2018 Soapbox Comments

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

W/VE Stations Outside New England

AI2S – I had a great time. Signals were weak and I had high noise. Good fun. I will try to participating next year. Thanks to all who make NEQP possible.

K1HG – Exciting to have 3 QSO party logs open at the same time. Good to make contacts in New England as I grew up in northern Rhode Island.

K1RZ – First time entering NEQP. It was fun, and great to hear so many strong signals from New England. Thanks to the sponsors and the participants. And particular thanks to Dale Clement AF1T who encouraged me to get on and work him.

NX1K – Personal best this year. The schedule allowed good mix of 20 and 40m.

WA1FCN – I had not planed to spend as much time in this years NEQP as I did. Too many other ham radio related events going on this month. Still , I am glad I was around.

KE2SX – Excellent night time conditions on 80 and 40 helped my 30 watts to an inverted L.

NO2D – 20 Meters only band here open to NE. Signals generally pretty weak. Many stations could not hear my call at 4.9 watts. Antenna was a dipole at 30 feet. Spent many years in NE, so this is one of my favorite state(s) QSO Parties. Thanks to all.

K3TW – Many thanks for another enjoyable New England QSO Party and the special efforts of the mobile stations to put many rare counties on the air.

K3ZGA – Fun Contest!

KA3D – Thank you for all your work. We had a great time participating again this year!

N3KN – Thanks for sponsoring the contest.

K4AMC – Lots of fun and activity on cw.

K4VBM – Not quite as good as last year, but still great fun!

KD4QMY – In Memory of my faithful Golden Retriever, Phoenix, the DX Dog.

KK4BZ – antenna is G5RV at 10 m in trees, Thanks for the fun!

N4ARO – Love this contest. Wish I could score higher, but conditions play a large part as does distance.

N4KEZ – You guys were just pouring out of the air on 40M Sunday. Restored my belief in 5W and a wire antenna…

N6AN – Glad I could be heard in New England with my 12′ high indoor garage dipole. Thanks for the QSOs.

W6PH – I stayed in California instead of driving WA1Z around. I couldn’t operate the full time due to some other duties and a departure early Sunday afternoon for a flight back to NH. Never heard a signal on 15m. The 80m signals from W1 had an auroral flutter to them on Saturday night. A lot of fun working the guys I know.

K7NJ – This was my first try at SO2V. There was a bit of a learning curve getting used to this and issues with setting up the K3 resulting in a reduction in QSO rates and several unwanted pauses. After successfully overcoming these issues, next contest should be much better.

K7RFW – Band was weak from here, the few New England stations I heard did not hear me calling, but three caught me doing 7QP.

K0EA – Wish bands were better condx, still I had some fun.

KJ9C/m – r Murphy found me this year. Laptop crashed, torrential rains, roller coaster back roads, sticky paddle, broken headset, lots of visitors… that’s just a few.

N7WY – K3 100w, inverted vee for 40m or 20m with midpoint shunt. SE of Lusk, WY at the DC Drilling Equipment Yard

N4ARO – Love this contest. Wish I could score higher, but conditions play a large part as does distance.

WN1GIV (N4BP)
– Test of new Elecraft KPA1500 and rebuilt Cushcraft A4S. Both worked perfectly. 40M went long both evenings. Mobiles QSYed to 80M where it was impossible to hear them in the lightning capitol of the world. N1MM+ wouldn’t score properly for the mobiles. Only gave point and mult credit for the first QSO on each band. Hopefully sponsor log checking will sort it out better than I did.

N4PN – This is still at the top of my “favorite QSO party” list/ Thanks to all who showed up all weekend… especially NZ1U and WA1Z for all the counties. NZ1U/15 Q’s and WA1Z/48 Q’s. Thanks Tom for all of your hard work every year to make this contest great!!!

W4QO – Loads of fun! KX3 @ 5 watts – 3 el yagi @60 feet PLUS 80M horiz loop at 70 feet and 40M EDZ at 60 feet

WA5SWN – The air was clear, the noise was low, the stations were there (though a bit hard to find among the 7QP stations!) but I had to go to work Darn it! However, I did get a “clean sweep” – at least one station in every New England state – so I’m satisfied. See you next year!

