Results
NC QSO Party Results - 2019
2019 Full Results - Soapbox - Stats
North Carolina QSO Party 2019 Results
by Marty Young W4MY
The propagation gods made this year’s QSO Party a challenge as we are now dealing with the low end of the current sunspot cycle. Nevertheless, spirits were high and, judging from all the very positive soapbox comments, a great time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who participated for making NCQP 2019 another success.
As you review the statistics, you’ll notice a big drop off this year on 20 Meters, which was indicative of poor band conditions. But that didn’t stop our DX stalwarts. Hats off to Dietmar, DL3DXX who wins the plaque for DX High Score.
We made some changes to the rules and categories this year. The committee is always striving to make our event as enjoyable as possible, as well as challenging. We’ll continue to discuss ways of improving both. As an example, we’ll be discussing changes that might be appropriate in the Club categories, perhaps by instituting Multi-Op replacements. It has always been NCQP’s policy to encourage club participation and we want to encourage new ops to get involved. We’ve found that once they do, they come back for more every year. We’d love to hear your thoughts about that, as well as any other improvements that you believe would make NCQP better.
In an effort to encourage digital participation, we increased the score for digital Q’s. Next year we’re hoping the developers of WSJT-X will expand its FT8 capabilities so that this very popular mode can by utilized in NCQP.
We are thankful to our plaque sponsors who stepped up and really made that process easy for us. There was no shortage of willingness to help out with getting our awards financed.
Now on to the results!
IN STATE
Single Op Category
CW: Vlad, N3CZ, took the top spot with a score of 91,085. He worked 385 QSOs and 68 mults in what most would consider very tough conditions. That's a good score under these conditions. Says a lot for the ability of a good op using CW to get the job done. Not far behind was Louis, K4BYN, making a good account operating from Wake county.
Phone: This year was the first where there were more SSB QSO's than CW. Helping make that come true was the winner of the phone category, Eric, K4CEB. Eric operated his station from Cabarrus county in the east to take first place in this category where 31 others submitted likewise. Joel, KN4EWI, from Dare gained the second spot. Maybe there was something giving these ops a special edge, operating with the Atlantic ocean behind them, when conditions were otherwise marginal. Whatever it was, they scored over one third of all the total points made by others in this category.
Digital: This category was represented very well this year.Fred, KK4HEG took the prize with 65 QSO's and 10,775 points. This was only 10 more QSO's than David, W4SAR, who landed in second place.
Mixed: Now for the category where high power is allowed. This year was a good one for choosing it and Nate, N4YDU, took the top spot with that. Nate also racked up the overall high score for NCQP 2019. Floyd, K8AC got a very respectable second place in a field of ten. Between them they racked up nearly 2000 QSO's. Among the twelve who submitted in the low power mixed mode it was John, AD8J, operating from Buncombe taking the high spot. John is no stranger to the top tier in NCQP categories. A distant, but respectable, second place in the low power part was Nyles, KS4S.
QRP: Dick, N4HAY, took the crown at the other end of the power equation. With little more than it takes to light one Christmas light bulb, Dick managed a winning score with 157 QSO's and 65 multipliers for a total of 26,815 points. In a field of six, James, AI4WL, took second place with a little over 10,000 points using peanut power. There were only 5 QSO's difference between them, but Dick had a greater number of mults accounting for his much higher score. Paying attention to those mults really paid off for the top op in Wake county. Good job guys, and good ears to those that worked all of our QRP contestants.
Other Categories
Mobile: What a spectacular effort by Bert,N4CW, who put in a chart busting score of 219,752 which was comprised of 1,131 QSO's! In what I would call “crummy” band conditions, this is bordering on miraculous. Bert's driver, Jim, W4TMO, is to be credited also. Having been a road warier in days gone by, I understand the vital importance the driver plays in getting to the right place at the right time. Well done gents! Our only other entrant mobile this year was Jim,K4QPL, and partner Tad, K3TD, who get the second place certificate. Thanks, guys, for running the roads for us, we sure need more mobiles. We'll be working on that.
Expedition: Winning the expedition category, and operating from two counties, is the group headed up by Dean, K2JB. Dean provided a very nice documentation package showing his operation atop a mountain activating Transylvania and Jackson Counties. The good planning and execution by him and non operating teammate W4PH are well deserving of this first place finish. Honorable mention goes to Donald, KC4DD, who went out exploring for QSO's in Polk County, and got a bunch of 'em!
