All scores are claimed scores unless otherwise noted.
January: ARRL RTTY Roundup
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QSOs: 1254
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Mults: 94
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Score: 117,876
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Op Time: 22 hours
My best ever score for this contest. More QSOs than last year but one fewer mult.
Should once again be good for first place Central Division but this year in the low power
category.
January: NAQP CW (final score)
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QSOs: 859
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Mults: 168
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Score: 144,312
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Op Time: 9.5 hours
QSOs and mults up from last year. With just enough activity on the high bands to
make it interesting. Managed to run the bands with K9SE. Ran out of gas and could
not operate the last 30 minutes.
January: NAQP SSB (final score)
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QSOs: 274
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Mults: 98
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Score: 26852
A slight improvement from last year. But still a phone contest. Meh.
January: BARTG RTTY Sprint
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QSOs: 301
•
Mults: 56
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Score: 76,755
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Op Time: 9 hours
My first significant effort in this contest in years.
February: XE RTTY
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QSOs: 246
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Points: 618
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Mults: 68
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Score: 42,024
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Op Time: 3.5 hours
Another contest I had not operated for years but seized this pandemic opportunity. There were 21 XE mults worked, not a bad
showing based on my memory of previous years.
February: CW 160
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QSOs: 522
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Pts: 1166
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Mults: 58
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Score: 67,628
Other than having fun, was looking at this as an opportunity to pad my CWops ACA and CMA totals.
February: CW 160
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QSOs: 522
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Pts: 1166
•
Mults: 58
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Score: 67,628
Other than having fun, was looking at this as an opportunity to pad my CWops ACA and CMA totals.
Missed the WPX RTTY and the ARRL DX CW due to a Florida vacation (yes!).
February: NAQP RTTY
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QSOs: 607
•
Mults: 118
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Score: 71,626
Decent operating conditions on 40 and 80, but activity on the higher bands was
disappointing which led to a low mult total. And, of course, this contest does not
include 160, which also affects the mult total, at least compared to the NAQP CW.
100,000 points is hard to achieve with a station like mine.
March: WIQP
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QSOs: 103
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Mults: 46
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Score: 12,834
The WIQP organizers do a commendable job of stimulating mobile activity, so that if you stick with the contest for any appreciable
length of time, you can work a lot of multipliers.
April: FLQP
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QSOs: 42
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Mults: 28
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Score: 4,536
The annual warmup for the INQP. All QSOs were made operating from my car
while parked in the driveway using the same setup I would use a week later for the
INQP. Unfortunately, the FLQP does not include 80 meters, so I was unable to
test for efficacy on that band.
May: INQP
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QSOs: 675
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Mults: 83
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Score: 110,224
In 2020 the mobile category was suspended due to COVID-19
so it was nice to get back on the road. Thanks again to XYL
Kathleen for driving. We activated 7 counties as a mobile
(White, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Boone, Montgomery and
Tippecanoe) and then I parked for a couple of hours each on
two different county lines: Fountain/Warren along with
Benton/Tippecanoe. So a total of 10 counties were activated.
Some parts of the mobile route had horrendous band noise due
which seem to come from power lines and the occasional wind
turbine. There were sections of Boone County where I had big
pileups but was unable to work anyone due to a combination of
band noise and the fact that all stations were zero beat. The
county line operations were intentionally scheduled to coincide
with the start of the NEWQP in order to maximize my rate and
this proved to be somewhat, effective, although it seems that,
as a rule, the New England Stations are much less likely to
reply to an INQP CQ than the 7QP stations. We won the
plaque for the top INQP mobile. One other impression of note:
it appeared that, this year, the NEWQP operators were more
interested in capturing my actual county in the exchange rather
than just capturing “Indiana.” I also made a more concerted
effort to work some phone to improve my multiplier total. Did
better, but the 40 meter Hustler antenna just can’t do much on
the phone section of the band when it is tuned for the CW section of the band.