KA6BIM – Conditions were great on Saturday for all qso parties , poor on Sunday for NE & DE QP’s

KB7MBV – Titan Missle Museum Discone Ant

AA8TA – Conditions not as good this year, maybe because of the drowsy Sun. Nice to find a little action on 15 meters. Thanks for the Qs.

K8SIA – Started with a few Saturday and did most of my S&P passes on Sunday after church. Fun finding a few on 20 and then a few on 80 at the end.

W8KNO – Thanks to the Radio Amateurs of Northern Vermont for Grand Isle!!!

K0GEO – Congratulations yet again to Tom K1KI and the NEQP organizers for another fine show. Very limited time this year but really enjoyed each QSO. See you next year and 73!

KJ9C/m – Mr Murphy found me this year. Laptop crashed, torrential rains, roller coaster back roads, sticky paddle, broken headset, lots of visitors… that’s just a few. Operated in Indiana (one of the organizers of INQP)

VE1ZAC – 40M workhorse band this weekend

DX Stations

M4J (G0DVJ) – Abysmal conditions from here – half of last year’s Qs. FT2K, 400w, 80m loop, DB11

SM7CIL – Condx were not on my side this year.

SP1JQJ –
I only heard two stations in two days, it’s a pity.

SP6JOE – No computer, worked from my summer house. Not so good condx , low power and simple antenna, plus local polish contest in meantime

New England Stations

AB1XW – As usual, Saturday was a blast and Sunday was pretty lame. See you all next year

AF1T – Conditions were noticeably worse than last year. DX multipliers were way down, with poor propagation to Europe on 20 meters. 10 and 15 meters were dead (if there was E-skip, I missed it. I will look for you all next year.

K1ARR – Was not able to spend much time but had fun non the less.

N1AIA – 5W to a 40m sloper didn’t exactly create its own propagation.

K1EP/m – I was too tired on Saturday to head out, but I got a good start Sun day morning. I had purchased some single band sticks for 20M and 40M to use in addition to the one I had for 80M. Antennas and radio worked great, no alternator noise, no RF in the car, no computer crashes! Hardware worked great. Conditions weren’t that great but one expects that from mobile operation. I only activated six counties in MA, NH, and ME as I was operating solo (no driver) and it was raining all day. Hardly any DX, but I did work out to the west coast. Thanks to all who pulled me out of the noise, I know that mobile signals are quite weak!

K1IB/m – My first serious attempt at a mobile QSO party. Entire operation was on county lines at four different locations.

K1JB – As noted, condx were very poor. K and A indices high, lots of noise on the low bands from nearby storms, and nasty QSB that would kick in right in the middle of an exchange. Very little DX called in. Most of my European Qs were between 6:45 and 7:30 pm Sunday evening on 40 CW. Still, it was (mostly) fun and I’d do it again.

K1KA – Tough conditions made it hard to stay in the chair. I even gave up at one point and worked the E-Skip opening on 6m for a while Sunday AM. Yes I checked 10m too. Gave myself a pep-talk and came back to 20 although the runs on Saturday were better. I wonder what next year will bring. K3S, SPE 1.3K-FA. Cushcraft X7 on 20 & 40, Dipole on 80.K1KI – Had planned a more serious effort but it was not in the cards. There sure were a lot of weak stations. Spent a fair bit of time trying to work W1 mobiles but they were mostly at ESP level and only caught WA1Z and NZ1U once or twice near the end. Add to that noise from t-storms (not local) and rain static on both 40m and 20m at times even with light rain. As others have reported, there were few signals from Europe. Kudos to those who persevered!

K1LKP – Thank you for all your hard work to make the NEQP happen.

K1SEC – Fairly good activity on 40 meter cw.

K1VWQ – Hard to find time to work NEQP… SAT: Was our annual MS Walk 2018 for Charity and Sun I had to work at the day job. Dabbled operations in between life and still managed to have fun. 73… Thanks to the staff and everyone behind the scene to make NEQP happen every year.

