All scores are claimed scores unless otherwise noted. CWops CWT Sessions Worked: 82 January: ARRL RTTY Roundup (Final Score) • QSOs: 1037 • Mults: 84 • Score: 86,184 • Op Time: 19:55 Exactly the same number of domestic mults as last year but 10 few DX mults, so an overall lower score. Confusion around the off time requirement abounds and may have kept me from winning the plaque for the Central Division. Still good enough for a top ten finish, 1st place Indiana and 2nd place in the Central Division. January: NAQP CW (Final Score) • QSOs: 722 • Mults: 172 • Score: 124,184 • Op Time: 9:30 Fourth place for Indiana stations and 14th in the Central Division. Things went well and I ended up with a great score despite the lousy sunspot situation. The ability to snag some precious mults on 15 and 10 made the difference. January: NAQP SSB (FInal Score) • QSOs: 297 • Mults: 118 • Score: 35,046 • Op Time: 6:55 Stayed in the chair a bit longer than is typical for me for a SSB contest. February: ARRL DX CW • QSOs: 238 • Mults: 112 • Score: 79,968 • Op Time: 5:00 Operated in order to log as many CWops members in as many countries as I could. An added bonus was great prop on 80 and 160 Friday night, allowing me to work 15 new Challenge slots there, plus one on 40m. Decided to call CQ late Sunday morning on 20m and quickly got a taste of the fresh meat phenomena, challenging my pileup skills to the max. February: NAQP RTTY (Final Score) • QSOs: 463 • Mults: 110 • Score: 50,930 • Op Time: 10 hours First place Indiana and 6th place Central Division. This running was a challenge due to the band conditions. Also, a recently-discovered interference problem between my two SO2R stations reduced my effectiveness. The lack of propagation on 10 and 15 reduced both QSO count and multipliers. February: CQ WPX RTTY @ K9CT • QSO’s: 3,549 • Points: 9,806 • Mult’s: 980 • Score: 9,609,880 Comment: Guest op at K9CT. Other ops included AI9T ND9G K9CT KT9L N7US. This score was way down from previous years, primarily due to lack of propagation and thus few QSOs on 10 and 15. It was still a lot of fun, as always. Based on raw scores, we finished 2nd in the world (out of 27 entries) and #1 North America in the M2 category. March: WIQP • QSOs: 42 • Mults: 26 • Score: 3,120 • Op Time: 1 hour A paltry effort on my part, compared to previous years. March: VAQP • QSOs: 66 • Mults: 34 • Score: 4,488 First time to work this contest. Why not? April: FQP • QSOs: 72 • Mults: 32 • Score: 9,216 Operated this contest to test my mobile setup for the INQP, to take place the following week. May: INQP (Final Score) • QSOs: 483 • Mults: 65 • Score: 63,050 • Op Time: 7.5 hours A mobile effort, activating 12 counties. I operated 5.5 hours from the start of the contest, took a break for dinner and to attend a social event, then operated the last 2 hours. 80m was usable from the very beginning but very few stations were working that band, and 40m was long from the very beginning. Thus, I made relatively few QSOs with other Indiana stations, which is typical of my mobile experience. The XYL graciously drove for the first 4 hours, I operated solo from 2 county lines for the next 1.5 hours and I operated only while stopped for the last 2 hours. which included two other county lines WX was good and the bands were quiet but there did not seem to be a lot of signals on the bands. Comments from other ops suggested prop was poor with heavy QSB. The 4 county line operations helped to boost my score by quite a bit compared to a similar operation the previous year. May: 7QP • QSOs: 93 • Mults: 40 • Score: 11,160 An INQP companion QSO party. This score represents a significant increase from my 2018 score. For the first time in my recollection, some 7QP stations declined to work me when I move to a new county. A couple of them worked me in the first couple of counties and THEN started to tell me I was a dupe. May: NEWQP • QSOs: 114 • Mults: 34 • Score: 7,752 An INQP companion QSO party. This score also represents a significant increase from my 2018 score. The NEWQP runs until Sunday night so I operated some on Sunday, which what makes this score bigger than last year’s As is typically the case, many of the NEW stations don’t care about the Indiana county. When I send the exchange, they hear “IN” and are sending my their TU while I am still sending the county abbreviation. May: DEQP • QSOs: 8 • Mults: 2 • Score: 640 I have not bothered to track this contest in the past, and (based on memory) I don’t thinke I every worked a station that was working this contest But I worked a few this year so here are the estimated results. The estimated score includes a 2X power multiplier. The 2018 results only listed 12 DE stations so I think it’s fair to say this event lacks critical mass. May: ARQP • QSOs: 9 • Mults: 8 • Score: 312 Operated the contest to test the radio for something or other. Ended up with the 1st Place Indiana certificate. June: FT4 Mock Contest • QSOs: 71 • Mults: 26 Sections and 11 DXCC • Score: 2627 Wanted to try the new FT4 