Club Phone: K4OGB, The Stanley ARC won this category this year making 161 QSO's and a 15,771 points. The elimination of CW requirements back in the day was the impetus for creating this category years ago. The thinking then was that CW activity would decline and a phone only category was needed for the club entries. This year having only one entry says that maybe this is not coming to pass. Congratulations are due, none the less, as this score is worthy of a first place finish.
Club Mixed: This category is divided into low and high power entries. The winner and only one opting for high power was Forsyth ARC, W4NC. The low power one, and most popular, was won again by the Cape Fear group, K4MN. How many years in a row have they taken the top spot? I've lost count. Congratulations guys.
OUT OF STATE
Single Op Category
CW: Ray, KJ4AOM from Kentucky was the winner of this very popular mode. Coming in second was Steve, W4SPR with only six fewer QSOs. What a close one. All else being equal, staying an extra few minutes paid off for Ray!
Phone: This is the mode that overtook CW this year in the total number of QSOs made by everyone. Tom, AI4DB, certainly helped that out. He took first place against the other out of state phone ops, with Jerry, K1SO, running a very respectable second. They are both from neighboring states (Tennessee and Virginia, respectively.) Close proximity and these guys being on the right band at the right time certainly paid off in the conditions that were dealt to us.
Digital: There were only two entries from ops out-of-state this year. The absence of FT8 as a viable QSO Party mode I'm sure was a factor, despite digital QSO's now being worth 5 points. None the less, KA1PPV, Joe, pounded out 17 QSO's on his digital station in Connecticut. On the opposite side of North Carolina was Jack, KD5ILA doing the same thing in Arkansas. Thank you gentleman for holding up the digital mode for NCQP.
Mixed: A very familiar call to all of us in the state QSO party scene is the winner of the low power portion of this category, Jeff, N8II. His West Virginia score was first, and Paul, W8TM in neighboring Ohio took second place.
QRP: The state of Florida is where our winner Tom, K3TW, operated his low power station. He garnered nearly 15,000 points from over 100 QSO's. That's what I call sticking to it! Good job Tom! The next closest was Kurt, W8IQ, who eked out second from a very competitive three way match.
BONUS STATIONS
Our bonus stations are always ready and on the air making QSOs in a selfless effort to help generate enthusiasm for NCQP. When we get comments of thanks from our participants there is always mention of gratefulness for the bonus stations. These guys are recused and ineligible for awards in the competition. No bragging rights for them. But in our eyes, they have the biggest reason to brag in the pursuit of helping others. They are (in no particular order) NI4BK – Battleship North Carolina Museum run by the Azalea Coast ARS, W1VOA – Voice of America Receiving Site “C” run By the Brightleaf ARC, W4DW – Raleigh ARS NCQP Sponsor station, run by super station N1LN in Chapel Hill.
CHAIRMEN'S CHALLENGE
In cooperation with SC this year, the two chairmen, W4MY (NC) and WN4AFP (SC) teamed up to operate together Saturday in South Carolina and Sunday in North Carolina. This was quite a feat of endurance for these two old guys. Not only did we operate the entire duration of two contests on consecutive days, we did so from two different stations 250 miles apart! Its purpose was give a chance for everyone to work one or both of the “big guys” and give us the chance to say thank you personally on the air. For the 57 who worked us in each of SC and NC a nice commemorative certificate was sent. The winner of the random drawing from those that worked us both was Walter Hoppe, WA8KBU of Shaker Heights, OH. He gets the $200 gift card to HRO!
WORKED MOST COUNTIES AND “THE CAROLINA WEEKEND”
With NCQP and SCQP on back to back weekend days many continue to participate and submit logs to both and this year was no exception. We have already combined the “Worked Most Counties” awards to include all of the 146 available. The winners here won't be known until the SC results come out later.
SUMMARY
We’re grateful to everyone who made this year’s North Carolina QSO Party so much fun and such an overwhelming success. Thank you for submitting your logs and letting us know your ideas and comments about this year’s event. Take a look, enjoy the results and be sure to read all the Soapbox comments. We've got a great hardworking team that has brought this to you. A special thanks to Marc, W4MPS, our logs manager and analyst who was responsible for getting all these hundreds of details in a form we can all read easily.
We're already getting ready for 2020. The date is March 1st, 2020.
Respectfully Submitted,
Marty Young W4MY
Chairman, NC QSO Party