Writeup | New England Scores | Scores from Outside New England | Breakdowns of Top Stations | Soapbox Comments
W/VE Stations Outside New England
AA9KH – Had a lot of fun and many thanks for sponsoring such a fine event. Hopefully, can spend a bit more time on the air next year. Many thanks to all the mobiles for providing so many counties during this years event … and, for operating using this hams preferred mode – CW ! Thanks again and CU nxt yr. GL and God Bless.
AD6E – Congrats on a great initial offering. Zero Qs on low bands tells a story: East coast QRTs just when the low bands open out here on the left coast.
AE6Y – Thanks for an enjoyable contest! Hope it continues to grow.
K1PT – How many days ’til the next NEQP 🙂
K3YD – Where was everyone; working DX on 10 or W6’s on 20? Tuned the bands many time hearing only the same 1 or 2 stations on 40, nobody on 80, or 20 or 15 or 10. (I’m too close to NE for those bands to be useful for me.) Only the last 15 minutes on 40 CW sounded like a CONTEST!
K4BEV – CU next year! Good contest format.
K4BP – Hope to have more time next year.
K4OJ – Was worried about a poor turnout due to low level of publicity.
K5DB – Great contest: You have very congenial operators in New England.
K5OT – Didn’t have as much time this weekend as I would have liked… but still a lot of fun in this combined-state test. See you next year!
K6RB – Good first effort but some “bugs” still need to be worked out. Most NE ops used the five-letter county/state codes, but some used the 3-letter. It needs to be standardized, I think. Also, by stopping the contest at 11 PM ET on Saturday, there was no chance for left-coast/right -coast QSOs on 80/75 meters. Thanks to all the NE ops who participated. But what happened to those power-house contesters who rock-and-roll in SSCW and SS Phone?
K6UFO – I checked once on 10M CW and worked the five W1’s heard who were calling CQ NEQP.
K7WM – First ssb in 25 years and had a ball. Took me a while to find the mike..thanks for the sponsorship and 73
K8KFJ – Greetings from the Mountain State…. FQP is a tough act to follow. However, I hereby claim it to be a dead heat (as the activity in the NEQP was outstanding). The joint venture combining all 6 NE states was a big success in my humble opinion (and my logging software handled it like a champ). New Englanders sure do like their CW (and aren’t we all glad). HI I was able to spend most of my time in the CW segments of the bands because of all the great activity. I had a great time in the short time I was on the air and will most assuredly be back next year.
KC8LTL – Too bad I was too close for 10 es 15
KE5OG – Condx weren’t the best and it was pretty slow going. Great idea though hope it turned out the way you guys wanted. It’s always nice to work New England…the only friendlier ops are the ones from Texas. HI.
N2MH – All contacts made with indoor antennas from a condo. Thanks for sponsoring and running a FB contest!
N2MTG – Good contest, good operators
N4CW – Great participation! Special thanks to mobile and portable stations that made inactive counties otherwise! K1KI’s efforts praiseworthy.
N4PN – Great contest and great job of promoting and getting every county active… My hat is off to many guest ops but especially to Gary,WB5LFO, Tom, K1KI, W3SM, N1RL, N1SR… Needed only Waldo ME and Suffolk MA with four hours to go. N1RL/Waldo showed up at 2001z and W1RH/p surfaced at 2223z in Suffolk for the sweep… Thanks again and see you next year.
N5FPW – A pretty neat contest overall. Lots of activity Sunday until the last two hours. Logged several new counties I needed for CH awards. To the mobiles who provides quite a few of those I extend a special thanks. That includes: KD1XH WA1DSZ AJ1G KB1GKQ W1GS K1MBO N1ME and a special thanks to N1SR and W3SM. To the guy who thought my callsign phonetics were rather arrogant – tough – deal with it. I like November 5 First Place Winner. All in all I really enjoyed meeting so many nice folks in the New England states and several others that called even though they weren’t in New England (I set a new record for radio checks to everyone other than NE in the contest).
N5YE – Had a good time – see you next time.
N7JXS – Nice amount of activity despite condx and other contests.
