Writeup | New England Scores | Scores Outside New England | Breakdowns of Top Stations | Soapbox Comments
W/VE Stations Outside New England
AA4TI – Good QSO party with decent propagation. Lots of fun this year.
AD0YM – First time participant. It was fun!
AJ0CM – Thanks for the party!
K1HG – All S & P.
K2EKM – running 8w to a longwire antenna
K2SX – Missed a lot of time this year due to other things. Still, it was good to hear all the old familiar calls on as well as some new ones. County total was way down, presumably due to lack of mobiles. Oh, well…
K3TW – Many thanks for another very enjoyable New England QSO Party. Despite travel restrictions, activity from New England was excellent on all bands. Best wishes from warm and sunny Florida.
K3ZGA – Had a great weekend. Thank you for all your efforts in making this possible.
K4LDW – Thanks for allowing me to participate in your contest!
K4NMR – Thank you all for a very enjoyable weekend of QSO parties.
K4QS – Thanks for another great one.
K4VBM – Thanks for the great fun!
K5FWG – this only my 3rd contact in my life. I only have 1 contact for this QSO party. I just wanted to try and make a contact. I hope I have this formatted correctly. Maybe one day we can get out of lock down and I can find someone to help me. It was fun listing to everyone and seeing how far away I could hear people. Thanks for the event.
K6BBQ – Despite noisy conditions here near San Francisco a good amount of NEQP stations could be heard and worked here from my little apartment station. Thank you for putting this on the air. It’s fun as always
K6KR – I entered the 7QP, but ran into a number of NEQP participants as well. Fun to have everyone on at once!
K7XC – Once Again That Was Great Fun! Didn’t sleep well the night before so started 5-1/4 hrs late. Managed to be effective the first 4 hrs or so I was on… then my brain began to fade. Took a break for food, pain meds, and a 5Hr Energy. That got me to 0500Z. I spent an Hour tuning the band and working everyone I could hear between CQing. Thanks to all who put me in their log! 73s from Northern Nevada! KB!
K7ZX – Thanks for a great contest!
K8SYH – Enjoyed the activity immensely. Thanks for such a good QSO party.
K9CW – Fun contest!
K9GX – A fun weekend! Thanks for all the QSOs and putting your QSO party together!
K0GEO – Congratulations to Tom K1KI and the other NE ops for yet another great NEQP! Part time effort this year due to work commitments. I enjoyed each and every QSO. See you next year and 73!
K0WRY – Thanks to all for putting together a great QSO party.
KA3D – Thank you for all your work on this very enjoyable event. My wife Colleen(KA3ZNI) and I look ford to participating every year.
KA3TTT– I had fun running QRP from Philadelphia!
KA4OTB – Thanks for a fun event.
KA0PQW – Great contest. My first time entering it.
KB6NU – Fun contest. Love the NEQP.
KB9ENS – First time submitting.
KC4TEO – Great contest! Pretty good propagation down here to Alabama.
KD2KW – Thanks for a fun event. Your efforts are appreciated.
KD4CX – Fun Contest. A little noisy at times but still fun. Thanks to those who worked behind the scene to make this a successful event.
KD8NZF – Thanks for another great event.
KE3K – Thank you for sponsoring this QP and coordinating it at the same time as several others. It was an enjoyable weekend!
KF4AQO – Thank you for this event. I had fun.
KF5VO – Fun time. I don’t often reach the NE stations. Glad to this weekend.
KG5OIB – Thanks for the contest. I was surprised to be able to get as many as I did from New England, which is usually closed off to me in Texas.
KJ9C – Not much else to do today,
KM7DX – Great to hear so many NE stations and good ops. Look forward to next year.
KV8Q – Nice to see all of the activity in these four QSO Parties. Even grabbed a few new counties out west. Still need 3 in IN and one each in ME, MA, and VT. They will come when the mobiles are allowed once again. Stay safe and I’ll see you all next year once again. Thanks – 73 tom Rig = TenTec Eagle @ 100 Watts Antenna = Mag Loop (40 thru 15) and an Isotron-80 in attic 12′ above garage floor and an indoor 10 meter dipole. Thanks – 73 tom Rig = TenTec Eagle @ 100 Watts Antenna = Mag Loop (40 thru 15) and an Isotron-80 in attic 12′ above garage floor and an indoor 10 meter dipole.
