[Elecraft] EL QP

[Kevin Cozens]

Greetings, one and all.

Band    CW QSOs CW Pts  SSB QSOs  SSB Pts  Bonus
160       0       0      0          0       0
80        0       0      0          0       0
40        2       6      0          0       0
20       12      36      0          0       0
15       14      72      0          0       5
10        0       0      0          0       0

Total           114                 0       5
Battery Bonus: 25
Score: 144
Rig: K2 S/N 2172

Comments: Worked 5 new states during the EQP then picked up Wisconsin 
afterwards in the Wisconsin QSO Party. Only heard (and worked) one Canadian 
station, one field tester, and one K2/100. I never heard any DX stations or 
either Eric or Gary. I listened at times for SSB contacts but didn't hear 
anything. Being somewhat antenna challenged (using an MP-1 from inside a 
second floor bedroom) I have learned that I am not generally heard if I 
call CQ using SSB so I stuck to using CW. Having worked QSO parties and 
other contests I have noticed the difference between running CW vs. SSB in 
terms of how likely it is for people to respond to a CQ.

At 11:41 AM 03/08/2003 -0500, John, N3WT wrote:
>Just send at the speed you are comfortable with.  Every Elecraft operator is
>a gentlemen and will return at your speed,  no problem.

This was true for the most part. However, there were two stations I could 
name that were running 25+ wpm(?) that didn't slow down. The faster of the 
two was heard earlier on in the contest. My mind wasn't in to copying 
numbers that well then. I was sending at only 15 wpm but the station never 
slowed down. I couldn't copy the stations info so I gave up and moved on. 
For the other station, I was able to get his info by listening to it a few 
times while other stations were worked.

If multipliers were added to the event, my feeling is they should be 
awarded for each unique K1/K2 serial number worked. Each unique serial 
number should only be counted once (regardless of band/mode worked). This 
provides encouragement to work more K1/K2 owners.

I don't like the idea of points based on the duration of the QSO. It would 
complicate things too much and take out the fun of the event since one 
would be worried about noting the start/end times of a contact. Adding ones 
name to the exchange (instead of the RST) would be nice. The DXCC entity is 
redundant for ops outside of Canada and mainland US. Actually, Canadian 
stations sending province is actually redundant since the prefix of a 
Canadian call indicates the province.

Power class should be based on the maximum power used during the QSO party. 
One person stated that they entered as QRP but had to crank the power up to 
80 watts to work one station. To still enter as QRP, don't count the 80 
watt contact, or drop power class and simply score each QSO based on the 
power level used for the QSO. To do otherwise seems a little unfair to the 
stations that were QRP the whole time. After all, its supposed to be a fun 
event. If you can't work someone QRP, you can't work them QRP. Don't sweat 
it and try someone else.

I look forward to the next event (whether that is next year or in six 
months time).


Cheers!

Kevin.  (http://www.interlog.com/~kcozens/)

Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172        |"What are we going to do today, Borg?"
E-mail:kcozens at interlog dot com|"Same thing we always do, Pinkutus:
Packet:ve3syb@ve3yra.#con.on.ca.na|  Try to assimilate the world!"
#include <disclaimer/favourite>   |              -Pinkutus & the Borg