[3830] NewEngQP WA1Z Single Op LP

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                    New England QSO Party - 2019

Call: WA1Z
Operator(s): WA1Z
Station: WA1Z

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: ME, NH
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  CW-Dig Qs  Ph Qs
------------------------
   80:     226        
   40:     491      16
   20:     452      21
   15:                
   10:                
------------------------
Total:    1169      37  Mults = 64  Total Score = 152,000

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Thanks again to K1KI for organizing everything involved in making the NEQP
possible every year.  This remains one of my favorite contests.

Great mobile scores by K1EP, K1IB and W1UJ/NZ1U!  It's nice to see more mobile
activity in the planned activity list, too.  Sorry to hear Tom had troubles with
the new car.  Looking forward to seeing KI/m in full action next year.

This is the 6th time Kurt W6PH has come out to do the driving duties in the
NEQP.  It's always a ton of fun.

Kurt and I joke that I follow something I call the "Noah Principle"
which is to bring on our ark two-of-every-kind of piece of equipment needed to
operate the contest in case something breaks.  When a radio goes south in
Aroostook County Maine in the middle of a county line pileup, nothing feels
better than reaching into the back of the car and pulling out another one and
being back on the air in minutes (yes, this happened once).  This principle has
saved me from inconveniences to disasters more than once over the years, but
this year it was 20 Meters that broke!  Next year, I'll have backup sunspots...

Propagation was very spotty on 20 with the exception of a few good hours on
Sunday morning.  Otherwise, it was definitely a low-band year - and the first
year that 40 Meters ended up having the most QSOs.  

As always, it's the out-of-region activity that make this contest so much fun. 
The most frequent 20+ QSOs crowd being K1GQ (45), N4PN (43), N8UM (31), K4QS
(25), WN1GIV (23) and M4J was worked 23 times.  Many more repeat callers, too. 
Also, special thanks to the DX stations in addition to Jonathan M4J, also
DL3DXX, R7NW, UA6LCN, and SP6JOE all calling in more than once. In total, 413
different calls were worked.  Thanks to everyone for all the QSOs!

Must breakdown was 47 St/Prov and 17 DX worked.  Worked VE2/3/4/5/9. Missed LA,
MS, AR, NM, NE, ND, SD and KH6.  Thanks to KL7SB for a surprise AK mult!

Route:
This year's route is a path we have done a few times now.  We started at Kurt's
QTH in Amherst NH (HILNH).  We continued east across southern New Hampshire and
picked up RT 95 in Maine up to Lewiston.  From there, we turned back towards the
sea coast and picked up RT 1 to activate the coastal counties northeast of
Portland.  Our overnight stop was in Bangor.  

On Sunday morning, we got about a 30 minute head start, continuing up RT95,
towards Aroostook county.  We activated AROME from a small corner of the county
on RT 157.  We then turned west to travel through the large northern counties
until we crossed into northern NH (COONH).  We then turned south on RT 115 to
pick up RT3 and 93 to return home.  

Mobile Station:
2008 Honda CRV
Elecraft K3, 100 watts, powered from car battery
Logging with MacBook Air laptop using SkookumLogger contest logging program,
(with some power-saving adjustments, I was able to operate entire contest on
internal laptop battery with a charge overnight.)
Two Hustler MO-2 54-inch masts mounted on hatchback door secured by a home-brew
roof rack harness  
Hustler RM-model resonators 

The roads in Maine were not in great shape.  But the state has spent a ton of
money on a fix.  They have put up signs that say "ROUGH ROAD" to warn
us. (humor, courtesy W6PH)

Kurt drove nearly 730 miles through 22 counties.  And he kept us on schedule
within a few minutes at almost every county change.  

Already looking forward to next year.  Now, where is my backup sunspot junk
box....


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