I worked my first TN station during the first minute of the contest and the second within another minute, both on 40 meters. It was nice to have the multiplier in the bag within two minutes. I then just worked off and on as I felt like it. I worked a few on 80 later in the evening but all of my other QSOs were on 40.

I guess there are not a lot of NFL football fans in TN, as it was opening day for most of the NFL teams. So, I watched my pathetic New York Football Giants play a miserable game. Got so fed up I went on the air to work this Contest. Watched the 4 PM games as well as some of the Sunday night game.
I worked mostly 40M using my EFHW and QCX. I managed to work all the TN Op's I heard. I was surprised there was a lack of op's especially in the late hours of the contest. At least at my NJ QTH.
Looking forward to 9/20 where there are five (5) QP's, including the NJ QP. I'll be busy with the NJ QP, but I'll be sure to at least get the multipliers for the other QP's.

Wasn't able to do a long, or remote, effort this year for my home state, but did get on a few times and did a brisk business on 40 & 80m.

Yes, good to see Steve, WD4CFN, posting a very good score! I look forward to seeing more scores by Steve!
TN was fun as they all are . For the first time in several months, 80m was pretty quiet here, but there were not a lot of stations in TN on that band, which is my bread and butter for close parties!
Boy, the weekend of 9/20 is going to be a very busy weekend! All the best to everyone!

Both NC and SC are a challenge due to their proximity to Ga. It's a pretty much 2 band party for me and having to wait until early evening before any participants start doing 80 m. So, it's 40m or bust during most of the party. I was able to work about 4 NC stations on 20 m, who were very weak, of course. I was able to beat my 2023 scores by just a little. But neighboring QSO Parties is something that everyone around the Country experiences during the entire season. I hope to participate in 2 weeks.

For the past two years we have spent the SC & NC QP's in Florida. So my attention was spread between our visit and working the parties. Not so much this year, as we are home. I was able, sans some interruptions by grandkids and the mid temperatures outside this weekend, to devote a greater amount of time to these two (2) QP's. There were not as many SC operators as I had hoped, but the activities by the NC hams made up for that. Between both parties I had just over 100 QSO's. So now I look forward to the weekend of March 8th with the ID, OK and WI OP's. Hope to see you on the air.

It's not often that I can pick my preferred times of the day to operate on an SQP weekend, but it worked out well for me in the SC and NC parties. In both of them I gave an hour of operation for the daytime bands--20m and above--starting about an hour after the opening bell in order not to compete with the high power pile-ups. And then again an hour in the evening on 40m and 80m hoping to catch some of the same stations I got in the daytime. Two hours of operation in both parties garnered me 86 Qs, well above my average for a two SQP weekend.

Had the same problem as Alan with this weekend being mostly restricted to 40 & 80m. Previous years I've made up for it by running over the NC line to pull some pileups, but wasn't able to make it happen and barely got to play radio at all on Sunday for a record low score. Hope to make that Kentucky run in June.

I had a blast working these two parties. I haven't done much with these types of events in the past, so it was a new experience for me! Knowing that my QRP signal wasn't super-strong took a lot of pressure off, and I enjoyed slipping into the shack a couple of times each day to see who I could work. I'm really looking forward to the next ones! Thanks and 73

I worked up a template for the WIQP for SD Logger - the logging program I use the most - with the intention of finding a WI station on 10m to move my 5-band WAS QRP CW along. That didn't happen but I did make WIQP QSOs on other bands. I also discovered that OKQP was going on so I worked some of them. I didn't hear any IDQP stations. My QP challenge participation this year is going to be much more casual than last year...sitting back and enjoying them when I can without the self-inflicted pressure of trying to make at least 2 QSOs in each one. Keeping it fun... 72

Had a lot of fun with the 3 parties, but we all probably had some challenging conditions with one or more solar storms! I know on two different occasions; the A index was 35 and the K index was 5. Plus, the solar flux index had dropped to around 150 during most of the weekend. I hope this is not a sign that we are headed to solar minimum faster than expected??? You could hear the roaring on 40 and 80m at night, especially 80m when the A index is high! It's actually noticeable on all bands.
This weekend could really be a challenge here in the mtns. of North Ga. because a huge storm is predicted which could be severe all over the south. So, I may be disconnected due to lighting and/or the low bands could be very noisy with static crashes, which was actually a problem last Sat. night.
All the best to everyone and have fun with QRP!
Tnx so much, Don and Brent, for all you and others do for the Club!!!

