New England QSO Party Ham Radio Operating event!

[UJay]

https://www.neqp.org/

If you have HF privileges and capabilities, jump on the air Saturday night or Sunday! (May 6-7, 2017)

If you are inside New England, you are considered 'the DX' and will generate mini pileups.

I will be operating mostly CW as NZ1U/m mobile multi-op activating >30 counties throughout the weekend.... Heading North....

UJ


From K1KI

""""""""""""""""""""

Hi -

Thanks for your entry in the New England QSO Party in 2016 (or recent years). We hope you'll spend some time operating in the New England QSO Party this weekend - May 6-7!

We're trying to make sure that all counties in New England are active again - and we have just a couple more to cover.
Here's the current list: http://www.neqp.org/ryc.html Can we add you?

Basic rules:

Date: First full weekend of May (May 6-7, 2017)

Contest Period: 2000Z Saturday until 0500Z Sunday (4pm EDT Saturday until 1am EDT Sunday) and 1300Z Sunday until 2400Z Sunday (9am EDT Sunday until 8pm EDTSunday).

Categories: Single-operator high power, low power(150w or less) and QRP(5w or less) categories, plus multi-operator, single transmitter. Same four categories for mobiles.

Contest Exchange: Send signal report and state/province (DX stations send signal report and "DX"). New England stations send signal report, county and state.You can find the full rules at http://neqp.org/rules.html
73 Tom/K1KI

"""""""""""""""""

 

[Keystone]

It is dead, dead, dead today. Even from VT we can't raise anyone to talk to. Last night worked pretty well.

 

[blindfire]

20m was freakin DEAD this afternoon.

 

[UJay]

New England QSO Party

Call: NZ1U
Operator(s): N1WK W1UJ
Station: NZ1U/M

Class: M/S Mobile HP
QTH: 35 Counties
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
80: 103 3
40: 553 1
20: 234
15: 2
10:
------------------------
Total: 892 4 Mults = 64 Total Score = 114,432

Club: The Barnstormers Contest Group

Comments:

What a super fun radio weekend in the great (still showing some) white North!

Thanks to K1KI for organizing another FB NEQP contest weekend.

Congrats to the top notch NEQP/m effort of the WA1Z team.

We had very low amount of time for implementation, or what we did have for time
may not have been used correctly..

The 'Contest Caddy' used for 2012, 14, 15, and 16's NEQP MultiOp Mobile efforts
was going to take a break this year in favor of the brand-new 2017 Chevy Equinox
SUV, or, the Blue-Ox. Our 5th year, cool!

A Class 2 trailer hitch was procured and installed as the primary antenna mount
along with a Harbor-Freight 500# steel Hitch mounted luggage rack.

Using the luggage rack to mount both the Hustler mast/resonator and the
Hi-Sierra motor-tuned antenna. Right in the middle was an official WRTC-2014
Honda 2KW Generator used by a top 10 team!

Sooooo... we tried High Power. Using a Tokyo Hy-Power SS KW amplifier and
having the Hustler 'Super' resonators picked up recently we hit the road....

One would think that tons of time is necessary to engineer an effort like QRO
mobile radio contest operating, but you may be mistaken! We tested the antennas
around 17Z, or ~3 hours before the start! But the road plan had us -way- North
for the start and much ground to cover. We hit the road. It worked!

It was not trouble free. (SHOCKER!) The biggest issue was that the operator
could not touch the 'touch pad' mouse on the laptop while transmitting or the
laptop would lose comms and CW to the K3.. Also, the sent CW must have sounded
horrible as we could not get the CW weight to work through the serial port CW
on the K3 it was with HP or LP didn't make a difference- sending a bit slower
helped. The amp was not used much, if there was a 5-cq or so lull, turn drive
down to 20w and throw amp in. It would run about 400w with comfort, until
nearing the end and we activated SuffolkMA, we were @900w comfortably. That
generator was working vy hard! Called CQ on SSB even 1 answer..... Everything
held quite nicely. (DO NOT touch that mouse pad!)

Used N1MM+ Logger to send CW through the USB serial port- this was only on
Saturday, on Sunday, the decision was made to introduce a WinKeyer which was a
good move. Still cannot touch the mouse-pad when TX'n or the Rig and the
Winkeyer would drop....

One of the goals was to be home Saturday night. The hub of the barnstormers is
NE CT and we wanted to operate North... starting and ending in the well-covered
WORMA. Another goal was to cover the 'least covered' counties of 2016. The
missed/forgotten factor was that Team WA1Z wasn't there in '16, and their
counties were open in 2016, but they are back in it for '17. On Saturday night
after many requests for SUFMA we knew there was coverage in the north ME
counties and we were heading to SUFMA since it seems there may have not been
activity there with many asking about it again on Sunday morning.

N1WK = "It's not the (Contest) Caddy" in reference to the Blue Ox.
Trade offs for superior luxury, powerful engine... etc... etc... is good gas
mileage and lots of cabin room.... The Caddy will likely be re-commissioned
in future efforts! Just need a trailer hitch. It seems that a couple-hundred
horsepower and luxury seats and operating position is worth the ~5 MPG
sacrifice....

