A couple of weeks ago I received a certificate from the New England QSO Party attesting to my prowess in the 2006 contest. (I finished first in Michigan.) When I saw that the 2007 version of this contest was going to take place on May 5 and May 6, I felt that I had to defend my title.
I got on the air a bit late at 2030Z–the contest started at 2000Z–but quickly made a few contacts. Then, I noticed that I was hearing more Indiana stations than New England stations. Sure enough, the Indiana QSO Party was in full swing as well.
I downloaded the IN QP software from N3FJP, installed it, and pretty soon I was working both contests. When it looked like I’d work all the New England stations currently on the air, I’d start searching for Indiana stations. When I didn’t hear any new Hoosiers, I’d switch back to New England.
I did this for a couple of hours until my wife got home, then had dinner and watched some TV. I got on 80m a bit later and worked both contests for about an hour. I had a much tougher time on 80m than I did on 40m. I think that just goes to show how much better a dipole works than the random wire I’m using on 80m.
The NE QP is one of those contests that have operating hours on both Saturday and Sunday with some break time in between. I worked a couple more stations Sunday morning, but mostly I just heard stations that I’d already contacted. That’s OK as I didn’t want to spend too much time on the radio Sunday anyway.
Overall, I made 28 Indiana QSO Party contacts, with 26 multipliers, for a score of 1,248. I had 41 NE QP contacts, with 26 multipliers, for a score of 2,028. Last year, I had 59 Qs, with 35 multipliers for a score of 3,955. So, my guess is that I did not successfully defend my title. Perhaps I should have concentrated on one and not the other.
On a more upbeat note, I did work two stations whose callsigns spell words: W1ACT and W1HIS. I’ll be getting cards out to them shortly.
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