KW4GF – Although I did not get to participate like I wanted to, I did enjoy doing the NEQP 2020 PARTY
N2SU – Had fun. Good contest. Plenty of activity.
N4HAI – I had less than one hour of op time this year: yard work, family obligations, etc. It was a lot of fun, and I wish that I could have operated more this year. CW ops were pretty fast for a QSO party, so that was cool. 73 ES GUD DX all. Be Safe!
N5PBP – Enjoyed the QSO party!
N5RB – Thanks for hosting the contest. Had fun!
N7DSX – I really enjoyed this contest this year. Between last year and this year, I purchased an amp and I learned CW. These two things boosted my enjoyment level while running this contest from Arizona. See you all next year and thank you for putting it on.
N7ODP – It was great talking to everyone!
NF7E – it was a fun weekend for me!
NQ5M – Thanks for the QSO party. Hope to work more next year.
VA1RST – A lot of fun! I will make this one a priority next year as you are my neighbor!!
VA3EC – I missed the rovers this year in NEQP!
VA3SB – Thanks for a fun contest. See you next year.
VA7URX – Thanks for a great contest!
VE2FK – NEWE QSO PARTY was so nice this year again, even without mobiles because it was full of good operators. Not too many learning code… I am dreaming of going to W1 and doing it mobile one year hi.
VE7BGP – I had a lot of fun operating the Quad QSO Parties for the first time this year. Rigs used IC-756 Pro and a Vintage IC-751A. 73
W2AAB – Only operated 40 CW here, 100 Watts and wire, part time. Wish there was a bit more activity, but still an enjoyable QSO party.
W4QYV – First year doing NEQP hope to do better next year. Maybe Ill be able to work VT.
W6LFB – ex WA1KQN (Second station call from New London CT, while at Navy Submarine School, Groton – Winter 1968 / 69. Fun being a “Yankee” (Well – “honorary” : ) for a few months!!!). Apt. mgr. let me put up 80M inv. “V” with apex at top of roof on 3-story apt. bldg.!! Had a good sig to QNI CT Traffic Net and 1RN! Also a 12AVQ for DX! There was ice on the roof when I left with orders to Submarine at Pearl Harbor, and, not wanting liability issues, he kindly paid me full price for the vertical!! Think a landlord would do that in this day and age???
W9SMC (KJ9C) – Remote from Montana, no computer interfaces, all hand keyed.
W9TN – Conditions seemed good this year. With the other QPs this is really turning into a big contest weekend!
WA1FCN – After many years of very full time, I decided to save some energy for CQ WPX CW. Always nice to hear old home areas FAICT, CUMME, HILNH. Stay safe ya all.
WA2CNV – Well, one contact is better than none. And how could you NOT hear this guy in ME ?? What a signal!! I was using a G5RV up 40′. Yeasu FT900AT at 100W. I could just about hear some NE stations. Better luck next year but it was still fun!
WA6KHK – Very good participation from New England! Too bad they couldn’t have any rovers this year because of COVID-19 virus.
WA6URY– Operated remote from Tokyo, Japan
WA7YXY – My thanks to all who made these QSO Parties possible under difficult circumstances.
WB4ABY – Great contest and lots of fun. The ops in New England were very professional and courteous. See you next year!
WQ6X – This is another WQ6X portable operation from W7AYT’s QTH in Concord. In the middle of joining NX6T’s multi-op operation, time was found to put the WQ6X callsign on the air during these QSO parties. Read all about it at: http://WQ6X.Blogspot.com
WT8P – Thanks for holding this – it was a lot of fun being able to reach states I’d had a hard time doing under normal circumstances.
DX stations
JO7WXN – I enjoyed the contest.
OM2VL – Very busy weekend, I took part in all 4 QP’s. I don’t like when more QP on the same weekend, because I can’t ignore any of them and missed many in each 🙂 First time I can take part in NE QP and I enjoyed it so much! “Unfortunately” in pileups many time I heard KP2 station, so it was clear for me after some hours that no chance win DX category… 🙁 20m was open so long and I had a nice RUN on SSB both days and at that’s hours I missed on 40/80m I think so many stations… I checked also 15m many times and on Sunday at 15:59Z I heard with strong signal K1LZ. I CQed here about 20-30min but unfortunately worked only K1LZ, K1XM, K1ZZ, W1RM.