By being a bit more strategic with the times I operate in each SQP and by adding maybe an extra half hour to what I've done before, I'm hoping to increase my QSO total this year. It's early days, but so far it seems to be working out. Somehow I overlooked the fact that the OKQP was on for Sunday too, but I had little chance to operate more on Sunday anyway. Looking forward to higher scores in the VAQP this weekend.

Wisconson stations were a lot easier to find on Sunday, after the event started, than on Saturday when I started looking. Need to read that calendar more carefully. I should have hit it just a little harder to make it to Bronze this week.

I was lucky enough to beat my last year's scores for all three (3) QP's, even ID, which seems to get little activity. My technique for pile ups is to tune 5HZ down, let all op's call, and at the first lull I pounce. My results are better than 50% which I'll take every time running QRO. The Virgina QP is very popular on the east coast here (NJ). Everyone should have good results. Good Luck to all!

I had a pretty good weekend. I was able to work all ops I heard except for five (5) that did not hear me. April 5th will be a busy weekend with (3) QP'S.
Good Luck to all.

I work every other weekend so it's hard to work all the qso parties even to get the multiplier. So I try hard on the ones I can make. Had fun chasing N4CW from county to county to get some extra multipliers on Sunday afternoon when things got slow but missed a few not getting through the pileups. Heard a few stations on the higher bands but my QRP signal was not going to do it. Really had fun in this one chasing rovers and mobile stations on the APRS map.

I had a fun time during the VAQP and made my best score ever. The bands were good, especially 40m from central Ohio. There was a lot of activity, and the multipliers were plentiful thanks to a few mobile stations and some very good ops.

Due to the wx here in Ga., and the Southeast, my operating was somewhat limited. I am the ARES EC and Skywarn Coor. and we had a Skywarn Net for almost 8 hours. I also do other work for the NWS which kept me busy until the front had passed most of Ga.
So, because of this, I actually made more contacts than I expected. Static crashes were really strong on 40 and 80m.

Being 1000km distant from VA I was able to get half my QSOs on 20m daytime, and the others distributed between 40m and 80m after dark. Got WU4G on three bands, and now realize that he was QRP. Way to go, QRP!

I operated at the 5W level, with no assistance, CW only, except for a single mobile contact I made as K2PI/M on my way to get some plumbing parts. The ice storms of a few months ago did a lot of damage to the trees around my home, and knocked down 4 of my antennas. It's taken me a while to get things right, and still have work yet to do. The weekend of this contest, I finally got my 160M inverted-L back up properly, but I shouldn't have bothered, because there was very little activity. Primary activity was on 40 and 80, and a smattering of the higher bands, where I tried to give away VA to DX and West Coast. Of the 5 hours I operated, I probably spent most of it running rather than hunt and pounce, and I think this was a good strategy. There were many multipliers, including DX, that I would not have found or would have had to fight a pileup for that I got in the log. This netted me, with just limited operating time, a reasonably good score but of course not a winning score. I didn't really have storm issues, unless you count the plumbing work I had to accomplish instead of operating, where it was more cussing up a storm than dealing with one! I had a fun time, and I am certain few, if any, knew I was QRP, so condx were pretty good. Thanks to everyone who worked me, and next year, a better QRP effort.

I was able to play for a little while Saturday evening and near the start on Sunday morning. Plenty of stations to work and the pile-ups weren't too bad.

Should have been a good event for me, with parts of VA being far enough away for 20m to work. I spent most of Saturday unplugged for thunderstorms and halfway considering a road trip to work in-state. Sunday flew by between chores and a good baseball game and I ended up scrambling for the multiplier.