K1WCC – As usual, this was a great time. WX was rainy on Sunday, so it was a good day to be inside. Propagation could have been a bit better but no real complaints. See you next year!

K1WDY – I was only able to get on the air sporadically for a total of 4 hours. The propagation on Sunday was painful for my simple antenna setup. I’m glad I could hand out DUKMA to at least a few contesters though!

K1ZZ – Congratulations to Martin, AA1ON, and to anyone else who put in the time in less than memorable conditions.

KA1WPM – Not the best propagation over the weekend. I think I contacted one New England station outside of Connecticut. That has to be a record. Most of my QSOs were with 7th call area stations on Saturday. I heard fewer stations calling for the Indiana QSO party than I usually do. When I started wondering where the New England stations were on Saturday evening, I looked on 80 meters. There they were. I tend not to operate on so much on 80 meters because my antenna is too short and it makes the smoke detectors go off. The dog doesn’t think much of that idea. In view of the propagation, I’m not entirely disappointed with my score. Still need to improve my antenna system — and my CW!

KB1CEJ (N1EP) – Lots of fun!

N1ABY – Got about 45 minutes into the contest and the radio quits! Oh, well, wait ’till next year…

N1DC – Thanks to Tom K1KI and the entire NEQP team. It was another fun event. Compared to 2017 it was LOT more difficult. The solar storm really caused trouble on Sunday. QRN was severe at times. I had hoped to beat my 2017 score
but had to reset my expectations. New goals: 50K points and 500 QSO’s (made both in the final 90 minutes)

Probably could have done better with more operating time, but conditions made it very tough on the ears. The last 2 hours recovered some on 40/80. Really hard finding multipliers and there was very little DX. I tried working EU several times but only got DL3DXX. Multiplier total was down 13 from last year.

Worked 46 states (missed AK,HI,MS,ND). Worked only 4 provinces NB,NS,ON,QC (missed AB BC LB MB NF NT NU PE SK YT) Worked 3 DX stations DL,HC,XE This was a HUGE difference compared to last year’s 13 DX stations. Still great fun running and occasionally S&P hunting.

Station: TenTec Omni 7 100W, MFJ Diff T tuner, WinKeyer USB, Heil ProSet Plus
Antennas: 4 element yagi at 30ft, 80/40 dipoles fed with ladder line
Computer: Windows 7 PC running N1MM+

Thanks for all the QSO’s. Special thanks to all the Ops I worked on multiple bands/modes.

N1DID – Horrible propagation and did not WAS but a lot of fun nonetheless. Last worked NEQP in 2016 and I doubled my score from that year. Not too bad for 100W and a wire.

N1ILZ – Hoping for better band conditions next year!

N1IX – Had fun despite the poor conditions. Nice to have the seventh call area and the DE qso parties at the same time but I can’t believe that I couldn’t find a VT mult.

N1NN – My 11th annual New England QSO Party

N1TA -Just moved into a new home and hadn’t really started putting the shack together until Thursday. Decided at the last minute to hand out some points. I had a social engagement for the Kentucky Derby, so managed only an hour or so on Saturday night, but spent all of Sunday in front of the radio. Thankfully, K1YO came by last week to shoot a rope over a tall pine. The bad news: the only antenna I had ready to go was a 40m dipole. The good news: it was 90+ feet high. Had no DVK, so kept away from phone, and on CW I was occasionally dogged by RF in the shack. The wire wouldn’t tune nice on 80, so I just stuck to 40 and 20. I caught the tail-end of the Sunday 15m opening, but just didn’t have the antenna to really take advantage of it! Now that the “new house” work is winding down, I look forward to spending more time on radio projects. Thanks to the chasers for following my yellowy signal from band-to-band.

N1WXQ – Great time, all ways fun. Thanks for all you guys do.

NE1RD – Just a few hours of fun, but it is always nice to be the station sought.

NP2GG – Thanks for doing all this. Tough band conditions but I did ok!

NZ1J – This is my first year in the contest. I plan to work it again next year.

W1AKI – Each of these QSO Parties was challenging in its own way, and a lot of fun! Thanks to the organizers for your hard work. I appreciate the chance to get more practice. I was especially happy to get WY since it was state # 49 in my quest for WAS, so a special thanks to the operators there.