N7ZN – Thank you for sponsoring and scoring this contest
N0HF – Very exciting trying to work all NE counties, the majority of us are from NE and were glad to work a few old friends. Many thanks to the mobile stations who activated the rare counties in Northern New England
N0YYO – Multi-state QSO party is a great idea. Problems with former log software and poor propagation on Sunday hurt score but still a fun time. 14 new counties.
NA3V – I thought that some of the NEQP organizers might be interested in how a small QRP station scratched and clawed for contacts during the just-finished New England QSO Party (128 contacts sweated out over 11 or 12 hours of operating time). The station here in central PA consists of an 1C 756 Pro I into a 130′ ladder-line-fed doublet 65-70′ in height, and a temporary 2-element 20M wire beam at 30′. The doublet is broadside to New England and usually gets solid 599 and 59 signal reports on 40 and 75-80M when I run 100W out. Scaled back to 5 W, I figured that signals should be received at 56 or 57, maybe less way up in ME or with mobile stations and their short antennas. On 20M, I hoped that not too much of New England would be inside my skip zone.
Forty meters really fulfilled expectations -1 worked every station I heard on CW and SSB, except for a couple of weak mobiles. Contest activity on 80M CW was a little thin, and I only heard and worked one 75M station. Maybe New England hams decided to give that band a. wide berth because of all the crusty old ag-chewers who get riled up at contesters and sometimes harass them.
The signals on 20M were weak and watery here except for stations in ME, which really boomed into my QTH. K1PQS was very nearly the loudest signal on the band. I didn’t have the punch to work any 20M stations on phone, even with the beam, but managed a few of the stronger ones on CW, mostly on Sunday. By then I was in the log books of a lot of stations for 40M, and by timing my calls to intervals of lower QRM and peaking signals, some of the stations were able to recognize my call and pull my weak exchange through the noise.
Overall, I found with my setup in central PA that 40M was the bread-and-butter band, both day and night. 80M was next and 20M last, and 15M and 10M were too far inside the skip to be usable. I was fairly easy copy for New England stations on 40M and 80M when I S & P them. I didn’t get many returns when I did the calling, though. My log probably contains the majority of the New England stations that called CQ, but very few of those that handed out contacts without doing any calling themselves. There was lots of activity from HIL and ROC counties, NH, FAI county, CT, and MID county, MA! VT stations were generally scarce. The NE QP website listed a number of mobile and portable stations that I never heard – maybe they spent most of their time on the higher bands.
All-in-all an enjoyable, low-pressure contest. I have helped a little with the PAQP in the past and know how much work goes into setting up and scoring these things and sending out awards afterwards. Consolidating the individual state QSO parties into one grand regional one was a great idea, and I hope you keep it up in the future. Be sure to hit the airwaves during the PA QP this coming October!
NA6E – Thank you for the fun!
NC4S – Great fun, bands were not in great shape, and I was looking for more NE stations
NO2D – Unfortunately, I had very little time during which I could participate. I was originally licensed as N1ABB out of North Andover, Mass. There remains a special place in my heart for New England, so I enjoyed even the small number of contacts I could make. First time ever to send in a contest entry, but far from first contest.
NO5W – Work commitments limited my time to the second day. Conditions were good on 15M but 20M had high QRN. Heard only two mobiles, both very weak, and managed to work them in only one county each.
VA3DF – First time I have ever entered a contest! Must say that I enjoyed every minute and will be back next year. Tough to compete running 4 watts from an Elecraft K2 to a 32′ vertical for 40 & 80 meters with a dipole on 20m. Lots of fun but nothing much heard here until the evening on both Saturday and Sunday. Would be good to extend the evening hours on Saturday! Many thanks to the organizers and mobiles – see you in 2003.
VA3IX – Great new concept!
VE9DX – I just could not find enuf time for everything that weekend.
W1PR/6 (ex-W1ETH) Great fun to work into my old stomping grounds. I wonder how much extra time I had to spend sending “/6”?
W1SRD – Great idea to combine into NEQP. Need to market more next year. Not enough W1’s on!
