[PaQSO] PAQP 2014 Logs, comments

Mon Dec 8 11:34:21 EST 2014

Thanks to the work of Mike and the others who put the PA QSO Party together.
It is something that I look forward to each Oct.

I was surprised by the number of DX stations out there this year.  I am
guessing there was a European/DX contest going on (besides the PA and AZ
parties).

There seems to always be some confusion working AZ stations.  Many of them
only want to give a AZ party exchange, but I simply enter what they give me
and move on.  I guess they can work that out on their ends since they're
combining two contests into one essentially.

I got my PA clean sweep Sunday morning..and I worked 70 ARRL/RAC/DX
sections.  There seems to be a lot of home stations in CA, TX, and FL that
don't know what ARRL sections they live in.. I keep an ARRL section list
onhand to cross reference by county, though.

Had my highest QSO count ever.  Thanks to the mobiles/rovers for some of the
rarer PA counties.

Was surprised to only hear a few Ontario stations this year, but I worked a
good number of other provinces.  Propagation seemed fine from 20m down..
even worked a few on 15 and 10m each and got my 1st ever 160m contact (my
dipole barely tunes to a 2:1 at the top of the band).

Here's to Oct 2015..  73

Matt
N3NTJ

-----Original Message-----
From: PaQSO [mailto:paqso-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of
w3hkk at roadrunner.com
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2014 11:15 AM
To: paqso at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [PaQSO] PAQP 2014 Logs, comments

Thanks Mike for your tireless efforts, not only keeping all this going, but
moving the PAQP to new heights!

My "speed read" count of the log submissions:
Clean Sweeps:      36 in staters + 10 Out of Staters.=    46 Total Clean
Sweeps
Log Submissions:  319 in staters +  178 out of staters = 497 logs on the
posted list.

Conclusions:
-lots of ex-pat Keystone Staters (like myself) enjoy the PAQP. It's a great
contest,and the BEST state QSO Party of all!
- 36% of log submissions come from hams outside PA.
-nearly 22% of Clean Sweeps go to  hams outside PA.
- 11 logs were submitted by stations in the "DX" category, including an
amazing score by OM2VL, who was only 4 counties from a CLEAN SWEEP!  Wow!
What a guy! :)

PS Before  this year's PAQP, I was part of the WW8OH multi-multi that  in
2013 and 2012 made 67 and 66 counties, and 2nd place ( behind powerhouse
N4PN). For older guys ( 72 here) the M-O category is a lot of fun and less
demanding on the mind and body.  This year  I operated S-O  from the home
QTH in central Ohio with the goal of   making the Clean Sweep. 

Short story about this year's effort:  Friday night I decided to enter from
home, as the club group didn't come together due to other competing demands.
So Fri night I downloaded N1MM+, and managed to populate the  PAQP log  By
11 pm it was ready to go and I hit the sack.  

Sat morning at 9 I began building  my  NVIS antennas from scratch -
inverted v's for 80m and 40m, criss-crossed on top of a 28 ft  mast to serve
as guy wires as well as radiators.  Mil surplus 4 ft fiberglass mast
sections  formed the mast.

#14 Home Depot insulated solid copper wire was rough cut,  old coax
soldered together to form a single coax feed, with a T shaped ceramic
insulator tied to the top of the mast. PP rope was tied to the ends of the
wires, the mast pushed up with the help of the xyl, and the antenna ends
tied  down. Wires for 80m ran NW-SE and 40m ran NE-SW.  PA is  about 70
degrees from central Ohio with skip distances of between 100 and 400 miles.

Three trips to  each of the 4 ends to  trim length resulted in resonances in
the middle of the respective bands at  1.2:1 swrs.   And at 2:11pm Sat I
made my first contact. A bit late but I was ready to roll.   

Conditions proved to be  excellent with strong sigs on 40m all day, both
days.  By 1:45pm Sunday I worked my 67th county and made my personal goal.

Summary: 9.5 hrs operating time - 208 qsos on 40m/43 Q's on 80/ 13 Q's on
160/ 1 Q on 20m.
Station:  IC7600 - TenTec Centurion amp - inv V's for 80/40. 160m inv L for
160/20m.

de Bob W3HKK ( since 1956 )(former PA QTH's: Manayunk (Philly), Rhawnhurst
(Northeast Philly),  State College, Lancaster ( Cherry Hill),  Blawnox
(Pittsburgh).
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