Those ND OP's were indeed elusive last weekend. Fortunately working N7IV twice on different bands saved that multiple for me. Alan in Georgia sure smoked us. Good job by him. New Mexico OP's were more frequent than last year. My up 5-Hz wait, and pounce helped my 5-Watts to punch through the GA pile ups for the most part. Regards, 73, Ernie

I didn't hear much activity from NM or ND (1 Q), but GA made up for it. I had lots of fun chasing the mobiles. You are right, the pile-ups were fierce! Breaking through the pile-ups on AD4EB with 5W was an accomplishment. 73- Rick

I haven't been taking the time to run up many points so far, but grabbing all the multipliers keeps my options open in case I'm able to get serious about it for the Tennessee & Kentucky events. But ND had me worried. I kept watching RBN and tuning the bands, but no stations.
So then I got crafty. I scraped the '23 and '24 3830Scores results for all the in-state ops who'd made at least 2 CW contacts in either of those events and then dropped that list into HamAlert (being careful to disable that alert when I wasn't near the shack to avoid abusing the system). That really ought to have worked, but I was getting no notifications until N7IV, who wasn't on the list, showed up on 20m RBN. I worked him, then added him to HamAlert. An hour later HamAlert showed me he was on 40m, so got him again. That was the only ND station I found, but I think I'll try the trick again for other tough events. FWIW, he was on 14.027 and 7.029, so I'd have never heard him tuning around the event's recommended frequencies.

The weekend was very challenging here in Ga. On Sat., the K index stayed around 5 and the SFI was around 165 . The A index was also as high as 20-30 . Because of this, 10m was pretty useless and 15m was not much better. Actually, everything suffers when the K index is that high. What propagation that occurred on 15m was very long due to a long skip.
99% of my efforts were centered on the Ga Qso Party. I was hoping to make at least 60 contacts but that was not possible with the poor conditions on the high bands. I ended up with 464 q's running 5w, but I made 365 contacts last year with 1w, when the conditions were better.
I messed around and only made 1 q in the North Dakota Party so I lost a mult. It may not be a big deal because I am not sure how much I will participate during the rest of the year. I had surgery a week ago and was dealing with the effects of that during the weekend which was not very pleasant. I have a couple of more surgeries to go so I will just play it by ear!
Tnx so very much to Brent, Don, and all the volunteers that make this great Club possible! 72, Alan

Band conditions didn't seem bad here in central Ohio. Thank you to N7IV for both of my ND QSOs. His consistency in frequency choice made him easier to find. I wish NDQP allowed self spotting. That might help us with ND scores. Even though I didn't hear many NM stations, I was able to work those I heard. The GA rovers sure helped with multipliers. Both persistence and good timing paid off with getting through the pile ups.

I had high hopes of scoring big [for me, 50 Q's?] in the GaQP, but starting out I heard few signals, and those I called didn't hear me. What happened to my antenna!? Thanks, Alan, for explaining the band conditions. Things picked up for me later in the afternoon and evening. Like others I give credit to Joe N7IV in ND for hanging around and picking our weak signals out of the ether.

I participated in the Quebec QSO Party on April 20th using the special event callsign VB2QC. I operated portable from Lac Leamy in Gatineau, Quebec in the Outaouais region. I set up my Venus SW-6B at a picnic table along with my AlexLoop and BaMaTech TP-III paddles about 20 minutes after the start of the party. It was 3C (37F) and windy. The band conditions weren't much better. I spotted myself and called CQ for half an hour before my first contact. After an hour and a half, I was feeling a bit chilled. I ended up with eleven contacts in the log with most on 20m, a couple on 40m, and one on 15m. It was a blast, and I'm looking forward to next year.

Nebraska turned out to be more active this year than previously, so not much trouble grabbing that. Getting that 2nd Quebec was tough, but of course a 3rd popped up right after I worked it. Not sure why, but QC stations were either pegging the needle (the three I worked), or barely audible, plagued with QSB, and not hearing me at all. 20m seemed long all weekend. Again, grabbed the multis, but didn't get enough shack time to run up a score with the numerous MI and ON stations. Best part of the weekend was working Don VE3DQN at his county-line barn portable setup.

