Episode 3.1: Recapping the 7QP, Indiana and New England QSO Parties

Episode 3.1: Recapping the 7QP, Indiana and New England QSO Parties

Welcome to another post-contest episode of Zone Zero, the podcast for casual but avid ham radio contesters.

It’s late Sunday afternoon, and I’m taking a break from NHL viewing to file my report for the weekend’s contest activity here at VA7ST.

Keep listening for a recap of the 7QP, Indiana QSO Party and New England QSPO Party – and here’s a hint… May 6 and 7 was a pretty darn good weekend to be on the air.


Welcome to episode 3.1, a recap of this weekend’s contest action. This is Bud, VA7ST.

On Saturday and Sunday, we saw three major state QSO parties on the air, offering as many as 421 counties up for grabs across New England states, Indiana, and the entire US Pacific Northwest.

I decided to run low-power this weekend, and it worked out just fine – better than I could have hoped, in fact, as conditions were surprisingly good for a domestic contest weekend.

7QP recap

The 7QP – or the 7th Call Area QSO Party — was a total hoot on Saturday. What a blast I had on all the bands from 20M down to 160M, ending at midnight my local Pacific time.

On 15M, I landed four Qs and four counties across NV, UT and WY which is four more than I figured I’d get by going up there.

I was surprised to so readily work the close-in states on 20M — most years it is tough to work WA, MT and ID until I go to 40M, but no trouble this time.

80M was pretty solid with the triangular array of verticals pointed SE or SW to cover the 7th call area pretty well. The band was strong even to New England, where I kept working stations until the New England QSO Party’s first of two sessions ended at 0500z.

Top band didn’t see much action, though I was there bleating out CQs to get whomever strayed down there in the final hour. Got 8 additional Qs by going to 160M and sure appreciated the calls.

I didn’t really miss running high power with the bands open no nicely, and assume noise wasn’t a big problem at the other end on 80M and 40M.

Managed to beat my previous best score from 2011 (31,374) by a healthy margin, finishing with 173 contacts and 81 counties in the log, for a total claimed score of 42,039 points, which should land me in the top five for out-of-state low-power CW scores.

View the 3830 Scores page for the 7QP

Love the 7QP — thanks to everyone who got on for the day!

Indiana QSO Party

Then there was the Indiana QSO Party, on Satuday as well. This one had some good activity but it wasn’t nearly the rate-fest that the 7th Call Area states mustered up.

With the distance to the midwest not an issue for most bands, the real challenge for Indiana was just being on when the active stations were on.

I ended up with 17 contacts and 10 Indiana counties – most on 20M but two were on 40M before the contest ended at 0300z on Saturday (which is technically on Sunday UTC).

Final claimed score was 340 points.

New England QSO Party

And then there was Sunday.

The New England QSO Party had good activity on the bands Saturday, but my focus on Saturday was the 7QP – you want to max ut your time in thtatone, because it ends at midnight Pacitiv Saturday night, while the New England contest continues all day Sunday, starting its second session at 1300z – or 6 a.m. where I am.

So, at around 7 a.m. I was back on he radio, hunting for New England counties. At first, it was easy to find the active stations, but after about an hour, things got real slow – as I expected.

While New England stations get on in good measure, they just aren’t there in the kinds of numbers that you’ll find in the Florida, 7th Call Area or the biggest of them all, the California QSO Party.

Still, it’s a great state event with plenty to work. At first. Then things thin out, at least on the CW end of the bands which is where I as operating this time out.

Through Sunday, from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or so Pacific time – about half an hour before the end – I put in four hours and managed to add about eight New England counties and about 60 stations to the total. That’s not a great payoff for four hours of hard work sifting through the bands, but it is worth it if you’re trying for a competitive score.

Remember, no matter where they are – near New England or far from the eastern seaboard as I am —  most of the other guys are having the same rotten luck with the bands.

The problem isn’t so much the radio conditions, but the lack of activity as Sunday has church and all kinds of other callings that pull otherwise active competitors off the air.

It’s just slim pickins. The only way through it is to barge through it – stay in the chair, keep sifting through the stations already worked, keep an ear out for any mobile rovers who might possibly be activating new counties, and don’t let the Sunday doldrums get you down.

This weekend, 20M was either great to New England or really bad. Some stations just couldn’t hear me, while others got me first call. The difference? Antenna direction, mostly.

Those who wanted W7 states and VE7 in the log turned their beams away from the south and southwest — the W4 and W5 masses — once in a while, and were rewarded with multipliers frm the northwest.

Over the years, since 2006, I’ve been in the NEQP 11 times. My best score was in 2011 as solar cycle 24 was in its ascent, and I had 96 contacts in 31 counties for 5,950 points or so.

Flash forward to 2017, and this weekend. I ended up with exactly the same contact total —  96 – but six more counties – 37 – and a claimed score of 7,100 points.

Considering that 100 watts doesn’t go as far at the very bottom of the solar cycle, having a personal best in the New England QSO Party this year feels pretty good. But it was hard work. Just not as hard as digging in the garden, which was the alternative.

I didn’t get into the Delaware QSO Party, though I handed out one contact when asked, and I entirely skipped the ARI International DX contest. I heard Europeans working it on Saturday on 20M but that was during the same hours that 7th call area stations were swarming like bees all over 20M and the attraction south of me was just too strong.

So, there we have it. Three of the QSO parties this weekend in the bag.

Up next, we will look ahead at one of the great teletype contests of the year – Volta RTTY coming up next weekend. That’s in Episode 4 due out shortly.

Thanks for checking in after the contests. You can find all the episodes on our website – that’s ZONE.VA7ST.CA. Be sure to subscrbe if you don’t want to miss an episode. And please, consider adding a review of Zone Zero on iTunes to help get the word out.

I’ll see you out there, now let’s go get ‘em.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *