[NCC] OhQP W8WTS Single Op LP

[James M. Galm, W8WTS]

                     Ohio QSO Party - 2021

Call: W8WTS
Operator(s): W8WTS
Station: W8WTS

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Ohio
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
  Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
    80:  175     90
    40:  224     63
    20:   74      2
    15:
    10:    8
--------------------
Total:  481    155  CW Mults = 106  Ph Mults = 67  Total Score = 193,241

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

Congratulations to all of the category winners for outstanding 
performances
under challenging band conditions.  Thanks to the Mad River Radio Club 
for
sponsoring OQP, one of the greatest state QSO parties on the calendar.  
Most of
all thanks to everyone who got on the air, made QSOs, and had fun.

It is hard to compare OQP 2021 with the record breaking results from 
last year.
OQP 2020 benefited from great conditions and huge participation from the 
shelter
in place crowd due to our COVID pandemic.  We lacked both qualities this 
year.
All bands were noisy.  The A index for AUG 28 UTC was 14, and the Kp 
indices for
each three hour period in AUG 28 UTC were 5 3 4 3 2 2 1 1.  By 1600Z the
magnetic field was calming down, but there remained sufficient 
fluctuations to
create miserable noise.  One of my favorite parts of OQP is running rate 
on 75 m
SSB in the early to mid evening.  This year, 75 m SSB sounded more like 
a 160 m
contest.  Too many QSOs were letter mined, digging one letter at a time 
out of
the roaring noise, needing repeat after repeat.

I planned for a full 12 hour effort and went the distance.  The first 
hour was
strong, and the second hour was the worst in the contest.  That is a 
pattern
followed nearly every year.  Early in the contest, the SFI of 90 
encouraged some
stations to use 20 m, further driving my rate down.  The breakdown of 
QSOs per
hour is as follows.
Hour    QSOs
16      74
17      33
18      65
19      67
20      52
21      42
22      36
23      67
0       46
1       51
2       55
3       48

My most contacted station was K8MR with 12 QSOs, followed by K8RYU with 
6
contacts.  I worked mobile stations only to the extent necessary to get
otherwise unavailable multipliers.  The mobile and rover stations had 
good
signals on 80 m, marginal at best on 40 m, and non-existent on 20 m.

Relative to the previous four years (excepting 2020), my QSO total, 636 
is
slightly above the average of 606.  879 QSOs in 2020 was an outlier.  
These are
my QSO totals for the last four OQPs.
2018    2019    2020    2021    AVG    AVG not counting 2020
613     568     879     636     674    606

My station setup was nearly unchanged from last year:  SO2R with 2 x 
FT-1000MPs,
Skyhawk, XM240, dipoles, inverted L for 160 m.  I use an assortment of 
receive
antennas for 80 m and 160 m.  I hope to have some new antennas to try 
next year.

I appreciated every QSO and am already looking forward to next year.

73,

Jim, W8WTS

PS My eight 160 m QSOs are in the 10 m box.

https://www.w8wts.com/contest_logs/W8WTS20210831.txt

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