W2UDT – Got on between weekend errands. Heard little 80M. 40 seemed to be the band of choice from NJ. Finally got Caledonia, VT thanks to K1KI/M. Had worked it several times before but no QSL! Thank you, Tom! That cleans up NE for me. CU you all next year.
W2WC – I hope conditions and my time schedule will cooperate next year. Look forward to operating in the entire time period next year. Thanks for having the contest.
W3DYA – Looks like you had a very successful effort – good luck in 2003!
W3HDH – Good activity. Too much sunshine in Illinois to enjoy it!
W4AU – Sorry that I didn’t have more time to operate in this FB QSO Party. I think it is a great idea to combine all the New England QP’s into one big one. Hope you can do it again next year.
W4JH – A great idea to combine several state QSO parties into the New England QSO Party!
W4NTI – Looks like a good one guys. Snuck up on me. I’ll keep a watch for it next year. AL qso party Sept !
W4STB – I only operated 3 ¼ hours – wish I had more time to enjoy the contest. See you next year!
W4WS(N4VHK) – Enjoyed it – Thanks!
W4/G4BUE – Congratulations on launching the NE QSO Party. I used the DX Cluster, hence the multi-single entry. Had to take time off on Sunday to take visitors swimming and picnic, otherwise score would have been better. Thanks to K1KI, who was the only mobile I was able to copy through different counties (18 different QSOs), and to NB1B who was my only five bander. See you next year, either from Florida or the UK.
W5NMX – With vertical antenna and propagation down, I know I need to upgrade antenna sys
W6ZZZ – I really like this idea of a single “call sign area” QSO party. I think it increases participation both in-state and out-of-state. Hope it catches on for areas 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 0. Looking forward to seeing all of you in the California QSO Party (Oct 5-6, 2002). http://www.cqp.org
W7BX – Fun contest; looking forward to next year.
W8CAR – Great idea for NE QSO party. Will have on my calendar next year. Wish I heard more mobiles-which makes QSO parties tick
WJ9B – Very high level of activity for a first-time QSO Party!
WN6K – I really thought that a ‘sweep’ of the counties was possible there on Saturday… but then Sunday came upon us with reality…and things slooowwwed down. A special thanks to N1SR who was scooting along those narrow VT roads giving me my only contact in about at least four of the counties there.
DX Stations
DL5MC – I got an e-mail from Tom, so was producing the first time such electronical log. Had seen now I got the rare Nantucket as my last MA in the Party, great… In the test logged NAN and my head no gave me the info, that’s the island-county I was looking for a long time…
GM3POI – Sorry the log is not Cabrillo I have asked EI5DI to make it available, and also to have the capability of logging a 5 letter cnty/state. I had to convert all 5 letter groups rcvd into the 3 letter versions. I only worked 47 counties so I suspect that 67 were not available on say 20/15 CW. Could you get the 40m calling frequency lowered to 7030 as ssb starts in EU @7040 and between 7035-7040 the band is full of digital mode stns. Is it possible to list mobile operations by the county code not name and the order they plan to operate the counties in. That makes it much easier to see whether a station is needed in advance. Lets hope for more activity next time.
LY3BA – It was not easy to share between NeQP, InQP and MARAC CH CW. Good propagation, good operators and lot of FUN. TNX & Cu in 2003.
PA3ARM – nice – lots of activity – may participate next year; was in the CH CW contest which I preferred though.
SP9W(SP9HWN) – Very difficult contest. American ham’s no spelling reports on SSB. My English is not very good and I have a problem understand name of countys… Bad propagation or… not too many stations from New England territory. very difficult contest for me – USA boys no spelling County !! No contest log for this contest !
SV1XV – Difficult propagation conditions on 21 MHz, no qso on 28 MHz.
YZ1SG – Thank you very much for vy interesting contest. Unfortunately I didn’t know the rules of this contest, I just wanted to work as much county as possible. Also I took part in County Hunter test (Also didn’t know rules before contest, Hi). I will be much more prepared for the next year’s contest so see you in 2003 NEQP.
