2003 NEQP Soapbox

W1MO - For us with "non-conforming" callsigns, how about a different CQ for those in NE and those outside NE. For example, those in NE call "CQ NEQP," and those like me call "CQ NE." That way, the world won't call me thinking I am in NE (I hope!).

W1PR/6 - Condx not the best. 10 was completely dead. But had a good time anyway working my old stomping grounds. I hope it wasn't all that RF in New Hampshire that knocked down the Old Man of the Mountains on contest weekend!

W2WC - Great QSO party. Need more activity on 80 meters. Thanks for the contest.

K3EGE - Great contest. Single band (40 meter) operation. Can't believe I missed Hartford CT.

NA3V - Nice activity on 40m for both the NEQP and IQP over the weekend. Only had a few hours to work the contest but enjoyed it a lot.

K4JSI - Several stations I worked thanked me for the Maryland multiplier, which may indicate sparse activity from here. There was enough activity on the part of the NE stations to keep things interesting right until the end. I do appreciate the efforts by stations running medium and high power to copy my 'peanut whistle' signal. QRP wouldn't be much fun if it weren't for being able to work the general ham populace. Conditions seemed fairly decent on 40 meters between here and New England.

K4XU - I had fun. I was getting ready for the Oregon QSO the following weekend. So I was in and out of the house and car. Some of the times reported here are not right because I was only logging with pencil on the road -call and exchange. I drove up the road to operate from Crook County, a really rare one. You guys
has good condx, they sure were crappy a weeklater!! A fun time, I'll do it again.

K4RFK - After working the prior weekend in our Florida QSO Party, marital harmony demanded less time be spent in front of the radio this weekend. Wish I could have given you more time.

KG4QGD - First time contesting ever, had fun even though I only made 6 contacts. Look forward to next year... Goal is to double number of contacts! Or more.

KK4TA - It is disappointing to work this contest SSB only since most of the activity appears to be CW. It's too bad you have not established cw, mixed, and ssb categories so all are encouraged to participate, no matter what mode.

N4CW - Great fun! Wish I had more time to spend. At this QTH, conditions weren't as good as last year; a VK actually beat me out on a call!!! Tried low power at the beginning of the Party and couldn't get any replies, so turned on the 500-watt amp--it helped...some! K1KI/M must be doing something right; Tom's signals were always Q5, and often loud! Looking forward to next year. Thanks.

N4PN - Thanks for another great QSO party.. Hats off to the mobiles once again as they made it work... NB1B was the only station for a "sweep" - missed one county for that "sweep" this year - Rutland VT...

W5DO - Thanks for a great QSO party. Although I was only able to work off and on and got a late start, it was fun. I did not know the New England QSO Party was as well organized and as large as it was. Next year I will be better prepared.

WA5TRX - Enjoyed working the QSO Party and added some counties working toward the Worked All New England certificate. I operate on a limited budget and use a 386 machine for logging. I do have a lot of fun and hope to upgrade soon.

K6DGW - Good contest, despite strange condx. Nil on 10. Many sigs were weak but stations answered on first call in most cases. Thanks ro everyone for using the published county/state abbreviations since TRLOG won't accept the made up ones! I logged the rovers as <call>/<county abbrv> so they wouldn't dupe out in the logger. Hope to see you all in the Caklifornia QP in October, I'll be one of the (mainly) CW ops at N6A in Alpine County.

WB6BWZ - Worked all six states in my first New England QSO Party. S&P between the MARAC County Hunters CW Contest, Indiana and New England QSO Parties. Yaesu FT-817 QRP xcvr, 5 watts to 5-MHz OCF 28-gauge insulated wire stealth antenna up 40 feet embedded in heavy-foliage trees next to I-75 in downtown Atlanta industrial area. SGC SG-237 autotuner. WriteLog 10.40j with 1.0.1.0 module (thanks to Steve N9OH), manual logging mode, no CAT interface.

