I did a little pencil scratching on Friday and determined that if I got all five multipliers and a total of 36 QSOs on the weekend, I'd tip my point total over the 25k threshold into Platinum, overshooting by a mere 4 points. As expected, NH was a struggle, but when the op I'd worked on 20m moved down to 40m an hour later, I pounced! That done, I just worked whatever came. The salmon were running on 15m and Texans were numerous as always. When I hit 36 on Sunday afternoon I turned off the rig and took a nap.
That put me in 4th place for a minute, but Mike W7LG leapfrogged me with a solid showing. So two new Platinums!

Since I live in NJ, I solely participated in the NJQP. Was on for about 6-hours and got 104 Q's. I'm trying to come in first place for QRP in my county. You where my #89. Unfortunately for me I will only be able to work the NYQP on 10/19. We will be cruising for the weekend of 10/11&12 and attending a football game on 10/20.

A fairly status quo weekend for me, except that my QSO count for Texas was way down compared to last year for some reason. Conditions were OK but not great.

I spent a few hours on Saturday trying to work the NH QSO party as an in-state participant (QRP). I didn't hear a single other NH station. The real activity for NH is in the New England QSO party I guess

Well, that was an active party weekend! Except for NH there were stations to work every time I had a few minutes to get on the air.
I feel fortunate to have gotten all five multipliers. Four of them were a sure thing, but I had my doubts about getting NH. Saturday evening was my only chance, and a couple NH CW operators came through, an hour apart from each other. What a treat to discover that my 2nd NH QSO was with none other than fellow NAQCC member Jock N1JI. Thanks! Like Brent WT4U I also did my math before the weekend to see what it took to swing into the Gold award category for the SQP Challenge. According to my calculations gaining the NH multiplier was a bonus that put me into the Gold with room to spare.

The TX, IA, NJ, and WA state QSO parties had plenty of participants...if only I had more time in the chair! The NHQP was a challenge. I heard no one for the longest time. I saw K1RX pop up on the RBN on 20m but he was too close to hear me...at least there was an active station. A little later I heard him on 40m and logged him. I listened to him for a while and when there was a lag in callers I asked if he would QSY to 80m. He responded he would later. His later wasn't that much later and I logged him on 80m...mission accomplished...thanks to K1RX! Thanks to all the ops that have me in their logs...great fun!

Got lucky and got the minimum two QSOs about five minutes apart in the first hour. Found one more Q later for good measure. My FD operation is 1B-battery from Shelby County KY, 100% QRP CW. The forecast heat may curtail my operation just a bit this year.

I was hoping to work WV on 20m to complete my Worked All States 20m CW (and all QRP), but it didn't happen. I could just barely hear a few but couldn't copy. So I made all of my 8 contacts (1 more than last year) on 40m and 80m. Maybe next year!

WVQP - Got on early to try and get the multiplier. That took a few minutes because there wasn't anyone on that I could hear. After that, I checked back in throughout the QP to try and get a few more QSOs. Ended up with 12 QSOs working everyone that I could hear except for a few stations on 20m. Not a lot of activity heard from my station.
I'll probably do some FD operating from my home station...CW...QRP. Nothing serious...maybe go battery using my K1. Too much going on around the homestead for a serious effort....

Well, I was pretty disappointed with making only 10 QSOs but then when I looked at other scores on 3830 I realized that even the "big guns" only managed to work 15 or so CW stations in this event. I run my K3 at 5.0 watts into a fan dipole that is about 25 ft up in my attic. Still I got answers on the first call mostly.

Not one to rack up points on. The three stations I worked were the only ones I heard.

It was kind of a "barbell" for me. The bands were good the first 2-3 hours, then horrible for awhile, then good again the last 2-3 hours. I'm not sure if the slump was the typical summer mid-day propagation, or there was a solar flare involved. In any event, I ended up with almost the exact same QSO count as last year.

I’m pleased to have done a little more than the minimum. That said it was still a bit tough in a couple of ways. First, the QSO parties compete with other weekend activities and KY is on the same weekend as a popular ME hamfest. At least I only needed to worry about KY when I got home. Second, was band conditions again. 20M between KY and ME was strange on Saturday evening varying between nearly dead and mediocre. My overall goal is still to get at least the minimum two contacts in all of the remaining parties.

I didn't have much time to work this one, but I was able to squeeze in an hour or so in between other activities. All of my QSOs were on 40 meters and most were in the late afternoon.

