT 11 East in Bennington VT (this road is steep in spots)
The multiplier breakdown is 52 State/Prov and 27 DX mults. I missed NM, SD, KL7, SK, AB, NF, LB and the VE territories. And, despite spending the majority of the time in Vermont, I missed the VT multiplier!!! I was searching for someone in the last 30 minutes on 40 and 80 with no success. After the contest, I saw that WB1Z was just…1…k…c above me on 40 in the last hour. Somehow, I missed them.
Thanks to everyone to called in this weekend. Lots of repeat customers this year helped keep the rate up. Of the 1233 QSOs, 651 QSOs (52.7%) were “valid dupes” due to the benefit of county changes. Top repeater was N2WN with 32, followed by N4PN (30) and WA1FCN (26). Many QSOs with NT2A, K0JPL, WN1GIV, NA4K, NF4A, N8UM, K1GQ, K1GU, W8TM, W4GDG, K4BAI, NW2K, KO1U, N4CW, VE1RGB, N9AUG, and VE4VT and many others that called in more than
once…thanks!
Also, thanks to all the guys who moved to phone when asked on Sunday to complete “the three-point play.” It was very hard to get anyone to answer CQs on phone, but passing worked really well and helped to keep the rate up on Sunday.
Also had a dedicated group of repeat DX callers: The most being HA8IB with 12, followed by DL3DXX, DM3ZF, G3LIK, G3XVR, IV3AOL, KH6LC (LOUD on 15), OK2EC, PA3AAV, RG5A, UA3AGW, UA6LCN, UR5MM, YO8DOH and more. Thanks for all the QSOs!
By my count, 447 unique callsigns were worked this weekend. See you again next year!!!
WA1ZAM – thanks for the fun wish I had a real antenna my little wire at 20ft just don’t make but I tryed to work as many as I could in a short time
WN1E – Had a great time doing the contest this year. Decided to put more effort into making cw contacts. This really helped with the final score, and I was glad I put in the effort. Thanks to all who were patient with me on the cw side.
WR1TC(K5ZD) – WR1TC is the club callsign of the 2014 World Radiosport Team Championship organizing committee. Loved all the nice comments received during the contest. Worked 169 Europeans. UA3AGW on both modes 15-40 meters!