May: 7QP
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QSOs: 76
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Mults: 36
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Score: 7,632
May: NEWQP
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QSOs: 44
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Mults: 24
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Score: 2,064
June: ARRL VHF
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QSOs: 20
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Mults: 17
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Score: 340
Very little prop here but it appears some part of the country enjoyed much better conditions.
June: CQ WW WPX CW
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QSOs: 84
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Mults: 61
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Score: 12,261
Focused on finding and working CWops members to improve my standing in
the CWops Award programs.
June: ARRL Field Day @W9LDX
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QSOs: 1,475
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QSO Points: 4,776 (includes the x2 low power multiplier)
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Bonus Point: 1,450
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Score: 6,226
The 2020 FD was altered due to the COVID-19 crisis with most teams operating
as individuals from home in the 1D category. 2021 saw a return to the field
although it appears home operation was still elevated. The Lafayette DX
Association operated from Ross Hills Park, our customary venue, as a 1A
station. Our score was up from 2019 but not as high as some other years.
There was weird prop on 20m at the contest start which made the band
useless, so almost all activity was on 40 and 80 until late Sunday morning. I
was the unexpected beneficiary of this as I operated the last hour of the event
on 20 CW and tallied 124 QSOs, a relatively high rate for FD CW. Perhaps the
most memorable event from the weekend was the epic rain which hit twice.
Once around 9 pm (after the storm photo, right) and then again shortly after
midnight. The latter storm was so loud with the rain hammering the operating
tent that Andy K9ELF moved from phone to FT4 as the noise of the rain made it
impossible for him to hear. The satellite team had a VERY GOOD FD, tallying
139 SAT QSOs compared to 120 in 2019. The 2019 score was good for
second place in the AMSAT Field Day which runs concurrently with the ARRL
FD. 66 of those SAT QSOs will count towards the ARRL FD score.
July: RAC Canada Day
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QSOs: 92
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Mults: 17
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Score: 10,132
Not sure why my score was down from previous years, beyond less time in the
chair.
July: IARU World Championship
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QSOs: 486
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Points: 1,060
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Mults: 127
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Score: 134,620
Always a fun event and this year was no different. The W1AW HQ station
operated from KL7 which meant I only snagged them on 3 bands due to the prop
challenge; The NU1AW HQ station was in W5 so I was able to snag them on all 5
bands. I operated in the CW LP category and my score compares favorably in
3830.
July: NAQP RTTY (Final Score)
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QSOs: 591
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Points: 1,060
•
Mults: 152
•
Score: 89,832
A Top Ten finish. Woo Hoo! I pulled the plug after 9.5 hours of operating and it seems
unlikely that an extra 30 minutes would have moved me up another spot in the standings,
as rates tend to fall off late in this contest. This appears to have been the top Indiana
score but Dick K9OM, operating from WI, had a slightly better score among Central
Division entries.
August: MOQP
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QSOs: 30
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Mults: 16
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Score: 960
Spent a bit of time to work some fellow SMC members and perhaps a few CWops members
August: NAQP CW (Final Score)
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QSOs: 700
•
Mults: 141
•
Score: 98,700
•
Op Time: 8:51
Lost only 14 QSOs (less than 2 %) and 1 mult through log checking, but that was
enough to drop my score under 100K. Decent activity on 15 meters was a plus
but 10 meters was a total bust. The team of SMC Big Sable Point Lighthouse
(W9RE,WI9WI,K9WX,WT9Q) finished 14th with only 4 logs and 510,300 points. A
5th log of just 30 k points would have moved us up one place.
August: NAQP SSB (Final Score)
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QSOs: 158
•
Mults: 52
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Score: 8,216
•
Op Time: 4 hours
I actually lost a slightly higher percent of mults (2.5%) for the SSB summer NAQP than I did for the CW. Go figure.
August: WW Digi
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QSOs: 23
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Points: 34
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Mults: 14
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Score: 476
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Op Time: 1 hour
Made a few QSOs just to make sure my software setup (N1MM working with WSJT-X and JTAlert) was still functional.