Missed counties: (7) ME – Androscoggin, Knox, Piscataquuis MA – Dukes VT – Caledonia, Essex, Orange. Worked stations by state: MA x 207, CT x 89, NH x 79, ME x 58, RI x 45, VT x 40. Most QSO’s: (5): AA1SU, K1RO, KB1W, KC1IVR, NN1C, W1QK, WA1Z (4): 21x (3): 44x
ON6NL – Got the taste of QSO parties yesterday in the 7QP. Also my first New England QSO Party was fun but less of a challenge with a lot of good signals. Some BIG guns were hard to get as their super F/B ratio made they could not hear me while beaming stateside!
SP1JQJ – I was on the bands almost all day and there were few stations from NA.SP6JOE – straight key, no computer, worked from my summer house
New England Stations
AB1DQ – Thanks, had fun despite not having a big chunk of time to play this year – see you in 2021!
AB1XW – With the first gorgeous weekend weather of the year, I was only on the air for a few hours. Conditions seemed good and there were lots of stations to work, though, so I expect those who made a more competitive effort will be posting some impressive scores. See y’all next year.
AC1EV – Thanks again for a fun contest!
AC1GF – First time in contest. Will be back next year.
AE1P – Original plans were to operate from my brother’s place in Caledonia County VT, … Covid squashed those plans… so home in Cheshire county it was…gave up pager duty for the weekend, and still got called in Saturday one hour into NEQP…losing 4 hours. Who would have guessed with a solar flux # of 67 that 20m would have been so good well into Saturday evening?! Sunday?? not so hot…seemed like very tough condx’s… so took the dog for a couple of nice long walks on a gorgeous day outside weather wise. Overall…had fun…wish my cw skills were better, as that is where everyone seems to be.. Sure missed Paul, N4PN, and can’t wait until 10m & 15m come back, and look forward to being portable next year.
AG1YK – Had a great time doing S+P on and off for most of the weekend. At the end of the contest, I decided to try calling CQ. Ended up running the frequency for about 3 hours. Just as my voice was about to give out, a broadcast station came up on my frequency and put an end to the fun. It seems a lot of hams needed LITCT!
AK1W (K5ZD) – Conditions not the best, but lots of people on the radio made for nice rates.
K1ARR – It was fun. Many stations wanting to work NEQP.
K1B (N1RR) – Limited operation. First use of the remote – very basic. TU to WA1BXY / N1NK / N1KM for their support of this project. Raked & mowed the lawn and watered it, then took a nap. So great to have NO RAIN / NO COLD / LOTS OF SUN. TU to N2ZN for trying the remote. 160 QSOs on 20CW – Dipole in 2.4 hours.
K1ESE – Thanks to Paul W1IMD for the use of the station! Four hours Saturday afternoon and early evening were brisk. Good signals great activity and good rates. Five hours on Sunday were slower. Especially on 20m, most signals were weak with fast and deep QSB. if you rode the wave, you made the contact. I often wiped out. A few strong signals were a pleasure. Later even 40m was not as consistent as usual. But everyone had the same conditions. I only did 40m and 20m. I enjoyed some good rate through most of the contest. I only ran and no S&P at all. The goal was to give a fairly rare county to as many as I was able. They can’t work me if they can’t find me. The remote operation was very smooth. Ran the Flex SmartSDR on the remote computer as well as amp app, antenna switch, and SteppIR control. VNC provided computer control and RemoteRig boxes sent CW and audio. Nice to be able to use the paddle remotely. Thanks to Tom and the organizers.
K1GQ – Amazing activity. As the guy who generates the certificates, I hope Tom raises the minimum QSOs requirement for this year 🙂
K1JB – I love this contest. Lots of activity and being in the sought-after region. Both days had good conditions if you ignore the rapid QSB that could change a station from S9 to zilch while he was giving his call. At times, the pileups were ferocious. Had a couple of 5 Q/minute runs on SSB and averaged about 117 Q/hr for the whole contest. All running. Worked all 50 states (KL7 and KH6 both called in during the last hour.) Missed NB (!), NF, LB, and the northern VE tier. EU was surprisingly not common, but I had a few call in. The 5 second reversal and the bi-directional mode of the SteppIR come in handy for this kind of contest. Lots of stations on from Maine and even quite a few from Cumberland County. If we must stay in, this is not a bad way to spend the time.
K1JON – Fun TEST, IC7300/SB200/OCFWire / worked 9/12 hrs
K1KA – A great time as always. Good Conditions, Good Activity, Good runs, Good Fun. Worked all states by early evening Saturday, except AK (never did get it). County total fell short though. Thanks Tom and Bill.
K1KI – My logging PC didn’t like the powerline glitch overnight and the power supply died. I considered but couldn’t face paper logging and a paddle for all of day 2. Sure had a great time on Saturday. Sunday weather was awful nice outside 80f. I mostly did running and no S&P and no looking for multipliers. North Dakota a be the only state in the US I missed. First time using N1MM+ for me, I have a lot to (re)learn.
K1KP – This is the first entry in the New England QSO Party by K1KP. Usually this weekend is occupied with NearFest Activities which leave me too wiped out to get on the air. But like so many aspects of life in the pandemic, where one door closes, another opens. Spurred on by Gerry, W1VE, I thought it would be a fun new experience to try to run a Multi-Single remotely. With some experience operating my station remotely, I took up Gerry’s challenge. Joined by operators Eliot W1MJ, Ed W1ZZ, George W1EBI, and Don K2KQ, we did a lot of testing the week before the QSO Party and thought we had it figured out. We used Anydesk for a remote desktop application and Skype for audio. On the host we ran N1MM+ and used MOAS to control antenna switching and rotators. Things went pretty smoothly for most, although George had a lot of trouble with the Anydesk remote desktop application freezing up. It froze up frequently and intermittently. Others did not have this problem and were able to operate efficiently. I operated a short shift remotely from 15 feet away across the room, using Anydesk and Skype like all the other operators. Ultimately we ended up moving George from Anydesk to TeamViewer for his second shift, and that was much more robust.
We set up an operator schedule which worked really well – almost zero downtime between shifts. From that perspective, this one sets the record for the most efficient use of available on-time in a contest at K1KP. We truly maximized BIC time – which is pretty neat considering the one thing we didn’t have at the operating position was a chair! Perhaps the beginning of a brave, new world. If nothing else, a chance to get on the air for those operators without, or between, home stations.
K1LNL – First time I ever did any type of contesting except for straight key nite. Sunday about 11 am called cq neqp and got hit with a pileup that lasted 35 minutes and 45 ssb contacts including one GA ham who called me twice because he was desperate to get a qsl from RI, pretty challenging for first time and fun so glad I tried it. Don’t know how anyone could do that all day, and it must require a lot of skill for cw (heard NC1CC going at it on cw very professionally).
K1MC – It was nice to work the many 7th call area, Indiana, and Delaware QSO party stations on the air over the weekend in addition to the locals in New England. The poor propagation conditions associated with zero sunspots and a solar flux of 68 combined with QSB made many of the contacts a struggle to complete. I missed working all the mobile rover operations that had to stay home this year and look forward to next year with sunspots and rovers.
K1OKD – This is my first log submission as an individual operator and a (relatively) new amateur radio operator.
K1QO – A bit rusty but it was good to be in COOS county for this fun contest. Thanks to everyone for putting up with my QLF at times. Conditions seemed pretty good and it was nice to get away from
Covid-19 news this weekend.
K1SND – Great fun, thanks for all of your hard work.
K1TCA – I had a great time, though I did not have a huge number of contacts. It gave me a chance to use my equipment.
K1VWQ – Thanks to the staff of NEQP! Always fun… This year’s challenges: Working on Sunday (lost a large chunk of prime air time)… And on Saturday, Eversource decided to change a Powerline from a busted pole (motor vehicle accident down the street), Power Failure at QTH… I had to scramble to get NEQP logger on my laptop and POTA*413 batteries to continue during the blackout… Everyone loves curveballs, but Geez Louise… Cya Next year!
