The 2010 running of the NEQP is now in the books (or logs to be technical).

Your author had a fine time with this popular QSO party from home this year.

Here is the results from Middlesex County Connecticut ...

Phone QSO’s - 26
CW QSO’s - 314
Multipliers - 64
Claimed score - 41856

Bands on Saturday where OK, 15 meters was productive with many W7’s worked, and 80 & 40 meters provided the late night QSO runs.
20 meters was in good shape to the west and Europe to snag valuable multipliers from stations the Italian contest.
Sunday the high bands need a little more solar flux.
QSO’s where there to be made, but the rate was slow.
Around 4 PM local things got better along with QSO rates until the end at 8PM local.
I was having such a good time on CW I almost forgot to grab the microphone for some phone QSO’s.
Good thing I did as I got a few needed multipliers on Phone to help out the score.

I would like to mention the efforts of my “competitor” in Middlesex County (CT), Dan W1DMM.
Dan had his best score ever (9984 points) and a significant contribution to the aggregate club score (Meriden ARC www.w1nrg.com).

Update from the 2009 contest, K1PU was the 1st place low power winner in Vermont.
I got a nice plaque sponsored by the West River Radio Club in southern Vermont.
Many thanks to the West River crew for donating this award and it will hang proudly in my shack.
I have updated the photo section with a picture.

I hope to be back in Vermont in 2011 operating portable from Orleans County.

73, K1PU

2010 Running of the New England QSO Party, May 1 & 2

Join the fun and try and work all 67 counties in New England!
Work at least 25 stations and get a certificate of participation, or maybe be “Top Dog” in your state or New England county!

See the official rules and results of past NEQP’s at www.neqp.org

Hope to work you on May 1 & 2.


Mark, K1PU - 2009 NEQP 1st place Vermont single operator low power - See my Vermont station in the Photos section

The 2009 running of the New England QSO party (NEQP) results are in.
Both New England and non-New England scores and rankings are now posted at www.neqp.org.
The final critique is not yet finished, but Tom K1KI promises that it will be done soon.

This years event is May 1 & 2. See the NEQP web site for details, times and rules.

For 2009, your author (K1PU) participated in this growing event from his Father-in-Laws hide-a-way in Essex County Vermont, a “rare” county, most years only activated by mobile stations.
K1PU placed second overall in Vermont and 1st in the Single Op - Low Power class.
Not bad for 100 watts and dipoles for 80 - 40 - 20!
See photos of the “primitive” operating conditions here.

73, K1PU

The logs are in and the results computed, the 2009 edition of the ARRL November Sweepstakes is now in the record book.

SSB results are posted on ARRL Contest Page
CW results can be found HERE

The 2009 SSB Sweepstakes was a record setting event in overall participation.
The ARRL reports that 2,054 logs were submitted, an all-time high.

"It is great to see so many hams not just getting on for our contests, but submitting logs in record numbers," said ARRL Contest Manager Sean Kutzko KX9X.

73, Mark K1PU

The 2009 ARRL CW Sweepstakes results are in!

With a shorter deadline for log submissions, the folks in the ARRL contest branch got the results done in 74 days!
A big effort, but Sean KX9X and crew deserve a big ”thank you” from all participants.
I’m sure more expanded commentary will appear in QST and on the ARRL contesting web page, but we all know it’s the scores that count!

Click this Link to view the final tally.

Based on this result, looks like the scores for the SSB Sweepstakes will be ready about the third week in February, given the larger number (a record!) of SSB logs.
The real delay in scoring the CW test was the manual entry of the paper logs.
That’s just one more reason to get on the computer log band wagon, faster (and more accurate) scoring.

Check back in February for the SSB Sweepstakes score posting when they become available.



73, Mark K1PU

The 2010 running of the CQ World Wide 160 Meter CW contest is this weekend from 2200Z January 29th until 2200Z January 31st.
(For the UTC challenged, 2200Z is 5 PM Eastern Time!)
Solar conditions are still at a low point with conditions predicted to be quiet on January 29-30, with unsettled conditions on January 31st.
Solar flux for the weekend are estimated to be in the low 80’s and sun spot number in the mid 30’s.

So get ready for some good Top Band activity!

Official contest rules can be found here

The SSB edition of CQ WW 160 is 2200Z February 26th to 2200Z February 28th 2010.

73, Mark K1PU