I knew I wasn't going to be home for this one and I debated whether or not to bring a radio. The radio won so I packed up my K1, 40m EFHW, and other accessories and headed out to my destination. I was in the Rochester , NY area and had a lot less time to operate than I thought...that's a whole different story. I started to set up my station at about 2300Z with only 2 hours left in the KYQP. With the EFHW up at about 20 feet, I made my 1st QSO at 2326Z, the 2nd at 2327Z...cool...relax....make a few more. Ended up with 8 in the log, including KU4A and WE5P - both QRPers - and had the station down by the end of the party. Lots of fun and the grandkids gave me high fives for getting 27 for 27!

Propagation on Saturday afternoon on 20m was a wipe-out for me. I faintly heard a few KY stations. They couldn't hear me. However, NT4HI, the warship museum station in Charleston SC was blasting in at 599+. Go figure. I finally got one KY station on 40m in the evening and no more because I'd miscalculated the party end time :-( I now have 4 QSO parties where I got only one QSO.

One of the tough things about the State QSO Party Challenge is balancing it with other weekend activities. This past weekend, my wife, N3OA, and I activated a park as part of a statewide Maine POTA Day. Conditions weren't good enough for us to hear and work any AR QSO Party stations from the park, but I did get 2 QRP CW contacts after I got back home. It was a nice ham radio Saturday!

ARQP - Spaceweather wasn't conducive for propagation between here and AR. It was slow going throughout the party. I made about half as many QSOs as I made last year. I'm happy the AR ops that I contacted were able to hear me. Part of the fun is the challenge.

ARQP started slowly with only a few AR stations heard but a lot of stations replying. Eventually things calmed down, and I could get through. A couple multiple-county stations, with very good ops, made for a lot of multipliers. Despite other plans for the afternoon and evening, I was able to beat my score from last year.

Thanks to mobile station K5CM who operated from the intersection of AR county lines, I was able to get three counties and my AR multiplier with one QSO. Later I was able to catch a couple more QSOs, but it's a relief to be assured of the multiplier.

Canadian Prairies was frustrating, but still educational. VE5MX must be quite a station. It was a good loud 559 signal when everyone else I could hear was nearly buried in the noise. When I saw the signal come up on the panadapter, I thought "no way that's CP QSO party", but it was. Only one call and it was in the log. It's still hard to believe that signal from SK to ME in near RF blackout conditions!

CPQP - Really tough conditions. Found VE5MX on 15m. About an hour later, I found him again on 20m. About 4 hours later, VE6BBP was found on 20m. Their signals were about S3-4, so I'm really happy they were able to hear me. I heard VE5MX on 40m later that evening but I wasn't making the trip...I never even got a di-di-da-da-di-dit! Thank goodness for the RBN as I was checking that throughout the party for any signs of activity.

CPQP. It was certainly a rough one. I spent a lot of hours listening to get my 3 QSOs. When I did call a station, they seemed to copy my 5 watt signal with no problems. Good ears! I think most CP ops may have just assumed conditions were bad and skipped this one.

At the outset I thought I'm not going to get my multiplier on this one. Then after a few tries VE5MX came back to me on 20m. All told at some point I heard 4 different CP stations from the 3 provinces, but none of the others ever heard me.

Found some Delawares in the last two hours so have still not been shutout. Great band conditions overall. Indiana really came alive. Nice QSO count improvements in all parties for me.

First of all let me say my activity in most QSO parties is usually just for a few hours and these past weekends were no different. I have an Elecraft K3 and use a fan dipole antenna in my attic at about 25 ft up.
I spent 2 hrs on the FL QP netting 28 Qs and 20 mults. All 20M and all QRP (5W) CW.
I worked the 7QP and IN QP on Saturday only for about 2.5 hours total. The 7QP yielded 21 Qs and 17 mults, more than half on 15 M and the rest on 20M. From Indiana I only worked 9 stations in 8 mults. All 20M, 5W CW again. I never heard any New England or Delaware stations.
As a general comment, I find QSO Parties to be fun and often recommend them to the new hams I encounter that are just getting started in HF ham radio.

I know there was FL contest, and I worked it. I checked my score, and it was down quite a bit compared to last year, but I don't remember why.
I was worried about finding DE stations, and I had to do a lot of searching to find them, but I was able to find a few. 1-land, 7-land, and IN were all well represented again this year.