K1WDY – Once again, NEQP was a lot of fun! I wish I had more time to get on the air, but I did the best I could to represent DUKMA.
K1XM – This contest should have SSB and CW categories. Or at least it should have a CW category. I haven’t connected my microphone to a radio since I got back from HR9. Only state missed was Nebraska. KL2R called me on 20 and later KL7SB called me on 40. I’ve operated from both of those stations. I was also called by KH6 stations on 40 and 20. A PE station called me at 23:56 Sunday for a new one, that was a surprise. Conditions weren’t great but there was lots of activity. I do miss 10 and 15 meters though.
KA1IOR – That moment when ND1L calls you from NANMA, and the ONLY right thing to do is give him your 20m RUN frequency, and SPOT HIM… Still plenty of room for improvement here. This effort is dedicated to my friend and Silent Key, Jan K5MA. If my score is valid, it will replace his record for this category in Barnstable County. I suspect Tom K1KI will be making a lot of revisions on the records page this year. Ironically, it wasn’t my original plan for NEQP 2020, but it’s what happens when a pandemic changes everything.
KA1WPM – Things went better than I expected. Did a bit more CW this year than I have in a few years. Tried to raise my antenna before the contest, but ended up with a snapped fishing line. I have to confess, the contest came is second place after the beautiful weather on Sunday. Have to take those sunny days when you can!
KB1W – Really had a blast with this for the time I was on…..13.5 hrs.
KC1IMK (KC1IML) – Keith, KC1IMK, is a 14 yr old general. Although he has contested in both summer and winter field days with N1FD, this was the first contest from “home”. Where home means we used our own computers, logging software and didn’t have a room full of Extra’s and Elmer’s behind him. However, it was not our station. We had remote control of AB1OC station. A FlexSDR with 100 W amp driving two stacked StepIR beams. Pretty much pointed toward Texas, called CQ and had a 3 hour run. Had a great time in his first NEQP.
KC1IVR – Thank you for sponsoring the contest again this year.
KC1KND – Looking forward to next year and plan to be a little more aggressive!
KC1V – Only had a few hours but it was a lot of fun, as always. Thanks for another great party!
KE1VT – Fun time! Running 100 W and an OCF up 40 ft.
KN1H – 5W to end fed wire.
N1ABY – Started out really slow but 80 picked up really well. Had some ‘good’ runs on Saturday night. See you next year!
N1ADX – Thanks for the great contest.
N1AIA – Nice to make over 100 QSOs again.
N1AEU – First contest in over 40 years (except for Field Day). Lack of experience and small station really came through but I had a great time. Looking forward to next year!
N1DC – Thanks to Tom K1KI and the entire NEQP team for another great event! This was a personal best score. I squeezed in a 5 mile walk Saturday and a family outdoor visit Sunday taking advantage of the 65 degree weather. Missed hearing “November 4 Papa November” this year…RIP Paul. Propagation forecast wasn’t great. The bands sounded better than I expected with SFI 68 A=6 and K=1. I eliminated most QRN by cutting my RF gain. This worked very well, especially on 40 and 80M. Great to be called by JA and then AK while running CW on 20M. Not as much EU activity as I hoped for but still plenty of mult’s. Missed Hawaii, ND, YT, NU and the rare Maritime provinces. I can’t believe how many hams there are in FL!
N1E (K1IB) – This year I planned an extensive mobile operation along the Connecticut River border of Vermont and New Hampshire and obtained a three-letter call for that purpose. The pandemic ended the mobile plans but I kept the call: N1E. Operating with a three-letter call was great when running but tough for S&P. Stations being called often don’t expect the short call. That wasn’t much of a problem for me because I ran 98% of the time. With hams everywhere staying at home, the activity level was terrific. My rate meter peaked several times just above 190 on 40m and 80m during Saturday evening. I worked 47 U.S. states. Struck out on ND, NV, and AK. Nevada, where were you during the 7QP? Thanks to all for the fun!
N1ILZ – What a fun time! Hoping for more sunspots next year!
