All scores are claimed scores unless otherwise noted. CWops CWT Sessions Worked: 80 January: ARRL RTTY Roundup • QSOs: 1218 • Mults: 95 • Score: 115,710 • Op Time: 22 hours My best ever score for this contest. More QSOs and more mults than ever. What’s not to like? Confusion still reigns in the contesting community about the break rule. I made a few high-power QSOs at the end of the contest in order to qualify for the SOHP category; I will confess that I was category shopping in the hopes of winning the ARRL Central Division plaque, and it turns out I was successful. Was also good for first place, Indiana. Always a very, very fun way to spend the weekend on the radio. January: NAQP CW (final score) • QSOs: 756 • Mults: 150 • Score: 111,601 • Op Time: 10 hours QSOs and mults down from last year. The lack of activity on 15 and 10 largely responsible. 4th place for Indiana January: NAQP SSB (final score) • QSOs: 214 • Mults: 79 • Score: 16,536 • Op Time: 4:34 A disappointing effort. I had planned to operate longer but could not get any traction on rate. People had a hard time hearing me and I did not hear as many stations as I expected to hear. See comments below for BARTG RTTY Sprint for more info. January: BARTG RTTY Sprint • QSOs: 10 • Mults: 10 • Score: 160 • Op Time: 1 hours I had not operated this contest for several years, turned off by the way the entry categories are constructed. The band change rule makes a low power SO2R entry impractical. But I had some time and figured I would jump in. As was the case for the NAQP SSB, I was not very productive. I also had weirdness with the dipole. My KAT500 tuner, which operates from memory, kept showing a high SWR. I had noticed this same thing during the CWTs between the NAQP SSB and the BARTG contest and made a mental note to go out and look at the antenna to see if it was OK. But that mental note was not worth the paper it was written on. When I had the same problem during this contest, I went outside to look and discovered that one of the support ropes for the dipole had broken and half the antenna, including the feed point, was lying on the roof at about 20 feet. It may have been that way during the NAQP SSB which would account for conditions I experienced then. A couple of hours of work a few days later restored the dipole to tip-top condition. February: State QSO Parties • MNQP: 55 QSOs, 26 Mults, 2,860 • BCQP: 2 QSOs, 2 Mults, 16 • VTQP: 10 QSOs, 8 Mults, 272 February: CW WPX RTTY @ K9CT • QSOs: 3,351 • WPX: 989 • Score: 9,284,723 • Ops: K9NR, N9CK, K9WX, K9CT, AI9T, KT9L From Craig’s 3830 write-up: We had an excellent team. Each contributed a solid effort and made the weekend a lot of fun. The conditions were not as good the first 24 hours as the last. We never left a chair open no matter the rate. Some Murphy excitement but we worked around the gremlins when they appeared. This is a very enjoyable contest not matter conditions because we can work everyone that calls. Thanks for all of the QSOs! It was fun being on the online scoreboards. Please plan on participating as it add another element of excitement and competitive encouragement. February: NAQP RTTY (Final Score) • QSOs: 578 • Mults: 121 • Score: 69,938 Little to no activity on the high bands due to lack of propagation. So, those multipliers were largely missing and my score was subsequently disappointing. In some previous runnings I had worked straight through the first 10 hours. But this time around, seeing as how the early rates would be low due to the lack of high-band propagation, I took a couple of half hour breaks at 2100z and 2345z in order to shift some operating time to later in the contest, with positive results. Second place Indiana. March: State QSO Parties • NCQP: 25 QSOs, 16 Mults, 1,200 • SCQP: 4 QSOs, 3 Mults, 24 • IDQP: 14 QSOs, 12 Mults, 264 • WIQP: 89 QSOs, 44 Mults, 11,286 • OKQP: 42 QSOs, 26 Mults, 3,146 • VAQP: 93 QSOs, 48 Mults, 8,256 April: State QSO Parties • MSQP: 41 QSOs, 18 Mults, 1,170 • LAQP: 24 QSOs, 23 Mults, 1,940 • MOQP: 54, QSOs, 28 Mults, 2,704 • NEQP: 16 QSOs, 9 Mults, 207 • GAQP: 117 QSOs, 54 Mults, 10,044 • NMQP: 16 QSOs, 8 Mults, 232 • NDQP: 5 QSOs, 5 Muts, 25 • MQQP: 103 QSOs, 60 Mults, 9,340 • ONQP: 