mode. The 7.5 second interval makes everything move much more quickly than FT8 which is a plus. It still remains to be seen if the mode offers enough operator discretion to make it a viable contest mode. June: FD with W9LDX 1A (Final Score) • QSOs: 1,237 • Score: 7,348 plus bonus points First Place Indiana, 3rd Place Central Division, 7th Place overall in the 1A category. The threat of rain loomed large and we decided to set up the operating tent under the sheltering eaves of the Ross House. The rain never materialized in any significant way and everything was dry from the start of the event until tear down. Being directly in front of the house gave us some lighting benefits in the late evening hours of Saturday but may also have increased the number of insects drawn to the tent. Rates for the early hours seemed slow compared to previous years and, by the end of the event, our QSOs total was significantly off from previous years. Despite this disappointment, we had a lot of fun which, at the fundamental level, is the prime directive. FT8 also proved to be a disappointment. I ran FT8 off and on from 4 am to 7 am Sunday morning and my CW rates during the same hours were always higher. (Ross House photo de N9LJX.) July: RAC Canada Day • QSOs: 245 • Points: 1,428 • Mults: 16 • Score: 22,848 Two fewer QSOs than my previous best. But, a higher percentage were VEs and I had two more mults so this was my all-time best in this contest. July: NAQP RTTY (Final Score) • QSOs: 680 • Mults: 177 • Score: 120,360 • Op Time: 10 hours Expectations were low as the contest started based on recent operating experiences. OMG! The yield on 10 and 15 was surprisingly high. Perhaps not as great as the heady days of solar maximum but coupled with my making good operating choices along the way and operating the full 10 hours, I ended up with my best NAQP RTTY ever. Activity on 80 was a disappointment but, other than that, it was a great day. 396 QSOs on the run radio and 295 on the S&P radio. Best news: my SO2R interference problem seems to be solved! August: NAQP CW (Final Score) • QSOs: 747 • Mults: 155 • Score: 115,785 • Op Time: 9 hours The high bands did not yield as many QSOs or Mults as they did in the July NAQP RTTY but there were a few stations to be worked on 15 and then the lower bands turned out to be pretty decent. 765 QSOs on the run radio and 550 on the S&P radio. August: NAQP SSB (Final Score) • QSOs: 275 • Mults: 62 • Score: 17,050 • Op Time: 7hours Seven hours of tedium. I thought things were going well but when I went to 80 there was very little there (16 QSOs) and I made exactly 0 QSOs on 160. Thanks, band conditions and summer contesting. Still managed to beat my score from a year ago. September: CWOpen Session 1 • QSOs: 213 • Mults: 162 • Score: 34,506 • Op Time: 3 hours September: CWOpen Session 2 • QSOs: 226 • Mults: 165 • Score: 37,290 • Op Time: 3 hours This contest is usually on Labor Day weekend which is a conflict for me. It was a week later this year, which allowed me to put in a more significant effort. September: CQ WW RTTY @ K9CT • QSOs: 2,807 • Points: 4,861 • Zones: 88 • Countries: 191 • S/P: 191 • Score: 2,352,724 Operating with AI9T, K9NR, N4RR, N9CK and host K9CT. The station took a lightning hit about 6 hours before the contest start and Craig had to scramble to get everything working, and these efforts continued throughout the weekend. And then lightning QRN dominated much of the rest of the weekend. A significant percentage of QSOs were 1 pointers which also hurt our score. Still had fun. September: Washington QSO Party • QSOs: 77 • Points: 204 • Mults: 24 • Score: 5,896 October: Illinois QSO Party • QSOs: 68 • Points: 125 • Mults: 42 • Score: 5,250 November: SS CW • QSOs: 682 • Mults: 83 • Score: 113,212 My first sweep in several years. This one might hold up to log checking. Was also a very early sweep, coming early Sunday morning. Which reduced some of the incentive to stay in the chair during the Sunday afternoon doldrums. I worked VY1AAA at 2242z Saturday night (my QSO 114) which I think is the earliest I ever snagged that one. I had already worked PR and VI which have been rare the last couple of years, and NNY showed up shortly after the VY1. When I went to bed Saturday night I needed only NL and EWA, which I worked at 1229z Sunday morning, so I had my Sweep and that's as early as I can ever remember it. Unfortunately I had an evening commitment Sunday night so I missed the last 4 hours of the contest. Otherwise, I am sure I would have achieved a personal best. Looking at 3830 scores, it appears that a significant number of low power stations got the sweep. But, as always, there is a matter of luck and persistence involved. November: SS CW • QSOs: 245 • Mults: 73 • Score: 35,770 I thought all the bands were long for the entire contest. I only heard one other Indiana station and that was the Purdue club station which is only 6 miles from me. Heard 1 Wisconsin station and only a couple of Illinois stations.

N9

Canada Day

NAQP RTTY

NAQP SSB