TARHEEL
Meet the Spelling Bee Bonus Volunteers
First off, I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to the ops that manned the 1×1 Spelling Bee bonus operations. They willingly removed themselves from the competition to give out QSOs. 4, 838 QSOs to be exact, averaging over just shy of 700 each! That works out to be over one a minute for each of the seven during the entire ten hour period! Whew!
We kept the identity of these seven stations under wraps in the weeks prior to the event to add to the allure, but now I’d like to give proper acknowledgement. Here they are in spelling order:
N4T
Marty Young, W4MY, Bob Sarkenburg, W4TTX, and David Burt, W4OTO operating from Marty’s QTH in Harnet county. Yes, this dream team included your chairman! We all had a great time!
N4A
Nate Moreschi, N4YDU, operating from Franklin County. Nate is a QSO machine and veteran WRTC op. Needless to say, Nate got the most QSOs of the seven Tarheel operations where he alone made 30% of all the bonus station QSOs.
N4R
Team N4R consisted of K2JB, Dean Blair, and W4PH, Howard Hazelrigg who lit up Buncombe county in a big way. I knew these guys would have a great time as a bonus station as whenever I run into Howard at a hamfest he is always passionate about telling me their NCQP expedition stories and plans. And they are no stranger to being in the outdoors with their radio equipment with the many SOTA expeditions they have survived!
N4E
Jim Jordan, K4QPL, and Tad Danley, K3TD, took N4E to the road giving out bonus points from 14 different counties in North Carolina. Jim is a big CW contester with PVRC. When I asked Jim to do this he graciously agreed to put in some time on SSB and that was right in Tad’s wheelhouse. So this team had a good one-two punch on these two modes. Good job guys!
N4H
Our own committee Logs Manager/Data Analyst Marc Sullivan, W4MPS, took on this important letter of the alphabet operating in a very interesting way. He doesn’t have any antennas at his actual QTH but rather operated remotely connecting to the Knightlights, WQ4RP, conclave Excalibur II in rural Wake county. Paul Stroud, AA4XX, curator of that station made it available to Marc for this special event and thanks go out to both.
W4E
Dwayne Ayers, N4MIO, was W4E representing Alamance county. Dwayne and I go way back running into each other at hamfests, prior to 2013 when I started my tenure as chairman, bantering about NCQP. Dwayne’s passion for NCQP is second (arguably) only to mine! Thanks buddy!
N4L
Vlado Karamitrov, N3CZ, from Ashville is a multiple NCQP plaque winner. When it comes to cranking out QSOs, Vlado can do it! When I asked if he was willing to give up the opportunity for another plaque to be a bonus station, Vlado said, “Anything to help NC QSO Party!” And help he did with 776 contacts!
Again, Thank You TARHEEL stations for making the spelling a tremendous success! Here’s how they did:
Sp-Bee-Stations