90 QSOs, 49 Mults, 10,486 • FLQP: 255 QSOs, 73 Mults, 31,901 May: INQP (Final Score) • QSOs: 542 • Points: 1,004 • Mults: 124 • Score: 124,496 • Op time: 10 hours. The other 2 hours of the contest were spend operating as part of the W9LDX distributed MO, where I made 109 CW QSOs. By the first weekend of May, the COVID-19 pandemic was in full bloom and the INQP rules committee decided to suspend mobile, portable and multi-op operations. So I operated from home instead of my usual 12-county mobile operation. It was a good day although I only finished third in the SOLP category. Even if those 103 QSOs made for W9LDX had been in my log I would still have only been third. May: Volta RTTY • QSOs: 8 • Mults: 7 • Score: 2,128 May: WPX CW • QSOs: 523 • Points: 1,208 • Mults: 341 • Score: 411,928 Started operating to work some new DX Challenge band slots and kept going because the conditions and activity was good. Gotta love a contest where some many QSOs are also multpliers. May: State QSO Parties • 7QP: 82 QSOs, 34 Mults, 8,160 • DEQP: 8 QSOs, 3 Mults, 900 • NEWQP 159 QSOs, 46 Mults, 13,478 • ARQP: 91 QSOs, 39 Mults, 5,811 June: ARRL June VHF • QSOs: 282 • Mults (Grids): 109 • Score: 30,738 My first ever serious effort at a VHF contest, inspired by the installation of a 6 m beam. What a difference a decent antenna makes. Of the 282 QSOs, 202 were FT8 (182) and FT4 (20), 42 CW and 38 SSB. I’m told conditions were excellent and I would not argue with that. I’ve been told I should have spent more time on SSB as, when the band is open, that’s where the best rate will be. My new antenna also served me well outside of the contest, quickly working and confirming over 200 grids and 10 countries for DX Challenge, include several Europe. June: ARRL Field Day • QSOs: 903 • Points:1,805 • Score: 3,610 As was the case with the May INQP, the COVID-19 pandemic altered the rules and the playing Field for Field Day. My traditional FD group, the Lafayette DX Association, decided to abandon its traditional 1A operation. I considered by 1C (mobile) and 1E (home station, emergency power) entries for myself but in the end I wimped out and did a 1D home station. I made a lot of QSO and had a lot of BIC time but missed the fellowship of the traditional setting. Counting my bonus points (copying the FD bulletin, originating 10 traffic messages, sending a traffic message to the Indiana SM, social media and onllne entry) my claimed score was 4,060 June: State QSO Parties • KYQP: 45 QSOs, 24 Mults, 3,368 • WVQP: 11 QSOs, 7 Mults, 312 July: IARU • QSOs: 158 • Point: 326 • ITU: 29 • HQ: 33 • Score: 20,212 An all CW effort, only 3 hours in the chair. Will be an also-ran in the final results. July: NS RTTY Sprint • QSOs: 28 • Mults: 11 • Score: 308 A warmup exercise for the NAQP RTTY. July: NAQP RTTY (Final Score) • QSOs: 659 • Mults: 152 • Score: 100,168 • Op Time: 10 hours Fifth place in the Central Division and second place Indiana. 15 m yielded 77 QSOs and 30 mults and those mults made a huge difference in my final score. Did not sign up for a team as I was unsure what my operating time would be, but ended up operating the full 10 hours. August: State QSO Parties • MDQP: 24 QSOs, 11 Mults, 556 • OHQP: 42, QSOs, 31 Mults, 2,604 • KSQP: 113 QSOs, 50 Mults, 15,400 (includes 7 FT8 QSOs) August: NAQP CW (Final Score) • QSOs: 761 • Mults: 141 • Score: 107,301 • Op Time: 9.5 hours Thirtheenth place in the Central Division and fifth place Indiana. 15 m yielded only 15 QSOs an 8 mults, a poor showing compared to the RTTY contest. September: State QSO Parties • COQP: 14 QSOs, 10 Mults, 240 • TNQP: 107 QSOs, 64 Mults, 20,844 • ALQP: 28 QSOs, 19 Mults, 1,064 • TXQP: 130 QSOs, 70 Mults, 25,900 • IAQP: 39 QSOs, 33 Mults, 2,277 • NHQP: 12 QSOs, 4 Mults, 88 • NJQP: 21 QSOs, 11 Mults, 396 • WAQP: 66 QSOs, 21 Mults, 4,948 September: CWops CW Open • Session 1: 129 QSOs, 124 Mults, 15,996 • Session 2: 2 QSOs, 2 Mults, 4 • Session 3: 130 QSOs, 114, 14,820 The first time I have ever been able to operate in session 3, thanks to my XYL’s annual Labor Day familiy reunion being cancelled by the COVID-19 crisis. September: CQ WW RTTY 40 m Low Power Unassisted • QSOs: 438 • Mults: 100 • Points: 585 • Score: 58,500 (40 m QSOs only) I have operated this contest every years since 2013 from K9CT but that was not going to happen in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis so I operated from home. I started the contest not knowing what kind of effort I would make. From the get go, the signals on the high bands were weak and scarce. So I quickly decided to focus on a 40 m single band effort. Based on raw scores, this effort put in in 4th place NA and second place USA. October: Illinois QSO Party K9WX mobile in IL • QSOs: 500 • Mults: 73 • Points: 1000 • Score: 73,000 I decided to operate mobile from within Illinois to help my western neighbors activate every county in the state. I ended up activating 10 counties and I was the only active station from 4 of those. In-state operating time was 5 hours. I was also motivated by the need to boost my score within the State QSO Party Challenge competition, to try to secure a top 20 finish. In support of this goal, I also operated as W9LDX while driving to and from Illinois, and then from the home QTH once we had returned home, adding another 58 QSOs to my SQP numbers. XYL Kathleen was my driver and you could not ask for anything better. Band conditions were good but my effort to encourage Illinois stations to operate on 80m early in the day did not get much traction. If I had it to do over, I might shift my operating time to the last 5 hours of the contest instead of the first 5, as 80 was very good at the end. Although that means my driver is doing her thing at night, which is a negative. Especially if it rains as it did off and on this year. Will have to consider that for next year. A good outing but probably only good for second place in the mobile category due to the tremendous effort put forth by AD4EB. October: State QSO Parties • CAQP: 109 QSOs, 32 Mults, 10,432 • NVQP: 5 QSOs, 3 Mults, 42 • AZQP: 41 QSOs, 25 Mults, 2000 • PAQP: 139 QSOs, 48 Mults, 11,728 • SDQP: 11 QSOs, 10 Mults, 140 • NYQP: 168 QSOs 42 Mults, 11,340 • MNQP: 55 QSOs, 26 Mults, 2,860 • ILQP: 500 QSOs, 73 Mults, 73,000 (in state mobile) • ILQP: 58 QSOs, 37 Mults, 4,292 (out of state as W9LDX) • Summary for the year: I operated in all 46 SQPs, logging 3,790 QSOs and scoring 174,340 SQP points. As of October 30, this put me in 18th place, meeting my goal of a top 20 finish. I had been out of the top 20 prior to the ILQP but by operating in-state (and logging 500 QSOs) I jumped back 18th place as of October 30. Another 2114 made over the course of the year would have moved me to 17th place. November: SS CW • QSOs: 670 • Mults: 83 • Score: 111,220 All things considered, a good outing for me. I missed most of the Saturday night operating period, going QRT just before 0100z, which typically have very high rates, otherwise I might have had a personal best. Like most, I missed NT. Heard an NT pileup at one point but decided it was not worth my time and moved on. November: SS Phone • QSOs: 108 • Mults: 46 • Score: 9,936 My enthusiasm for phone contests continues to wane. A good book and a couple of good football games seemed like a better use of my time. December: ARRL 160 • QSOs: 632 • Points: 1276 • Mults: 76 • Score: 96,976 You can make a lot of 160m QSOs in this contest. Other than having fun, which I did, my goal was to add as many CWops markers as possible for their ACA and CMA awards. And, to get a sense of how my new 160m sloper was working. I don’t work a lot of DX with it, although in this contest, others commented on an apparent lack of DX. But the antenna also seems to be omni-directional. Good for this contest where there are a ton of NA stations available, but not so good for working EU DX. Sunday morning RBN map at right. December: FT Roundup • QSOs: 41 • Points: 41 • Mults: 13 • Score: 9943 Meh. Once I established that I had correctly set up WSJT-X on my new PC and integrated it with N1MM+, I had little additional motivation to slog away. December: RAC Winter 40m • CW QSOs: 218 • CW Mults: 10 • SSB QSOs: 43 • SSB Mults: 8 • Score: 27,468 I think of this as one of my favorite short-time contests but I last operated it in 2016, where I made only 100 QSOs. December: Stew Perry • QSOs: 200 • Points: 747 • Score: 747 Thus endeth the year.