New England Stations
AA1BQ – Was fun and enjoyed participating. You may want to reconsider the date for this contest? Up here in southern NH and ME we have two large events that take place – Hosstraders(flea market) and Tour-De-Cure Bike-a-thon for Diabetes. These take out a lot of NE amateurs.
AA1CA – Thanks to the organizers for a super contest and for the CT software update! Contest hours were just right. Did anybody get a clean sweep?
AE1X – I did a little of everything. I had 3 VHF/UHF contacts for credit. This was disappointing, but not unexpected. Enjoyed this first edition.
AF1T – I could only operate for a couple of hours. It seemed like there was a fair amount of activity, despite rather poor band conditions. Suggestions: (1) Eliminate the NH and VT QSO Parties, and have the NE QSO Party the same weekend (first weekend in February). Radio propagation is apt to be better, and many of us are too busy in May doing outdoor activities. I can’t devote too much time to both the NH and NE QSO Parties! (2) Allow New England stations to work the 67 NE counties for multipliers (of course, only 44 states would count as multipliers). This would probably encourage activity, especially on 160, 80, and 40 meters. (3) Along with the list of spelled-out county names, give standardized 2-, 3- or 4-letter abbreviations. This will make logging quicker and easier. A logged entry should include both the state and county, since some counties (such as Washington) are common to more than one state.
K1BV – Poor to marginal conditions, but I could hear some VERY active stations making contacts so I would say that overall, this revival of the NE QSO Party was a success.
K1EP – I operated at home for the first two QSOs, and then mobile in Essex MA for the rest.
K1EV – Hope to be on for more of the next one.
K1GU – Fun. Wish it rained so I wouldn’t feel so guilty about not working outside in the yard. Best rates were Saturday night. Let’s do this again next year.
K1IB – Great fun on Saturday, less so on Sunday when the rates were substantially slower. My HF CW-only operation reached 27 New England counties.
K1JB – It was a nice day to fly, and the folks at both the Knox county and Lincoln county airports were very helpful. We tried out a homebrew delta loop supported by a 25′ collapsible mast
K1JN – Had fun, looks like NEQP is off to a good start.
K1KI – Enjoyed seeing some new places in northern New England. Managed to avoid two moose(s). First time have operated a contest while mobile – quite a different challenge than from home!
K1RB – New FT-817 at 5 watts to a 32 foot random wire with MFJ 696 tuner did great! Snagged XW3ZNR at 0124 on May 5th – not in contest(hi).
K1RC – Great contest. Sorry I couldn’t work the entire test, but the grandkids had priority. I’ll be looking forward to next year for sure.
K1RV – My first QRP effort in any contest! I had lots of fun but very little time to operate. I did manage about 3 1/2 Hrs. I’m looking forward to next year’s NEQP already and hope that I can spend more time operating !
K2KQ/1 – Rotten condx on 10 and 15
K4MUT – Lots of fun, especially since I have not driven through VT in spring. No way that I can compete with the serious contesters, but thought I could generate a few contacts as long as I was enroute to Montreal. Still trying to get the hang of driving, cw’ing, and logging at the same time. Look for K4MUT and KB3FRX mobile in the Maryland QSO Party 1600Z Aug 10 – 0400Z Aug 11 and 1600Z – 2359Z Aug ll.
K5ZD – New baby waited until after the contest! Jenelle was born on Wed, 5/8.
KB1DGQ – this is my first time I have ever tried a QSO party. Thank you for a great weekend.
KB1H(N1XS) – Excellent participation, good to see so many CA and FL stations. Kudo’s to everyone who had a hand in planning this one
KB1LN – Glad to have been a part in getting the NEQP started!! Ensured ALL Rhode Island counties were on the air!!
KD1YV – This was fun for the first NE QSO Party. Having done the CT QSO Party in the past, I sometimes had trouble remembering to say “New England”. Hope to see more PSK31 activity next year.
KE1LI – Had fun in this one.
KF1V – Had lots of fun.
N1DC – Thanks for organizing the New England QSO Party. I had fun despite limited hours. Glad to put Norfolk County MA on the air. Great Fun ! Next year I hope to have more time available.