For Saturday the goal was to catch COONH FRAVT GRAVT. GRAVT is way up there,
and we went to the top NW corner of it and headed South right through GRAVT and
making it through while it was still daylight out.

GRANH 9
COONH 10
ESSVT 15
CALVT 14
ORLVT 14
LAMVT 19
FRAVT 63
GRAVT 54
CHIVT 34
WASVT 16
ORAVT 18
WNDVT 25
SULNH 10
CHENH 5
WNHVT 14
FRAMA 11
HMPMA 1 QSO
HMDMA 20
WORMA 145

Sunday was the same we looked at least covered counties, but changed things a
bit to cover the requested SUFMA

WORMA- 145
MIDMA 36
ESSMA 37
ROCNH 32
HILNH 8
MERNH 22
BELNH 10
STRNH 27
CARNH 27
OXFME 9
YORME 29
CUMME 31
ANDME 13
KENME 17
LINME 19
SAGME 15
CUMME- 31
YORME- 29
ROCNH- 32
ESSMA- 37
SUFMA 67
MIDMA 36
WORMA- 145

Another learning experience and many mental notes that are likely to be
forgotten next year, but we look forward to it and it is a considerable amount
of fun. More band changes.. Tightening up complete antenna/coax systems...
etc... the normal things... same as last year....

Rock star award to N1WK for powering through with the driving getting us home
safely.
Saturday 707 miles
Sunday 509 miles
Average speed 54.3 MPH
34.0 MPG Best 50 mile run
Average fuel economy 26.6 MPG

Thanks to The Barnstormer fixed team of NB1U and NR1X, while putting in their
own significant NEQP efforts and tracking the NZ1U/m team and notifying the
masses where we were. Also to the Cap'n KB1H(sk) for getting us all together.

Thanks to all of the 'Regulars' that follow the /m's through the counties, you
guys make it worth it for everyone.

A few pics and vids here; http://w1uj.net/NEQP-2017/

73

The Barnstormers

 

[cockpitbob]

Jay, reps for the really nice write-up! Personally I'm not a "sit in the shack for hours and hours" guy and turning a QSO party into a road trip sounds great! This just shows that ham radio isn't A hobby. It's 100 hobbies to pick from. I've added modest mobile HF capability to my car for those long drives from MA to PA that I do a few times a year. A little talking and a lot of listening (and practicing my CW head-copy) really helps shrink the miles.

I love the idea of just putting a Honda putt-putt generator and antennas on a hitch luggage rack. Simple, quick, effective!

lol the RF in the shack problems. Those laptop touch pads are super-zap proof and I've never heard of anyone having an ESD or RFI problem with them before. It's always something.

 

[Jim Poulette]

Jay - replied here. 115K is a monster score !

20m was nuts into western Asia.

73, Jim

 

[UJay]

Oh-man, this was 2017! We hung that Honda 2200 gennie off of the back of the SUV that year so we could run an amplifier...... Good times
Here is this year's;

3830 Show Score

www.3830scores.com

New England QSO Party - 2021

Call: NZ1U/M
Operator(s): W1UJ
Station: N1WK

Class: SO Mobile LP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 16

Summary:
Band CW-Dig Qs Ph Qs
------------------------
80: 139
40: 342
20: 531
15:
10:
------------------------
Total: 1012 0 Mults = 58 Total Score = 117,276

Club: BARNSTORMERS

Comments:

A fantastic weekend!

Congrats to the K2UA/Mobile Team!

Thanks to K1KI and the team that makes this weekend awesome by organizing the
QSO Party events.

Since we skipped 2020 due to the virus, N1WK procured a timely F-150 pickup
truck and the wheels were set in motion about a 2021 NewE-QP effort.

We learn something new each year and this was no exception. I can confidently
say this was the best year for comfort, equipment and preparation while it was
the poorest for fuel mileage! (But Worth it!!)

Having the big truck opened up some technical opportunities and antenna
implementation while keeping the bones from rattling too much whilst traversing
some really-rough Northern Maine roadways.

We really, truly appreciate the group of chasers that worked us from each county
and OM2VL won with the most QSOs

Equipment;
-2015 Ford, F150 - High, Comfortable, Easy to get in and out of! It is the new
rover rig! Maybe 14.9 MPG... But way worth it!
-K1EBY's Icom IC-7300 - An amazingly capable rig- the NR and NB worked really
well- the band-scope was useful, both on the rig and on the laptop's screen-
accomplishing all of this along with CW keying through the single USB port
worked flawlessly.
--In the past would need the Winkey, RS232...etc...
-Audio pumped in to the cabin through the Aux audio jack
-Hustler High-Power resonators for 20m and 40m, with a Borrowed (from WB3CUU/1)
LP 80m resonator that we swapped in place of the 20M during the evenings. The
antennas were mounted to a 'Back-Rack' Steel ruggedized rack that mounts just
behind the truck's cabin. Coax fed through the rear sliding window. N1WK
fabricated custom mounts, had 1" flat ground braid secured to all of the
panels, chassis and antennas.
-N1WK also created 2 resonant radials attached to each feed-point for all of the
bands and had them organized in and around the bed of the truck. The antennas
were very easy to tune and remained that way with negligible SWR at the
operating freq.
-2-Way Coax switch in the cab for antenna selection.
-We had the 80m resonator attached to a big-3-magnet rooftop mount, but the RFI
made it unusable. The 2 WK Back-Rack-mounts were perfect swapping 80m <>
20m when appropriate. The mag-mount was abandoned.