I didn't score big or spend much time on any of this weekend's contests, but I still managed to get them all. The highlight for me was working fellow NAQCC member VE3SIF. Somehow we heard each other, although it wasn't easy at my end. On a side note, is anybody attending the Dayton/Xenia Hamvention? I plan to be there on Friday, May 16th.

I tried a new trick for the Ontario party--operating on a county line--and it paid off big time. A friend has an unused dairy barn on a county line 20 minutes from my house. My antenna was a 105ft dipole up 35ft at the apex, fed with ladderline. I wondered how it would do, but in the first half hour on 20m I had QSOs with CA, OR, and WA. Giving out an exchange of two counties in each QSO means double the QSO count. I reached 248 Qs operating only on Saturday. 40m in the evening was the money band. Highlight was working Brent WT4U and Ron VE3SIF.
In previous years I've had a hard time gaining even the multiplier in the Quebec party. Being so close to Quebec the daytime signals fly right over me. I discovered though that by 4pm I was able to grab the 40m signals. Gotta remember this for next year.

I only had a little bit of time to tune around the bands on Saturday. Conditions weren't the best but it was fun to work a few partiers!

I only worked a few hours of this QP but was very active. My thanks to all the Fl OP's. My participation in May's QP's will drop off as we will be spending a month in KH6 land. I know tough assignment, but someone has to go help the Hawaiian economy. I'll bring my high band QMX and 20M QCX, and plan to activate the parks on The Big Island, Kauai, and Maui. Of course, I'll try to see if I can qualify for the QP's but not holding out much hope. Aloha.

Florida is always difficult being next door to Ga., especially without 80m. But I made more contacts than I expected.
It seems like this coming weekend is the most difficult weekend for the entire season if my ole feeble memory is correct. I am having another surgery this Thursday so I don't know if I will be able to participate? If I do, it may be limited? I'll just have to wait and see.
All the best to everyone this weekend and thanks so very much for all you and Brent do for the Club!

Nothing to report on the FLQP; I had to be away from my station for that weekend. Unfortunately, because of travel and a family funeral, I'm also going to have to skip the big first weekend of May and its 4 SQPs. My clean run in the first 19 SQPs this season is coming to an abrupt halt. I'll pick up again soon :-)

20 wasn't too long this weekend, so every time I turned on the rig I could work stations there, or on 40m. Didn't hit it too hard, but still thought I was doing pretty well until I saw everyone else's scores! Great event.

I was surprised to hear and be able to work so many 7 land stations throughout the day on Saturday. I didn't hear any DE stations for the first several hours of the contest. Once they started working 40 meters, though, they were easy. Unfortunately I only found a few of them there. I didn't have much time available on Sunday but ended working quite a few New Englanders near the end.

Tough conditions for Delaware this year. In the logs posted so far only five members scored that multiplier (half as many as last year), and none had more than three contacts. I grabbed W3NCK on 40m with 8 minutes left in a 2-day event!
Other events were busy and I could have racked up a lot more NE stations while hunting the elusive DE.

Both CPWP and ArQP presented problems this year. Since I don't remember much about CPQP, I'll only comment on ArQP. I heard many station working AR, but I couldn't hear anybody in AR (except for WG5M who had a nice signal and good ears) until the last few hours of the QP. I had limited opportunity to work the QP due to out-of-town company (N6KZ and his XYL). I was also plagued with antenna and feedline problems. It was definitely a challenging day, QSO-wise. Propagation on 40m finally changed at about 2300Z, I fixed my antenna, and I was finally able to hear and work a few stations. Whew!

CPQP: For those Parties where in-state/province operators are few, you gotta love those big guns who are on the air for hours, including CW. I got my multiplier thanks to them.
ArQP: Here my thanks goes to those rovers who operate from county lines. K5CM gave me a three-county boost near the end of the party.

CP was a tough one. Had hoped for more stations.
AR: I set a personal record for highest score for working two stations/3 QSOs. Got K5CM on a quad county (which had to be in the middle of the Arkansas River!), then 100pt bonus station W45P, then K5CM again on a triple. The 100pts mean nothing for our event, but it was a fun bit of win regardless.