N1EP – This was my first contest other than Field Day, so hope I did it right.
N1IFP – thanks for an enjoyable contest
N1LW – Great way to do the New England state qso parties. Hope to see the states stay together this way every year.
N1NK – 10, 15, and 20 meters only. Saturday was more productive than Sunday. First contest effort from this location, C3e on the new tower sure works better than the vertical.
N1SR – Great time, perfect weekend – Hoss Trader’s & NEQP! Should have done much more cw tho. Next year!
N1SV – It was fun to run high power for a change. Writelog worked great but I kept wanting to log the New England counties when I heard them in the exchange. Sunday was just to nice to stay in but did manage almost 1 hr of operating.
NB1B – Lots of activity for a first time QSO party. Looking forward to next year.
W1CJM – This is my first contest try.
W1JQ – Lots of fun, and pleasantly surprised by the activity on Saturday.
W1KRT – Great contest. Seemed to have lots of activity. I rarely do contests, but decided to help represent Sullivan County on the air. Not a great score, but had a lot of fun.
W1PL – It was fun and NEQP has revived some old friendships. Thank you.
W1QHG – An enjoyable first run for the New England QSO Party. Congratulations!
W1QJ – Had a great time with lots of activity. Next time will operate more of the contest. Glad all N.E. states were combined!
W1RWB – Greetings, Thanks for the NEQP contest, great fun. The effort you folks must have put into the organization of this is very much appreciated. Don’t know how well I made out with my contesting effort, will watch ur website for results.
W1RZF – Great job done by the committee. Very good participation for first contest. Could only participate Sat and Sun morning as we went on a cruise to Bermuda at 11am!
W1VIV – My first QSO Party. I had a fine time and will do it again next year.
W1YK(N1PFC ) – Nothing broke this time around again! It stinks when you can hear people calling SOAPBOX: in the mud on 40, but can’t pick them out from the noise.
W1YRC – This is just a short note to thank you for a most enjoyable contest. I am a DXer, not a contester and yet I had a terrific time. There was far wider interest in the QSO Party than I had imagined with several DX stations actively chasing us.
The pace of the contest was just right, not frantic like some yet brisk enough to make us move along smartly. I surely hope next year’s contest is a repeat of this one, with the possible exception of the weather here in W1 land. With such great weather, it was difficult to find indoor time to operate. Maybe chilly drizzle next year would help our scores.
Although I think I can understand your logic, I would favor allowing 1st call area stations to include their county total along with their state and DX total, a total of 137. Before you call me a fool, think about it. Many temporary stations that set up in rare counties had less than rock crushing signals. By next year, the solar cycle will have declined further and make it even more difficult for them. By encouraging more “business” for them and others among W1s who will likely hear more of them and keep activity up, everyone will have more fun.
I suppose this will inordinately skew scores higher for W1s because of the multiplier disparity but maybe some creative accounting can come to play. How about providing non W1 s added multipliers for different prefixes. W1. K1, WA1, etc. 7 Other possibilities can help even the scores.
You might be interested to hear this true story…
I am ARRL Section Manager of Rl and our Affiliated Club Coordinator, WA1RI, wrote to all his counterparts in New England to encourage all clubs to participate in NEQP. He and I both received a fairly negative e mail from one club, stating that it won’t work, they tried it before and it failed, it’s not a good idea, etc. etc. Guess what? I worked three different ops at that club station on four bands. The operators stated how much fun they were having and it was a terrific contest. Isn’t that interesting? I surely thought so.
Anyway, thanks for lots of fun. I can hardly wait until next year. Congratulations on a great success to all of you who designed this event.
W6ZF – I have a real radio, maybe next year I’ll connect it to a real antenna. 🙂
WA1FCN – First let me say thanks for starting a great idea for a contest. I put a lot of work into this one, unfortunately I did not check your web site before start of contest or I would have known about a problem with contest logging software. One hour before contest I loaded WriteLog and found nothing even close to your rules for contest. I had to settle for ARRL DX from DX side! I hope to enter again next year and, yes, I will be prepared!