The QSO Party is now less than 2 weeks away. I trust everyone has their operating plans ironed out. Hopefully the keepers of good weather and propagation will be good to us!

Want to remind everyone, if you haven’t already done so, to go to the COUNTY ACTIVITY page and announce your operation. There are a few there already, but lets fill up that map with announcements, a very useful feature for our out of state county hunters and others. Just click on “Report an Operation Here” and fill out the form. It only takes a few minutes.

Marc wanted me to tell everyone about the new plaques this year. They are still an outline of the North State as usual, and JNS is still our plaque maker, but the face has been “lifted” for a new more colorful and interesting look. It really might be worth it to stay in the chair longer to make enough QSO’s to get one of these, they really are beautiful!

Operating strategy advise is still the same, stay on the highest band open as long as you can. Watch 40 meters carefully. Sometimes in the late afternoon it can go long and get really noisy. Like you, I’ve been tempted to go to 80/75 early (before dark) because of this. If you do, be sure to check back to 40 a while later because I’ve seen where the conditions straighten up and the noise goes away leaving 40 open to the west coast with crystal clear conditions! And, of course, call CQ as much as you can, they will be looking for you!

More so than other state QSO parties, NCQP has allot of “casual” non-contest types that participate. Except for maybe Field Day, this is their only “contest”. I just want to say thank you to all those ops for turning out, it makes a huge contribution for success. Of course, we do appreciate our contesters too, no doubt. Don’t want to leave anyone out.

I’d also like to give a shout out to our “State QSO Party Challenge” participants. For those that don’t know, participating in multiple state QSO parties, and submitting a log, brings the opportunity for more awards and wall paper. There’s a link in the sidebar if you want to know more about it. Oh, and be sure to get on the air Saturday the 26^th for SCQP. You can put your station through the paces to work out any last minute bugs, and say hello to our neighbors to the south.

Be sure to work the “DUKE” spelling bee and NC4QP bonus stations. The one that gives out a report from HARnett will be me and Marc.

Let me know if you have any questions. See everyone in the pileups!

73 Marty W4MY

NCQP Chairman