Accommodations;
-XYL Packed 'Race-Grinders' with jack-links and water as incidentals....
-Meal on Saturday Night was at `Goody Cole's Smokehouse` in Brentwood New
Hampshire. Awesome Goody Coles Smokehouse a Catering Co. | NH BBQ
-Stayed in Bangor's Best Western Saturday Night... meh... A bed and shower was
nice... The window shade didn't open.
-Meal On Sunday afternoon was `Ricetta's of Falmouth`- Was very nice.
--Reading this it is unfortunate that we missed out on some sort of Maine Shore
Dinner somewhere... Next Time!


Software;
-Prep work and post-processing done with Chuck, NO5W's CQ/x software on county
overlays.
NO5W's county overlays on Google-My-Maps- visualized the route and planted
push-pins at each county change point within the path... eventually exported the
KML (or KMZ) and imported it into 'roadtrippers' android app so N1WK would have
turn-by turn navigation... It was slightly cumbersome having to restart the
navigation after each county line.
-Waze for navigation to the next county, which was nice.
-Northern ME has little cell coverage so had the route on Google-offline maps
downloaded to the devices.
2021 NEQP NZ1U/m Sat & Sunday - Google My Maps
---Note- A printed copy of the county name map could have reduced stress without
cell coverage and not knowing the 3/5 letter code for the 'next' county
-Logging was done with N1MM+ Logger and it worked flawlessly. County changes and
interface was seamless.
-The IC-7300 interface with the keyer and WaterFallBandMap integrated was useful
as heck.
-Exported the logs and parsed with the 4QP online parser.
-Post processing was done by importing N1MM logs into a new CQ/x log and running
through the post-processing menu.
-Lenovo x-230 little laptop has been with us for quite a few of these trips.
Thanks N1MM Team, and NO5W!

We took a few videos, a bunch of pictures and a few drone flights with some
good-ol' New England skyline. Will post those to the `Jay UJay` YouTube channel
in the near future. https://www.youtube.com/user/W1UJ

We also recorded most QSOs, with the N1MM+ `Qsorder` add-on. Missed ~1.5 hours
Sunday morning by forgetting to launch it. Uploaded those to the QSOrder
repository online QSOrder Audio Cloud Search
NZ1U Specific; Welcome to the QSOrder Audio Search Cloud

73!

The NZ1U Barnstormers.

The initial ten minute hourly rate in these 22 counties :
Lincoln(144)
Waldo(138)
MiddlesexMA(132)
Sagadahoc(132)
Cumberland(126)
Kennebec(108)
Androscoggin(102)
Piscataquis(102)
Knox(102)
Worcester(96)
EssexMA(96)
Carroll(90)
Strafford(78)
York(78)
Somerset(72)
FranklinME(72)
Oxford(66)
Penobscot(66)
WashingtonME(60)
Coos(60)
Rockingham(48)
Hancock(24)

The indicated number of QSOs were made with the following stations:
OM2VL(28)
K4QS(23)
WN1GIV(21)
K3WJV(20)
TM6M(18)
NE8P(17)
N3XF(15)
AA3S(14)
DL4FN(13)
NN3W(12)
VE5MX(12)
K1GU(12)
VE9VIC(10)
K2SX(10)
K4OSO(10)
N2ZN(10)
NV9L(9)
W8MET(9)
K1EBY(9)
K4AMC(8)
K3TW(8)
VE2FK(8)
VE3YT(7)
K9NW(7)
W0PI(7)
NF4A(7)
W1AJT(7)
K4EJ(7)
K9UIY(7)
VE3KP(7)
WA3AAN(7)
NU0Q(7)
AA5JF(7)
WA5SOG(7)
PA3AAV(7)
N4GG(6)
K3QH(6)
KM4HI(6)
NS2N(6)
N4CW(6)
K9CW(6)
WA1FCN(6)
KU8E(6)
VE3TG(6)
N8II(6)
KB4CG(6)
K4ORD(5)
K5CM(5)
NW7E(5)
W5TM(5)
K4GM(5)
WN4AFP(5)
K3QP(5)
K8ZT(5)
WB2NVR(5)
N2OG(5)
VE3MGY(5)


7QP Results:
QSOs Mults
CW PH DG WVE DX Raw Score
18 0 0 15 0 810
WVE Mults:
AZGHM AZMCP AZPMA AZYMA MTMIS MTRAV ORLAN UTCAC UTDAV WAISL WAKNG WAKTP WAPIE
WYCRO WYNIO

DEQP Results:
QSOs Mults
CW PH DG WVE DX Raw Score
5 0 0 4 0 800
Note: Power mult of 2x applied


INQP Results:
QSOs Mults
CW PH CW PH Raw Score
3 0 2 0 12
CW Mults:
INALL INTPP