AB7RW - Very heavy QRN on Saturday made copy almost impossible. Sunday condx were good. Thanks to K1KI for many mobile contacts. I enjoyed every minute I was on the air.

K7TQ - Enjoyed the contest and will see you again next year.

K9ZO - Only worked a few while I was casually on the air. Need better conditions!

KJ9C/m - Good to work so many NE stations who would DUPE me for Indiana QSO Party. See you in 04.

N0HF - Our crew of ops assembled again this year for another great effort, unfortunately poor conditions on 15 and 10m. Thanks to all the mobile stations for new counties. The current plan is to operate next year from CT while visiting family. Look for N0HF/NLNCT.

DL5AWI - This was my first entry in the NE-QSO-Party. Problem was QRL on first day! Hope more contacts next year!

DL5MC - Got two last state-counties and the last New England. Good activity! Thanks especially the mobiles! Great fun to follow K1KI/m in my rote-map! Booming signal from my last MA (first time last year) antucket W1UF/p after switching the direction to EU.

DL5ME - Thanks for all mobile activities at saturday. At Sunday evening (EU-time) was 20m Band to late open. Condx were saturday better. However thanks again for many new counties. I need the QSLs of the counties for the US-county award.

DL6KVA - Had much fun working many counties again although a sweep was still for away for me :-)

PA3ARM -Wow.......as a CW only operator es county hunter it was obvious that I wud be in the CH test so after I made some contacts last year (checklog) I prepared fer full participation in this party as well. Doing this party in the same weekend as the CW CH test is a very very strong and nice combo !! Please go on !! Received a nice NE county map (wid 2002 results etc) in the mail just Saturday (Just In Time ..tks) The map was a fine tool to follow K1KI through Maine on Sunday hi (tks fer OXF, FRA es PIS al new ones there !!!!!) Lots of activity but a pain to work out the multipliers when U still log manually hi (wkd some mults between 00.00Z at the start in the CHtest not hrd/wkd after 2200Z Saturday....hi).......will certainly do some computer logging es send Cabrillo/ASCII next year(sri fer this EXCEL file.) Still needed 6 counties in total es managed to work 5 of them. Only one missing yet is Washington Vermont....... Nice conditions/propagation , also fer 15m but had to visit a birthday party on Sunday till 15.00Z es needed a break from the CH marathon anyway. Well, I certainly will put May 1st/2nd in my diary fer next year. Tks fer a great party es tks fer all the mobiles being on the air.

VE7ASK - Jumped in to provide a VE7 mult to those stations that could hear me. Band conditions weren't too good, but enjoyed the QSOs a lot!

AE1X - Enjoyed this Second Edition [of the NEQP].. Looking forward to next year. Did better this year by using CW only. Had to work during part of contest.

AF1T - Conditions were especially poor on Sunday, and 10 and 15 meters were quite dead. But I hung in there for several hours. Suggestions: (1) If the NH and VT QSO Parties are no longer an annual event (which seems likely), have the NE QSO Party on their weekend (first weekend in February). Radio propagation is apt to be better, and many of us are too busy in May with outdoor activities. (2) Allow New England stations to work the 67 NE counties for multipliers (of course, only 44 states would count as multipliers). (3) Along with the summary list of spelled out county names, give the suggested 3-letter abbreviations. This will make logging easier. (4) Re-institute the 2002 check-off sheet for states/provinces/countries. This was apparently left out of the 2003 data. Thanks for your efforts!

K1EP/m -It is not easy sitting in the front seat of a car and running CW as you listen to the cars and trucks go by! Did you know that a truck's airbrakes resonate at 600Hz? It was a beautiful day up here in New England. I didn't have a plan,but ended up going to seven counties. I could have done more if I had a driver, but you have to figure half your time is driving. Later in the day the black flies were swarming up in Maine, so I didn't get out of the car to change the antenna setting, which meant I stayed on 20 CW. Thanks to everyone who could hear my signal and I am sorry that I had trouble hearing many of you. I was running a Icom 706MkIIG to an Outbacker Stealth. The Stealth is about 3 foot long, which explains my problems!

