New England QSO Party - 2023
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): ~14.5
Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
------------------------
Total: 205 134 Mults = 66 Total Score = 35,904
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
This was almost the weekend that wasn't for me. I had dental surgery Thursday PM
and was in horrible pain Friday morning. It rapidly improved Friday evening, but
I woke up Saturday feeling washed out. As the day progressed, a bit of
discomfort turned into real pain by evening. I was tired in the 24Z hour, took a
short break at 01Z and felt more energetic but still hurting.
I could only ask for better conditions and more activity on 80M; both home
station and mobile activity did not disappoint. There was no Es
"magic" at any time during the NEQP this year which lead to a long
opening to ME and the rest of New England skipping over me for most all of
Saturday and Sunday. At the best moment Sunday in 14Z hour stations in north
VT/NH, RI and EMA were at the edge of the skip zone enough that I could get
through. The rest of the day was tough scatter QSO's. 40M was the money band for
sure, 75M phone a wasteland at least until my quitting time of 0239Z. 40 was
open well from the start (sparse activity first 30-40 minutes) until bed time.
At 02Z the 7's outnumbered the 1's left on 40M CW. I put 7QP on the sidelines in
order to focus on IN and NEQP. It was easy to work a few 7's on 40 as I searched
for the W1/IN ops.
Sunday was okay, but I could have worked so many more NEQP ops on 20 if I lived
only 150 miles farther away. The western CT border is probably only about 250
miles away. 40M was sparsely occupied at 13Z and by 15Z until 1830Z nearly
devoid of 1's. Part of the problem was some loud QRN from storms all morning
which I expected to get worse. Most of the storms dissipated in the afternoon
and the ones close in VA were the 40M skip zone. Luckily mobiles K2UA, W1VE, and
NZ1U were far enough away to work for several hours on 20 CW. 40 never closed
Sunday, good signals by 1930Z until the end thanks to a relatively low MUF.
Speaking of the the mobiles, there were more than expected. I didn't connect
well with W1DX. I felt a special connection with NZ1U as they worked their way
through all of the counties of ME. The first time a I called, he seemed to not
sort out my call well. After that we were locked in and several Q's were made at
my noise level easily. Thanks so much, would have missed several ME counties
without the mobiles! Gerry, W1VE seemed easier to find Sunday, easy to work as
well. Thanks to K2UA for a lot of VT counties I would have missed otherwise and
some rare NH as well. Those 5 letter x 2 county lines are no fun to copy. I
found Mitch operating W1NVT/M in Grand Isle, VT on 40 phone and mentioned that I
needed Chittenden where he lives for the VT sweep, no offer to help due to busy
portable/mobile operating. But my next QSO was Dave, KM3T/M on 40 CW in CHI for
the sweep! Later the Chittenden ops came out of the woodwork working AA1SU twice
and KC1SFJ. Thanks to Dave for several other Q's, very easy to work. I caught
K1JB/M once; he was at home Saturday and booming as usual.
I had 2 ops from Nantucket, MA call 2 QSO's apart on 40 phone Sunday; they live
about a mile apart. I was not so lucky with Dukes, never heard one. FYI, I used
very little spotting. No spots lead to a mult. So, I worked my 66 out of 67 with
my own skills.
Thanks for a fun QP, most ops were very proficient. The casual guys on 40 SSB
always gave their county when quizzed and I helped a few out with the proper
abbreviation. Don't forget we still have a 500 KHz allocation starting at
3.5MHz, Hi!
73, Jeff
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