FLQP - Lots of activity and decent propagation.
7QP - Was hoping to get some new states on 80m...I couldn't stay awake!
NEQP - Was hoping for some new states on the high bands...no propagation!
DEQP - Was hoping for some QSOs on the high bands...no propagation!
INQP - Lots of activity on 40 and 80.
While tuning through the bands during the 7QP, NEQP, DEQP, and INQP, I was able to work 3G0YA on 20, 15, and 10 for an ATNO on 3 bands...radio is like a box of chocolates!

Caught a 10m opening in the 7QP, and several AZ stations were booming in here to Ontario. After working one of them it was a thrill to hear him right afterward work Ron VE3SIF, also QRP. If my scores appear low for a weekend with 4 SQPs, it's because that also happened to be the weekend that spring sprung in all its glory in eastern Ontario. Being outdoors won over radio :-)

Just barely landed that 2nd DE to keep the multiplier streak going. As I've been neglecting my QSO count and watching my pace slide lower, the multipliers give me hope that I can put in another heroic effort or two and climb back up.

NEQP - Worked every station that I heard. Not a lot of activity but I was able to get the much coveted multiplier!
MIQP - A lot of activity. Seemed like there was someone new to work when I had some BIC time.
ONQP - A lot of activity. I even worked some of the bonus stations.
QCQP - Propagation wasn't the greatest. Signals were weak early in the party. Later, signals picked up but they were few and far between. I even called CQ QC and self-spotted on the sponsor's website to try and drum up some contacts...I got one call. It was still fun and I managed to get enough Qs for the multiplier.

20m had much less QRN here this week than last, which made hunting for QSOs much more enjoyable. For NE I was able to work 2 of the 3 stations I heard. I attended a motorcycle safety class most of Sunday, so I was only able to work the last couple of hours of the QC contest. Fortunately several QC stations were spotting themselves, and I was able to work them all near the end of the contest. MI and ON were very active and easy to work from here in OH on 40m.

Well, actually got QC this year as I found a guy on a county line on 20m Sunday morning. The guy was in the mud then all-of-a-sudden came up about 30 dB for an easy QSO. So I have not been shut out yet this year. For the other three that weekend, I saw a slight improvement over last year.

It's always a treat in an SQP to hear a familiar callsign and make contact with one of you fellow NAQCCers. I had that chance in the ONQP with Brent WT4U and with Ron VE3SIF. Got skunked again in the Quebec party. Unless they're operating on 40m or 80m I won't hear them. A new idea popped into my head. I live less than an hour's drive from Quebec, so next year I should drive up there and operate in-province. I'm bound to get my multiplier that way :-)

I second the idea of Don going to Quebec next year so there will be someone operating that event! The only QC station I heard was VE2FK straddling a line for the 2-fer. With that, I got all my multipliers, though not a lot of points. I could have racked up some Michigan, but I spent more of my shack time this weekend chasing DX in the CQMM event.

I was happy to hear so many ops participating in the [ONQP] contest, not just Ontario stations. Saturday conditions were great; Sunday not so much. I was running an FTDX-10 at 5 watts into an end fed half wave (15, 40 and 80 meters) and a G5RV Jr for 20 meters.

We finally had a break in the lousy weather around here so had to divert away from radios to do yard work. My QSO count in all three parties was lower than last year, significantly lower for Missouri. Band conditions were not exactly stellar.

MSQP - Heard 9 stations, only worked 8. One on 80m couldn't hear me. The spotting page was sporadic for me. It seems like that spotting page for the QSO Parties doesn't work well for me. After actually turning the VFO, I often resort to RBN and DX Summit to find stations.
MOQP - Lots of activity. The mobiles did a great job hearing me. About one-quarter of my QSOs were with stations on county lines. Those contacts add up fast.
LAQP - Heard 2 stations, worked 2 stations. Never saw any others spotted using the technique mentioned earlier.

It seemed that prep for viewing the solar eclipse totality on Monday dominated my weekend. A granddaughter flew in for that occasion, so entertaining her took priority. I did sneak in a bit of radio time, got my multiplier in two parties, but was one Q shy for the LAQP. I generally check DXWatch for which stations might be on, but I'm looking to expand my repertoire of tricks.

LA was tough going and it was a relief to finally land the 2nd. MS stations were reasonably well represented, but MO was everywhere. I could have run up a much better score with more time in the shack.

VAQP - Not a lot of time during the second day. I liked the later op time Saturday evening local time for 80m QSOs. Mobiles did a great job copying my station. Serial numbers added some challenge to the exchange. 73, Will, NQ2W

Managed to double my QSO count from last year. But it took a lot of BIC (butt in chair) time, and I had to give up a couple hockey games to do it. Anything for science!