K1EV - Thanks for a great operating event and the chance to attend HossTraders and get a good night's sleep without missing any of the contest. Bands weren't too good during the daylight hours and I never did hear anything on ten. Equipment used consisted of an Elecraft K2 running at 5 watts; antennas were a 3 element yagi with a 40 meter driven element at 50 feet and orthogonal inverted Vees for 40 and 80.

K1FK - Only spent about 10 hours in contest due to other obligations. Hope Aroostook was a new county in lots of logs this year.

K1JB/p - We traveled between counties in a four seat Cessna 182 airplane and set up at the small airports in each county field day style using an ICOM 706 and a Butternut HF6V vertical. This allowed us to cover a wide area and operate for 1-2hours in each county. We had no luck on 10, 15 or 80, and found it much easier to work stations on CW with our modest setup. Without 10, our score was down from last year,but who cares? After a long, cold winter the weather was fantastic, the views of the coastline and mountains were spectacular and sitting out in the sun working the occasional small pile-up and even more occasional DX was hard to beat. Our only frustration was not figuring out how to prevent stations we contacted from different counties from being counted as dupes in our logging program (CT). We ended up with a large number of these, and we'll have to edit the log by hand to get it all straight. It appears the only way to get around this is to create a separate log for each county visited.

K1RC - Had a great time but would like to have spent more time in the test. Had 8 grandkids running around the house all day Sunday. That QRM was 59+20.
I'll take CQWW CW QRM over that, anytime..... WHEW!!!!!

K1RV - I had lots of fun during limited operating time (6:16).

K1XX - I hope the rule makers reconsider the issue of DX multipliers. I would not like to see this turned into some quasi-DX contest. There are plenty of DX contests during the year if that's your interest. I think keeping it predominantly US oriented will allow modest stations to be competitive. Besides, the "DX" exchange with DX multipliers is meaningless. I wonder what percentage of the DX stations that you worked really sent DX as the exchange :-} Begging helps... was still missing Delaware with less than an hour to go. Ended up working 2 on 40 SSB. Probably once again in the minority, but I would like to see counties

counted as part of the score for NE stations. To me, that would add more spice than turning beams toward Europe and working foreign multipliers. FWIW, I also happen to like the Sweepstakes contests. I found that entering a mobile call as W1XX/BRIRI worked. It didn't become a HI multiplier and was unique so that the next W1XX contact was not a dupe. CT seemed to recognize BRIRI as a NEQP multiplier.

KB1DGQ - Thank you for a great time

KB1FWN - I have a SO2R station but the second radio never got used. This is also my first time with a paper log. There was a computer crash here. Thank God KB1FWN

- for once, I decided to do single operator! If this had been a multi/multi station operation (which I normally run) my ops would have sacrificed me to the propagation Gods! This contest was great fun - I'm already looking forward to next year! photo by KB1FWN

N1SP - Once again, thanks for offering your efforts in organizing such a nice contest. Last year was my first effort (under my old call of AA1UN) and was able to devote more time this year. My favorite thing about this contest is the encouragement to get some rest at night!

N1SR/m - Great fun. Fewer miles, fewer counties, fewer contacts than 2002 still great fun. Next Year!

N1VLQ - This is the first log I have ever sent in for a contest, and the logging program doesn't seem to be cooperating with me very well as far as exporting the results. I see everything when I open it, so I hope it will be the same for you. Thank you for such a fun contest. I'm not able to operate very often, certainly not for many contests, but I tried to make an extra effort for this one, being that I live in New England. I had a great time, and hopefully I'll be able to participate more next year. And perhaps drum up some more participants, as well. If you folks have a mailing list, please include me on it.

