[PaQSO] Post Contest Reflections 2012

[Hank Greeb]

I can add my 2rd to Jim's comments about activity.

I got on 40 and 80 Meters, with my might 5 watts and a 32' high inverted 
Vee antenna fed with ladder line (an antenna which I claim to be "a few 
dB better than a dummy load buried 6' under ground).   (I tried 20, 
heard a very few PA stations but none could hear me - too short for skip 
with my 5watts.)

I managed to work about 75 Q's, and several folks said "Hi Hank QRP?" to 
which I sed "R" or "Roger."

And, another way to improve the impression of out of state ops, is to 
encourage all in PA stations to "run" by calling CQ.  There were quite a 
few counties which weren't in my log which I only heard answering other 
stations.  Never heard those counties "running."   That some people were 
able to snag all 67 counties indicates to me that folks in these 
counties must have actually called CQ at some point during the contest, 
but not while I was able to be on.  This isn't a comment exclusively 
"against" PAQP ops - I run out of stations, and miss counties in most 
other QSO parties because quite a few folks seem to be hesitant to 
"run." With a pipsquoke signal into a marginal antenna, these folks 
probably don't "dig down" into the noise level to hear me when I'm 
calling CQ.  But, the same was the case when I was working @ 100 watts 
in years of old, so I'd say the problem is/was endemic to most QSO Parties.

72/73 de n8xx Hg
QRP >99.44% of the time
Also looking 4ward to MiQP in April 2013, and OHQP in August 2013.  You 
all are invited!

On 10/17/2012 4:45 PM, Jimk8mr at aol.com wrote:
> A good way to encourage out of state activity, on all bands, is to participate in the QSO Parties held by other states.
>   
> The QSO Party season is pretty well over for this year. This coming weekend is pretty much it, with New York holding theirs on Saturday from 10am to 10 pm  EDT, Iowa from 10 am to 7 pm EDT, and Illinois on Sunday from 1 pm to 9 pm  EDT.  After that, a winter break until Minnesota (of all places!) holds  theirs in early February.
>   
> Get on and work a few guys - the serious guys in the various states will come to recognize your calls and will be more interested in getting on to return  the favor of your activity next October.
>   
> And be alert when I start talking up the QSO parties in Michigan (April 20) and Ohio (August 24).
>   
> 73  -  Jim  K8MR