I considered running up to VA for this one, but it's a long drive and I had too much going on. Beat last year's 52 by 2. If they'd have kept it going another hour or two I might have doubled that, as the real action for me was on 40 and 80m in the evenings and a good chunk of my Sunday Qs were when I was able to get back to the shack for the final 15 minutes of the event.

Since I am in NNJ, 40 Meters was only the band for me. I occasionally went to 80 Meters but heard nothing there. Unfortunately having only one band to work, once you have worked those stations, that's it. Many stations parked themselves on 40 and did not move.
I did notice there were several Virginia stations moving from county to county. I did not work them again as I used the common rule of work once per band.

OK and ID were difficult to reach from NJ.

Idaho becomes the first contest this year that I had fewer QSOs than last year, 9 vs. 10. But otherwise I am well ahead of last year's QSO count. Love those sunspots.

This was a tough weekend for me. Storms rolled through on Saturday with some lightning close by for a while so that was lost time. Also, ID gave me a lot of problems. All of the ID stations I heard on my vertical were just above the noise and most with pileups. I did outlast pileups a couple of times to make the required two contacts. One thing for sure is that hunting for contacts at QRP power levels is teaching me patience. It also makes the victories pretty sweet!

OKQP - Like most QPs I was in and out of the shack when I had a few minutes. Lots of OK participants. The mobiles did a great job!
IDQP - More than doubled my QSO count from last year. Worked 3 of the 4 bonus stations. Never heard a dit or a dah from K7P.
WIQP - Seemed like good participation from WI folks. Mobiles did an awesome job!

Conditions on 20m were challenging here, which made ID especially difficult. 10m was much better and provided most of my ID QSOs. OK was about the same as last year, but my WI count was way down. Fortunately 40m to WI picked up in the late afternoon. There seemed to be more big pileups than usual, and patience was definitely a virtue.

I worked all three SQP's. I didn't work too many stations from Idaho. But OK, & WI was very active at my QTH. It was a challenge to differentiate each state with my desktop logger.
Looking forward to the VA QP this weekend, and making a move up from my current ranking.

It was "casual" operating for me this weekend. But the thrill was working ID--3000 km from my QTH--on three bands, 15, 20, and 40. The magic of working stations at that distance at QRP power to a low dipole never ceases to amaze and thrill me.

I wasn't getting ID until I tweaked the RBN settings and chased them that way. Didn't get much radio time after making sure I had my multipliers, but WI stations were plentiful any time I spun the dial. Finally sat down Sunday evening and made half my QSOs in the last 30 minutes of the WI Party.

This was another weekend in which I couldn't devote full time due to having to take advantage of a rare break in our rainy weather for outside work. Net results were completely different from last year. ND was a total FAIL last year, this year I heard a couple Sunday morning. (Thank you, radio gods). Last year NM was just a couple stations, this year they were all over the bands. Having to leave early Sunday meant my GA totals were way down from last year.

GA Q's were in abundance this weekend. ND and NM not so much. I was concerned about qualifying for ND, as I only heard (2) Calls from ND. Worked them both but kudos to AI0Y as he was the only call except for K0AJW, that I work on 40, 20, and 15! AI0Y was heard throughout the weekend. Next week I will be on a hiking trip in the Catskills NY from Friday to Monday. So I will miss those valuable multipliers. Have fun, everyone. Catch you on the next QSO Party weekend.

I worked the GA, ND and NW Qps this weekend, but only made one CW contact each in ND and NM. I just didn't find any other stations in those states. Not sure why. I heard many more GA stations. I submitted my logs and posted my scores to boost the number of NAQCC participants, but remember there is a minimum of 2 contacts each for QP Challenge credit.

As always, living in Ga., the GA QSO Party is a lot of fun. I have gone QRPp for all of my contesting and even operating in general most of the time ,but I have always used 5W in the past for this contest. I couldn't decide whether to use 500mw or 1 watt , but decided to go with 1w really not knowing what to expect. I ran the entire contest except for about 15 contacts. The first hour was totally amazing to me for 1w and I logged 61 contacts during that hour with 26 of them in the first 10 minutes! Either the first or second contact spotted me and it was pretty wild for 1w! This was on a 30,20 and 15m fan dipole at about 30 feet on 20m.
Looking at the solar numbers, I really thought I would make a lot of contacts on 15 and 10 m. SFI was around 160 both days. K index was 1-2 and the A index stayed low. When both of those bands get shorter during the middle of the day , I thought I would mop up, especially on 10 m out west , but it was not to be! I think I made less than 10 contacts on both bands for the entire contest. Another local ham with better antennas than I had the same experience. I don't know if both bands were extremely long or what?
I quit about one hour before the party ended on Saturday night with 288 q's and I thought I should be able to surpass 400 q's , but I was wrong! It was very slow for me on Sunday and because of that I really didn't operate that much . It was hard to keep my butt in the chair so I would operate for a while, do other things and finally try again. I only made 67 contacts on Sunday.
I hope everyone is having fun participating in all the great QSO Parties this year!!
Rig was an Icom 705 with a LP-100A Digital Vector RF Wattmeter to make sure my power setting was accurate! A 40m doublet, 20m doublet and the fan dipole!

