Virginia QSO Party

I had only two goals for this year's QSO Party. First, my goal was to beat my own score from last year. My second goal was to have lots of fun!!! I was able to accomplish both goals with no problem.

This year I had 503 QSOs and 123 multipliers for a total score of 68,019. That beat last years score nicely. I was somewhat disappointed that I did not hear tons of Virginia stations on. But, I was pleased to hear a number of mobile stations working hard and I was able to snag a few new counties because of them. I did add a few new counties to my totals for Virginia, but I noticed that a few counties I worked last year were absent. So, I guess it was a trade-off. I always enjoy this contest because I love a good pileup and I was able to generate a couple of them during this one even though the band conditions were not the greatest. Larry (W3MGL) was not able to be in this one because of his wife's health, so it was not the same with him not being there. I have grown used to working him at least once during this contest and so I was a little sad that we broke with tradition, but I am well aware that wives are priorities!! I was not able to work all that I wanted to, but I did get a fair amount of time in (at least enough to top last year's score).

I was encouraged to hear a number of our local club members in the contest and to work them. I even worked one of our local guys (AI4QQ) on 20 meters!!! So, I know of at least 3 of the local club members who did a little in the contest because I worked them. I hope that a few more were sleeper entries.

I was able to have a fairly good run to the west coast on 20 meters and I wound up working a total of 43 states. I even had a guy from Alaska join in the pile-up! I found that 80 meters was the key to Virginia. There was some guys on 40 meters, but the bulk of my Virginia contacts were on 80. Unfortunately, since the band conditons were not the greatest, I was able to work Virginia, but some other contacts got lost in the QRN of the approaching storm and the QRM from a few guys who don't believe in giving anything more that 1.5 kHz spacing between us. It was not very helpful to have to ask people to repeat their exchange until the offending station took a breath long enough for them to come into the clear. I know that is the nature of contesting, but there were a few that were not listening or asking if the frequency was in use prior to calling CQ.

All in all, it was a lot of fun being the hunted and to be able to give out James City County. Larry and I were first and second place in the county last year. Since Larry was not in the contest, it will be interesting to see who gets the certificates.

This contest is always a good warmup for WPX.