W1CTN – 8 hors of chair time. Sunday propagation was poor to fair. Low activity on 80 meters. 20 and 40 were the money makers. I will simply concentrate on them in the future with more CW.

W1DYJ
on ~10:30 but the bands were so noisy I gave up at 11:30. – As expected, Saturday afternoon was slow. I had to stop at 5:30 for dinner and a concert in Cambridge. Got back Sunday wasn’t much better. I kept checking 10 and 15 “just in case” but they were both a bust. Things finally picked up around 2300 UTC. About 50% of my Qs were during this last hour, mostly on CW. My second worst score in the ten years I’ve been participating. And it certainly shows how sub-optimum my low band antennas are.

W1EBI
– I agree with other comments, conditions were pretty atrocious. Hardly anyplace had strong signals. I ran almost exclusively, and some replies were pee weak, needed a couple of repeats. Band noise was bothersome. Had a couple of sections from 7QP that were not recognized by N1MM, one was in the list of counties in OR and one op in NV sent one that was not in that list but I had him send it three times, so I logged it as sent. I think I only missed ND in the US, but no PEI and nothing in Canada west of ON while I was on.

W1EE (W1TSM, opr) – Fun contest

W1END – Conditions seemed pretty good this year. Thanks for keeping things running.

W1JQ – It was the first time since the March storms that I had all my antennas working. I still have to replace a high 80M inv-V that I lost some years ago. But everything else is back. Activity was mostly split between 20 and 40. I was surprised at the activity on a burnt-out 20M Saturday night. Not really great for rate, but there were stations there… 80 was sort of a bust, though I surprised myself by making my lone ARI QSO there, with an I. And I made one QSO on 15… because it was there.

W1QK – I’ll be submitting the log from N1MPL, since Mike also operated portable with me from Litchfield County (different radio and antennas) and he used one of my HP laptops for logging. We shared the AC power from my Honda EU-2000i generator though. It was his first venture into the portable arena, and I think he had fun and learned quite a bit too. He used my IC-7000 Go-Kit and I used my IC-7300 Go-Kit, which worked flawlessly. Good band conditions while we were on the air on Saturday. and there was nice activity on CW plus decent propagation to the west. We stuck around until 1:00 am, and it started raining on my way home from Bridgewater to Brookfield. I operated Sunday from the comfort of my home station, since it was a rainy day. I also had the opportunity to watch the Dover NASCAR race too while contesting. Thank you for sponsoring the contest. It was fun.

W1RM – I’ve not experienced conditions as we had this weekend in some time. Callers would fade in and then drop out right in the middle of an exchange. Beaming west on 20 wasn’t nearly as productive as beaming southwest. My time was limited but managed this in 5 hours:

W1RMC (K1ZK)– Portable from the Middlebury College golf course on campus in FN33. Great to have the college club back on the air!

W1WIU – Another great year. Meeting old friends, and making new ones. Thanks to the organizers for making it possible. State QSO Parties seem to be more “fun” Hope to see you all again next year !

WA1BR – First time doing NEQP. Had a tough time, but fun.

WB1HGA – Very poor band conditions

K2LE – Started out with great hopes – ZL3 on 15, followed by a handful of decent signals from EU on 10 Meters (!) but it went downhill fast from there.. Worst condx I can remember in decades. The ARI contest was no help, either – almost no signals from northern EU or Asia. Never heard a JA all weekend. All DX signals were tiny on all bands. Stateside participation was good, missed only DE and some Canadian province multipliers. Operated locally for a change – W1VE came over for a while and we took a lot of time off for some station repairs with Gerry. Also had to leave early for trip from VT back to NY; but remote now seems to be working almost perfectly. Tnx for all the Qs

W4FEB – Propagation was bad, bad, bad…..and the other three QSOPs on Saturday was too distracting. Most of my CQs were unanswered. I did not work any other QSOPs, concentrating on NE. No contacts what-so-ever from any NEW England stations, which disappointed me.

WA1N – Conditions were ugly but I got back on the air.