NM, ND, GA: I started the weekend with high SWR on my antenna but was able to track it down to a broken feedline wire at the balun. I was worried about qualifying in the ND contest because last year I only heard one station. This year, however, there were two very active stations on CW. I wasn't able to hear nor work any NM stations until the last hour of the contest when the bands finally cooperated with better propagation and a bit less QRN. GA was much more active than ND and NM. A couple roaming stations provided many welcome multipliers.

GAQP - Lots of activity when I sat down at the radio. The mobiles had some big pile-ups on them. Some I could break, some I couldn't.
NDQP - Only heard AI0Y and K0AJW. I'm happy they tried multiple bands and they could hear me when I called.
NMQP - The mobiles did a really great job. They accounted for more than half of my QSOs!

My favourite "catch" of the SQPs this weekend was working Alan KR4AE in the GAQP. It's always fun to hear, and work, a fellow NAQCCer! And to learn later that he was operating QRPp 1 watt. Amazing! The 2nd favourite event for me was catching two ND stations in the evening, after not hearing a peep from ND when I was on the air in the afternoon.

Happy not to get skunked again on ND. Looks like many ops were able to at least get the multiplier this year, so a big improvement all around. NM was also improved. Just like with VA, I could have used some more evening time in the shack to put up a decent GA score as it's too close for 20m, particularly with the bands long.

Band conditions between OH and AL weren't good early on but 20m became marginally better later in the afternoon. I was then able to eke out a few QSOs. I had high hopes for 40m later on, but it was not to be. Fortunately I was able to keep my streak alive.

Last Saturday was a mixed bag day for me. The weather was good to get outside and complete my to-do list while trying to get on the air and log a few ALQP contacts. Both goals were accomplished. The activity on air was not that great at my QTH. Was able to work the guys running frequencies and that was about it. I was even able to get on the air to activate a POTA park near me as a tune up for the FOBB the next day. BTW, band conditions for the FOBB was terrible. All signals I could hear were way down. Solar activities are way up compromising the bands. Unfortunately, the upcoming Saturdays in August are busy for the family. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get on the air for the other State QP's.

ALQP - As usual, in and out of the shack to check activity. Listened at the start and was able to make a few QSOs relatively quickly. Most of my BIC time was near the end of the party. WW5X did a great job picking me out of the noise. Thanks to all the AL stations that added me to their log!

When I first got on the air I got a bit concerned. Noise level was high, and I wasn't hearing any AL stations breaking through on 20m. Finally though I did manage a couple QSOs, and later in the evening caught a couple more on 40m.

Landed two strong stations on 40m while most of the action was jumping over my head on the higher bands. I planned on getting back on in the evening when short hops opened up, but a family emergency took me out of the shack. Grab those multipliers early.

Obviously, after hitting the parties pretty hard the last two years, with the exception of our GA QSO Party, I have op'ed very little in them this year. The results of the GA QSO Party were released a few days ago and I lost to the top QRP cw op score by 15 contacts which I was happy with due to the fact I used QRPp , running one watt. Actually, WC4X, had the top score and is not only a local ham, but a close friend! About 95% of my operating this year has been at one watt or less, which is a ton of fun with simple wire antennas. It's actually easy and much more successful than most realize!
Since we were having a rare weekend here in the North Ga. Mtns without thunderstorms , and nothing else going on, I decided to op some in the Ohio and Kansas parties which I really enjoyed. Both 40 and 80m were really quiet for an August night which was really nice! 20m was good to Kansas on both days for what little time I spent operating off and on. I did use 5 watts, though.
I see the TN party is this weekend and it's the same old problem of being too close except for 40 and 80m . I had fun last weekend and would like to op in it , but we have a 50% chance of thunderstorms so I will just have to play it by ear.
Tnx so much to Don and everyone that does so much to make this wonderful Club possible!