N1KM – It was too nice outside on Sunday to spend any significant time on the radio, so most of these are from Saturday evening. I had one good SSB run on 40M Saturday evening, most of the rest was just S&P. One of my goals for this year really should be getting to the point where I can comfortably run on CW… it’s just not a skill that comes naturally to me and is currently too frustrating for both sides of the contact to put people through the pain. If anyone has suggestions as to how they got to the point where they could just “hear” CW, I’m all ears. I got proficient enough where I could pass the 20 WPM extra class code test, but that is about it. I’ve gotten to the point where I actually enjoy CW contesting more than SSB, so there is hope ; )
N1NK – Color me rusty. Too much “shelter at home” put my brain in neutral but not quite in park or reverse. Took far too long to get back in swing of working a CW contest.
N1RPH – This is the first time I have submitted a log for any on-air activity. Had a good time, although I didn’t work as much time as I had hoped.
N1TIM – My second time trying the NEQP (the only contest I’ve ever participated in) !!! 4 times the contacts and 7 times the points. YAY! This was a LOT of fun. Things I’ve learned: I need to get off of this compromise antenna and need a more comfortable chair. Thank you to all those I contacted and the patience you showed working to pull me out of the noise.
N1WGU – Thanks for having the NEQP again this year. Myself and my friend in Windsor Co. had a blast using our newly rebuilt SB-200’s.
NI1L – NEQP is probably the only contest where I can genuinely have fun working on my puny home station – single radio + PA and a vertical. Super fun way to stay inside!
NN1C – Wow! What a weekend. We started this weekend with a goal of 2,000 Qs, and the M/S record in sight (354k). At the end of the first session, we had 195k, and were stoked. The question was going to be how the activity on Sunday was. It was fantastic. Solid rates all day, left us with an hourly average north of 100 QSOs/hr. Before the contest, I spent time installing a stack match on our 20m antenna system, allowing us to split power between our 20m stack, and separate 5 element beam. The combo proved useful for 1,002 QSOs on 20m. 40m and 80m each had decent rates, although EU runs never quite materialized in a big way. Suffice it to say that conditions to EU on 20 were quite poor. OM2VL and OT6M were always blazing through when we went to a new band. W1UE’s trip to 15m on Saturday netted us 7 QSOs, including the elusive LU mult. The operation was 100% remote. W1UE and NN1C from MA, and Axel, KI6RRN from CA. (I’m told the cool kids on SSB call it “Cal”, but I digress…). We networked our computers using N1MM+ and Hamachi VPN, and it was flawless, as soon as this lid figured out the importance of checking the “Log QSOs at all stations” box. Thanks to Greg, W1KM for the use of his fantastic station. It is great fun to hold our own with a 40m foursquare.
W1DYJ – In general, conditions were not great, but I still enjoyed the quest. My second NEQP from my Maine QTH and 12th overall, I did triple my score from my 1st Maine attempt last year and ended up at about the median for the 12 years. Plus, I confirmed my last two states for CW WAS from Maine, thanks to the 7QP stations. Saturday night was mostly 40. Sunday afternoon was very quiet soI worked outside. Sunday night after dinner from 7:30 to 8 pm was great on 80 with a rate for the half hour of 45, but no new mults.
W1END – Most of my operating was on Sunday; Saturday was too confusing with multiple parties going on. Hard to find a spot on 20 CW to CQ with so much activity and inaudible local signals. I had a great time. Keep up the good work.
W1EQ – I really enjoyed this contest. Only missed 2 states, Alaska and North Dakota.
W1GL – Missed the mobiles!
W1HIS – After operating remotely for NEQP in 2018 and 2018, I dusted off my home station for this one. All the big stuff(transceiver, amp, feedline, antenna system tuner, and antenna) survived my absence just fine; but MANY little things (directional power meter, keyer, keyboard, mouse, USB ports/sockets/plugs and virtual serial ports) misbehaved and required time-consuming troubleshooting and fixing. Still, operating hands-on was easier and less frustrating than operating remotely. As usual, my multiband sloping doublet antenna, 70 ft long and 30 ft high, kicked butt, especially on the low bands.