NB1B - For the second running, a very nice contest. It's going to be very difficult for any NE station to ever get a clean sweep in this one- how many times can one work NWT, NU, and YT- all 3- in the same weekend? I like the new hours. The extra two hours Sat eve are good for the low bands to the states, but where was everyone on 80M SSB? My only 80M SSB QSO was with N4PN, and he moved me there! Other than him, I never heard another contest station on 80M SSB despite a number of 2nd radio tunes. Allowing NE stations to count DXCC Countries as mults also adds spice to this test. All the CW action was interesting- other than a few hours on 20M SSB, I was never able to get much of a run going on SSB. 10M was nonexistent (except for QSYs), and 15M SSB to the US was never very productive although many signalswere loud there. CW on any band but 10M, though, just seemed to keep on cranking. N4PN was my only "clean sweep"- 10 QSOs. Thanks for the Qs, and a special thanks to those that QSYed for me.

NZ1U - Thanks to every one for all of the QSO's. We came up a little short on our planned effort but had a good time. See you in the other QSO party's.

W1ACT - This was the 10th consecutive year the Fall River Amateur Radio Club went to Martha's Vinyard for the NEQSO Party. We were located at the Gay Head Light House and operatate portable power. We are also operating IOTA.

W1EBI -That was a blast! Finally a contest where I felt like the prey and could have some decent runs on 40 and 20. All but 10 Q's on CW. Virtually no activity on 80. Could have done a lot more if not for socializing Saturday night and working most of the day Sunday (missed the last 1-1/2 hours). Left packet on at the start, hence M/S entry, although spots neither used nor useful.

W1END - I was a little confused with what to do with all the contests on Saturday so operated mostly in the ARI 'test. Sunday had friends for dinner so missed all the afternoon fun. Its different being the pouncee rather than the pouncer, a lot more fun. So next year we'll get the priorities in the right order. Rig was TS830s and HF6V Butternut vertical. Log-EQF software.

W1EQ - My goal was to double last years score of 36,480. Met that goal and then some. I was surprised that there was no 75 meter activity. Ten, of course, was dead. The hours of the contest are o.k. with me. I had time to get up Sunday morning, eat breakfast, read the Sunday papers and take a nap before the 9:00 a.m. start time. A fun contest.

W1JQ - I probably shouldn't have been on at all. I was pretty sick. But operating kept my mind off how bad I felt. Most of the Qs (probably 80-90%) were from running, rather than hunting. Including CW--and that was a big goal, to get comfortable running CW. I thought I had operated more CW than Phone, but the numbers tell a different story. It looks like Phone came out a bit ahead. I could easily have worked a LOT more DX. Should have, in hindsight. Anyway, about 100 more Qs and over twice the points (because of CW) as last year.

W1KM - This was a fun trip to Nantucket--my wife and I made plans to stay at a bed and breakfast. Meanwhile some friends graciously agreed to let me set up a micro station at their house. I borrowed NB1B's micro-station (a K2 with a small PS, tuner), made up a 40/20 dipole and was ready to travel. We had to change our travel plans when high winds forced all the ferries to cancel. The only way left to get to Nantucket was to fly on one of the tiny planes from Hyannis to Nantucket--my first trip in a small plane. The flight was smooth with a beautiful approach to the island and we arrived in plenty of time to socialize, go for a walk on the beach and set up the station. The station got out decently--I could work nearly all the NE station I heard on 20, and all of them on 40. I operated the contest without having read the rules and for some reason was under the false impression that NE counties counted as multipliers. As I later learned, they don't, but operating the contest with this notion made it more interesting as almost half my qso's were with NE stations. It was also fun to run across new counties. Since I heard very few non-NE stations calling CQ NEQP, the only multiplier "hunting" available was to search out for new counties. The only way I could work non-NE multipliers was to have them call me, and with my little signal not many did. Special credit to OK1FCA and OK2PAY, among others, for hunting me down. Many thanks to the organizers!