We scheduled a vacation trip to fall between the MD and the HI/KS/OH weekends, in the hope that I could work them all, and it panned out. I was worried about HI in particular as I've only been able to work stations there on 10m. Fortunately the band gods cooperated, as did a few very good HI CW ops. Most of the HI activity seemed to be on 15m. I could hear a few stations, but they couldn't hear me.

MDC - In and out of the shack, as usual. Didn't hear too many stations. I believe I worked everyone that I heard.
HQP-KSQP-OHQP - My nephew, Greg, KD2GW, and I were primitive camping on Stillwater Reservoir in the Town of Webb, Herkimer County, NY during the HQP, KSQP, and OHQP. We shot one end of a multi-band end-fed up into a tree about 60 feet high. The feedpoint was only a couple of feet off the beach. Greg graciously let me use his new KX2 to play around in the QPs.
I didn't stay up on Friday night to try and work any HQP QSOs at the start of the QP but I did wake up early Saturday morning to see if I could catch someone on 40m. No joy. :(
At 1400 UTC I started listening for some KSQP stations on 20m. There were a lot of 1X1 calls and I was able to log a few.
At 1600 UTC I started listening for some OHQP stations on 40m. I was happy to log a few of the stations that I heard.
Now, I start looking for some HQP stations...found some on 15m...pile-ups...oh no! Lots of calls...logged KH6TU. QSY to 10m...heard KH6LC...pile-up...oh no! Lots and lots of calls...logged him. Phew!
Late Sunday afternoon local time, I decided to check and see if I could get a few more HQP stations in the log. Heard KH6TU on 10m...one call...logged him. QSY'd to 15m and heard KH6LC...a couple calls and a couple fills...logged him. What a difference a day makes. Super happy to make 4 HQP QSOs from the shores of Stillwater Reservoir using 5 watts!
Kudos to all of the stations that heard me...I'm sure you carried the bulk of the load...
Oh yeah, we caught some nice smallmouth bass, as well!

MD/DC party: I was caught sleeping on this one. Simply forgot to write it down in my calendar, so missed it altogether.
KS, OH, HI parties: I operated only from my home QTH, so only used my low 20ft apex inverted Vee. Ohio stations only on 40m, KS on 20m daytime and 40m nighttime. Got up at 0400h local time two mornings to catch HI on 40m, but the couple stations that I heard never heard me. But to my surprise KH6LC heard me on 15m on Sunday, so I caught one. Called two more HI stations on 15, but no luck.

MD/DC: Blanked on this until Sunday... too late. To think of the effort I've spent on difficult multiipliers and I lost this one for not sitting down and turning on the rig.
HI/KS/OH: I should have grabbed a lot more Ohio on Saturday while wading through all of them trying to pick up the KS and HI multipliers. Kansas was a lot more active (or just easier to find on Sunday).
First HI QSO Party with the 6/10/15 dipole. Went from wondering if both stations really heard me to being disappointed I didn't grab that 7th callsign. I'd switch back to the 80m EFHW and couldn't hear them at all.
Best was Heather AH7RF, an astromer with a comet named after her who, based on her QRZ page may have been QRP as well.

Last weekend's contests were a mixed bag for me. My CO QSO count was much lower than the previous year, while my TN count was quite a bit higher. I enjoy the name/state format of the CO contest. Trading 599 reports seems rather useless to me.
I heard a lot of TN activity on 20m, but I couldn't hear the TN side of the conversations. I made all of my TN contacts on 40m where I seemed to have a direct pipeline in that my tiny signal was able to break through many of the pileups. That was fun and not my usual experience.

It is always great working my friends in TN

CO - Challenging conditions at my QTH. I'm happy that my QRP station was heard by some COQP stations.
TN - Decent conditions and plenty of activity. The mobiles did a great job hearing my QRP station.

CO - It was tough slugging during the day to work CO stations. I heard a few, but they never heard me.
TN - Glad to hear so many stations in TN the couple times I could get on the air. Was able to squeeze out 14. Bingo would have been to work Brent WT4U, but we must not have been on the air at the same time.

Went out to a nearby POTA park to take double advantage of being hunted in the TN QSO Party. I had to pick a wildlife management area on the opening day of dove season, but between getting shot at and rained on I made a few Qs. Got on again in the evening and kept my butt in the chair to run up the score and beat last year. After watching my projected score steadily sag, this boosts me into coasting range of Platinum.