September: CW WW RTTY
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QSOs: 336
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Points: 512
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Mults: 106
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Score: 54,272
•
Op Time: 13:25
A 40 m low power entry. Based on raw scores, this effort resulted in #20 of 107 world, #4 or 18 NA and #2 of 16 W.
October: ILQP Mobile in Illinois
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QSOs: 573
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Points: 1146
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Mults: 82
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Score: 93,972
•
Op Time: 5.25 hours
Activated 12 counties as a way to help the ILQP activate all Illinois counties. I was
the only station active from about half of those and the pileups were often fierce.
XYL Kathleen graciously agreed to drive once again. Made a few QSOs early on
80 m but it was a bust after that. When we stopped for the night I discovered the
80 m resonator had come loose on the mast, which may have been the cause. In
the month that followed, I received way more mail requests for QSL cards than
usual. It appears that County Hunters are going strong.
At the end of the contest we spent the night in southern Illinois. The next day we
drove to Memphis, ate some great BBQ and gumbo and listened to some good
music at BB King’s.
October: Stew Perry Pre
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QSOs: 122
•
Points: 297
•
Score: 297
A good way to make sure the 160 m sloper was still working.
November: SS CW
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QSOs: 753
•
Points: 1,506
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Mults: 84
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Score: 126,504
•
Op Time: 16:07
Great band conditions and great activity. What more can you ask for?
There's no contest like Sweepstakes and, when it comes to Sweepstakes, there is no meters like 40 meters. You can work short stuff
during the day and into both coasts at night. Forty is almost always open to somewhere and is almost always the money band, and
this year was no exception.
Many of the typically rare sections were well represented: Three ND and 4 NNY in my log. And we had three NTs spotted off and on.
If there was a surprise in this regard, it was the rarity of the LA section. It seemed like they came on late and those that were running
had big pileups until the end of the contest. And, what is it about Sweepstakes that brings out all the ops who want to send by hand
with their key or paddle? Many of whom, it seems, had not done any manual sending since the last Sweepstakes.
The ND9G parser found 60 SMC calls in my log, a great turnout from the Black Hole. Check your log at
http://kb9bib.com/log_parse.htm
My last section worked was NT at 0136z Sunday night/Monday morning. I had seen spots for three different NT stations off and on
during the day but was unable to hear them, not even a whisper. Then, at about
0100 Sunday night, I found I could hear VY0ERC quite well. The pileup was huge
and the going was slow. I threw out my call a few times with no success. It was at
a point in the contest where I had S&Pd all the open bands with no new stations to
work and my CQs were not being answered; I thought perhaps the contest was
over for me. I figured I had little to lose trying to work him in terms of score, so I
got a book and started reading, listening to the pileup as background noise. I
eventually figured out a pattern. Once he would work a station, he called CQ, and
the multitudes would respond. Bedlam ensued for, literally, several minutes with
no response from the VY0, and the crowd disappeared thinking, perhaps, that the
VY0 had gone QRT or that prop had been lost. Finally, when there were no callers
to be heard, one persistent soul would drop his call and the VY0 would come back
to him. It seemed this would not be a case of being the loudest or being slightly off
frequency or having great timing but being the last man standing. Which is very
hard to do as it goes against your instincts. I sat on the frequency for 35 minutes
and the VY0 worked 10 stations in that time frame, so a 20 rate. But I was the guy
he worked at minute 35. Interesting (at least to me) back story: I had worked
VY0/VE1RUS Saturday morning on FT8. I could not remember that I had ever
worked a VY0 before so I sent an email to VE1RUS to thank him for the QSO and to ask if he would be on for SS. He replied almost
immediately to say yes and that he would be using the VY0ERC call. Check it out on QRZ, they claim to be the most northerly
amateur radio club in the world. Looks like an interesting job and I appreciated their being active.
November: SS SSB
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QSOs: 38
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Points: 76
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Mults: 22
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Score: 1,672
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Op Time: less then an hour
I found I had little enthusiasm for a phone contest.