W1HS – I really enjoy operating in the NEQP. Thanks to Tom and everyone who put this together every year. The NEQP provides a rare opportunity for small-ish stations like mine to hold a frequency for an extended period of time, run a pileup and really work on skills and getting our rate up. This was one of my best ssb run rates in any event, with one actual 60 minute run yielding 94 QSOs, and a peak 10 minute rate of 144 QSOs/hour. I operated multi-single with my son, KC1GDW who was running on my Flex-6700 remotely from his house. This isn’t a particularly good event for multi-operator but it was a good excuse to get him set up to operate remotely. I would have preferred multi-multi or a multi-single operation which allows both operators more flexibility to operate with an interlock allowing only one transmitted signal at a time, but still, it was a good experience. Had to spend some time Saturday night tweaking the setup in order to get him up and running with the KPA500 amp (he was having no luck barefoot), but once we did that it worked flawlessly. This setup will come in handy for field day and other upcoming operating events during our pandemic year. KC1GDW operated remotely on my Flex 6700 plugged into a KPA500 and KAT500 amp plugged into a 51′ G5RV dipole at 35′. I was on an Icom 7610 with KPA1500 into a SteppIR Urbanbeam for 20, and a 102′ G5RV dipole at 45′ for 40 and 80.
W1KDA – Great two-day event – Band conditions did not seem to be too bad – Nice way to spend the weekend while hiding from the Corona Virus – Great hobby after all!!!
W1NQT – I had a good time on CW yesterday with the New England QSO Party. Never got VT though.
W1NSK – 3hrs 45 minutes. Weather was too nice not to enjoy!
W1PY – I guess the takeaway is to never underestimate the power of a pandemic to increase participation in an event that requires you to be at home! I’ve seen this recently in the weekly CWTs and considering conditions were just ‘meh,’ the QSO counts and scores were pretty darn good. There were a couple things that I did miss this year: All the camaraderie and fun that our little local group has when we get together to operate in NEQP from WNHVT. It’s been an annual event for years and a really nice time. I also missed hearing N4PN. There was something about hearing that Georgia accent come on when you would move to another band or hear his call in CW that were nice milestones as you worked your way through the event.
This was the first real push of the new configuration of antennas and station setup here at the house. I still need to work on filtering for when I’m on 20 and 40 at the same time. I was kind of glad 15 and 10 didn’t open up as I’m still hunting down PLN in the neighborhood, which is starting to feel like a game of whack-a-mole. Until it’s fixed, those bands are reduced to unusable to the southwest. And of course I have to put in my plug for the contestonlinescore.com. So motivating to watch the scores across all categories. K1KP was listed in the same category as me and they (now I know it was they) had me on my toes and kept me in my chair. I hope more folks will continue to at least configure it to post their scores, even if they don’t want to use it. Wider adoption is really the next step towards 2.0.Thanks for all the Qs and always great to work so many friends both inside and outside of New England.
W1QK – There was plenty of NEQP activity this year, and it was nice to get answers when running – both on CW and SSB. I worked many stations that weren’t in super check partial, indicating they may be experiencing the NEQP (and contesting) for the first time. I made contacts with many fellow CWops members plus some DX stations too.
W1RM – I went into this not quite sure how I was going to do physically (hands, shoulder, stay awake, etc.) and I surprised myself. I kept an eye on the scoreboard and saw that several stations were way ahead in QSOs but I was beating them in score! Yeah the 2 points for CW vs 1 point for phone makes a big difference! I managed to work 49 states (no ND on CW) and a bunch of countries. Run rates were really quite good even in the slow times I managed 50+ per hour.