W1LEE - Enjoyed the NEQP, wished I had had more time to operate. Hope to be able to be more active next year.

W1MGP - I got on special for this occasion but didn't find as much 75 Meter activity as I had expected. ARRL Member, 64th year being licensed as W1MGP, also 64th year of being on 75 Meters. First License was Class A. (For those that were interested this contact also counted for IOTA NA-055 and US ISLANDS ME 039S.)

W1RZF - I thought conditions were mostly poor. The activity was very good. I use writelog and could not get the latest version to work so I reloaded last years version and it worked fine except for scoring the additional dx countries. Anyone else have this problem?

W1TO - Limited operating from home. Operated Sunday from K1TTT. I got DE [at home] and we missed it at Dave's.

W1UF - The organization of the operation was splendid and the test was good fun. I only wish that I had more time to devote to the contest--but there were lots of other strings tugging at me. I did not get a chance to operate CW. That and an electronic log will be goals for next year. My compliments and thanks to the NEQP committee.

W1VIV - Great contest, but it was obvious that the sunspot cycle is going down. 10 meters was almost useless.

W1XX/m - K1JX and I made a sort of last minute decision to participate putting on four RI counties. We operated mobile multi-op QRP with an Elecraft K2 on CW only. Seems like a lot of folks needed us in NEWRI, where we operated from Beavertail on Jamestown Island near the end of the contest. Probably could have worked a lot more if we had SSB capability. We were not out for score so our multiplier was not so hot since we worked a lot of NE stations on 40 meters. Wonder if consideration will be given to count NE counties in the multiplier (for NE stations)? We found looking for K1DG/m, K1KI/m and having other NE stations work us from four RI counties was the most fun. Will definately give it a go again next year with a little better planning. How about giving the Ocean State another multiplier for Block Island? Thanks for sponsoring the fun activity!

W1ZPB - Great fun, even if only two hours, and running 20w solar PV power on 80 and 40 CW. Thanks for arranging it. Seemed like quite a flock of participants.

WA1FCN - I had the older NEQP module for Writelog but it didn't work, of course I only found this out at the start of the contest! Downloaded GenLog and tried to figure out the program as the contest went along. So that left a lot of editing! If only 10 meters was open it would have really helped.

WA1NME - Sorry no Cabrillo format this time, maybe next year. Those high speed ops had my head spinning. Going to dust off my e-keyer and practice and get them next time. Great fun! My congratulations on the FB job on the 2002 report. Where do you guys find the time to do it all? Thanks for the big effort.

K2HVN - Should not have the contest at the same time as MARAC County Hunters Contest. Too confusing and wrong contacts for NEQP.

K2KQ - Various antenna glitches held down the score bands weren't great. CT glitch made it impossible to log NE counties.

K2TE/1 - Great contest and great participation with only 5.5 hours operating here. Like most folks, I found SSB largely non-existent except for 30+ Qs on 20. No big deal as I don't care for the mode anyway. I managed 43 of the states but only 3 Canadian provinces. I also found CT (v9.72) did not know how to handle the counties. I entered the "official" abbreviations listed in NEQP.DAT and it still did not recognize them. I guess it works differently if you're outside NE. Still, it would be nice to know how many counties I racked up. Gotta team up with someone who has a 706-sized rig for next year and put out the NH counties on Sunday! Looks like you have a real winner.

N2EA - That was a lot of fun. I only had a couple of hours to play. Had a few good runs. Having the regional contest made it active enough to be viable, and of interest to DX as well. Individual state qso parties tended to be lame. I can see this catching on elsewhere.

N2PGD - Didn't have much time to play, but did hand out a couple of last counties.

K5ZD - Nearly 8 hours of operation. Was supposed to be working on an MBA class final exam... Good activity on CW, but couldn't find much on Phone. When things got slow, spent time working stations in the ARI contest. This contest is too long. 12 hours should be more than enough.