Close to the end it dawned on me that I might have a pretty good score. A quick check of the Connecticut record showed that I was very close to K1KI’s record set in 2016 so I had an incentive to push on. At one point I thought about switching to phone but I knew I would be very fresh meat and the pileup horrendous so I decided to stay the course and keep banging away on CW. The last hour on 80 was super with 81. The local noise is horrible but I put up with it. I think some neighbors have some real QRM generators but I’m not going to try and do anything as it’s all to the west. In the end I’m happy to know this ole boy still has some gas in the tank(:->)
W1TJL – Fun, but several issues… Broke a cable on one tower and burned up the full wave rectifier on the winch on the 2nd tower so had to do the contest with both towers retracted. Not as bad on 20 as on 40 with the tower at 30 ft (bit too low even for domestic for 40 meters). Oh, and one of the Heil Prosets broke – no transmit audio. Not my weekend…. But for the little better than 12 hours I put in, I had fun…
W1TR – Short participation time, evaluating new Apache Labs 7000 DLE MK2 SDR radio…
W1UMR (NF1O) – This was the inaugural run for Unity Mountain Radio ARC callsign since there was not a record for multi-one in Sullivan county NH we decided to set one. We did it in Hillsborough county back in 2008 with the old club call of KB1NH. now we can be in the record column for two counties. WX was to nice to get real carried away but we had fun. SSB had some issues due to a bad audio somewhere in the chain. Mic right into radio is fine but we use a mic mixer and go through the SO2R box so some troubleshooting to do.
W1VE – Covid19/100% remote operators from K2LE/1, with K2LE on Long Island, K1EP near Boston, W1VE in southern NH, and VE4EA operating from Winnipeg. A lot of fun despite pretty crappy band conditions. Actually amazed by the amount of activity! Congrats to the NN1C team. Very motivational on the scoreboard. Amazing Mult number — Eu was hard! Hamachi network and N1MM+ behaved very well. Thanks to N1MM and team for a great job.
Thanks to all the ops out there for supporting New England! We won’t forget you in your QSO Parties! I really missed hearing (N4) Papa November on the bands. I hope Paul was watching over us all and keeping track on the scoreboard, while sipping ice tea from heaven. Nice Job on the first remote run from K1KP! I hope my talk last week got you somewhat down the road. We used Anydesk for a lot of checking on the station and had no issues. This trial run gives you lots of input for next time. Any issues are ultimately solvable. Even with sophisticated remote gear, there can be issues. K1EP had tested his remote long before the start. When it came to his shift — NOTHING worked! With a lot of debugging, we reboot his Verizon FIOS router. Boom! Everything came back. There are certainly challenges with remote, but the rewards are a lot of fun!
W1WEF – This was the first time I ever put this much effort into NEQP. Lots of fun especially Saturday. I averaged over 100/hour Saturday before I quit at 11 PM or so. I preceded NEQP with about 100 Qs in 7QP which I never entered before. I operated CW only and deliberately kept my speed at 28 to 30wpm. I worked a lot of stations that I don’t think would have come back at my usual CW ops speed! Thanks to Tom K1KI for organizing this and thanks for the Qs.
W1WIU – Another fun weekend ! Thanks to all to organizers and operators that stopped by to say “hello”. Also thanks to W1HS for NH at 23:43Z Sunday ( made my day ) !! Hope to se you all next year.
WA1MAD – My first QSO party.
WA1SAY – Thanks for the QSO party, had a great time. Looking forward to next year.
WA1Z – Thanks to everyone who spent time this weekend looking for New England stations. Great rates until the last couple of hours when things really started to slow. Having operated this contest as mobile for so many years, it’s interesting to experience it as a fixed station where the contest has a more “traditional” feel with regard to rate. Some of the best rates at as a mobile tend to come at the end of the contest on Sunday when there seems to be the highest number of stations on, concurrently, which makes for fun county line changes. This was really fun, but I’m really looking forward to getting back out on the road again in this one. Got a US State “Sweep” pretty early Saturday night with South Dakota being the last state worked. VO2 and the VE territories were not worked. Activity across the US and Canada was absolutely fantastic. Great weather both days made it really hard to stay in the chair, but I made it! Special thanks to Tom K1KI for all you do to keep this contest humming every year.
WM1N – First time for NEQP.
WO1N – Seriously insane rates every time I sat in front of the radio. Really quiet bands for a change. Piles of fun.
WV1H – Fun contest, I enjoyed it very much.
WZ1V – Operated all phone but for one CW QSO. Didn’t chase mults or attempt a big score, only got on to help activate my county. Nice operating event, TNX for the QSOs.
K2LEK – Had a great time and got a few needy county hunters!
NP2GG – Thanks again for all the work done putting this together.
KE5ISO – Tried to make some contacts using PSK31 but no joy.
W0ZEN – My first effort. Thanks for organizing this. I had a blast!