I heard N8II early on and worked him on the first call. I didn't hear another WV station all afternoon and into the early evening. We went out to our weekly movie night, and when we return at about 10 PM local, WV stations were finally booming in. I worked three in quick succession and called it a night. 72, Steve

My experience with the WVQP wasn’t the best. I didn’t have time to get on the air until later in the contest and I found little activity on bands that weren’t in great shape. I was happy to finally find a second WV station for the multiplier.

I missed the last Six (6) SQP's so I tried to hit the WV QP's big time. But no such luck. I only had limited time up till 5:30 PM and only could log Seven (7) QSO's. Looking forward to Field Day this weekend. C U all in a month.

I put out a reminder on FB for everyone to check their power level after the mW Sprint, but still tried two WV stations before realizing I was still running 1W. Apart from that, 20m was long as expected, but not much trouble working a few on 40m.
Steven NI8W and I are the only ones who haven't missed a multiplier yet. Hope we're both able to hang on for 18 more!

I, too, enjoyed the AQP. I didn't hear many AL stations, but those I heard I was able to easily work. I made my first two contacts within a few minutes of getting on the air. So it was a fun, laid back contest for me.

Good afternoon on this sweltering day in NJ. As you stated, the layoff of QP's was too long. Fortunately, Saturday morning I was reading the ARRL contest schedule and saw the AL-QP listed. Thanks to the Rover stations I was able to score the multiple and a few extra QSO's. Also, the Flight of the Bumble Bee contest was Sunday, so after church I was able to get in on the fun for that contest.
I think we are past the peak of Cycle-25, as the bands have been very quiet this summer. Hopefully for the remainder of the QP Schedule the bands will cooperate with our tiny signals. I will be out of town next weekend so I will miss the Maryland-DC QP, but I'll be good to go for 8/23 QP's.

Since Alabama is next door to Ga., it's basically a 2 band party-40m/80m. I was thankful that the thunderstorms stayed away and what I had hoped for, a reasonably quiet 80m band on Sat. night, came to fruition. But, there were very few stations on 80m. I called cq many, many times and ended up only working 5 stations.
I hope to participate on 8/9!!

Since I drive to my "contest station" [hi, i.e. better antennas at my daughter's rural home] for most SQPs, I like to put in 30 minutes to an hour in the afternoon, and then the same again in the evening on 40/80m. I wasn't disappointed with 10 Qs, working almost all the stations I could hear. Frankly, it felt good to get back into that familiar routine, listening for the "CQ AQP," picking up at the tailend of another's QSO, savouring each new one. The five-week break between the June and July's parties was too long for me.

I've not been able to play radio much lately, but this was the bump I needed to fire it up and keep my multiplier streak going. 20m stayed long, so all my action was on 40m and one on 80m. Happy to get to do another one of these.

I had very little time to work this one and at first didn't hear any MDC stations. In the late afternoon I heard and worked two stations, one very strong and the other very weak. Just before the contest ended, I returned home and found much improved conditions. I easily worked a couple more before the end time.

I checked several times in the afternoon for MD-DC stations, but with the combination of low CW activity from MD-DC and poor daytime propagation, I thought this might be the one where I get skunked. But after the sun went down 80m opened up nicely, and several MD CW stalwarts showed up to earn me the multiplier.

Conditions were amazingly bad for most of the day. I'd sometimes hear the op working the MD/DC station, but only that side. A switch in the sky must have flipped shortly before 2230 and suddenly they were loud and clear on 40m, and a bit later on 80m.

In between Saturday chores and watching the Little League USA Championship game, I was able to just get the HI multiplier. Ohio for me was active on 40M with a little 80M action mixed in. Used my EFHW and QCX 40M rig for most of the Ohio contest.

I'd been thinking about the HI party for quite a while, so I decided to give a listen at the 0400z start, and it's a good thing I did so. I worked three stations during the first hour of the contest and was unable to work any after that.
Being in Ohio, working the OHQP was easy. I didn't try CQing and just answered stations that were calling. I find doing so to be a much more relaxing approach.

The OHQP is always a good one from here in northern IL, so I spent some extra time working it. Some day I’d like to spend more time and shoot for 100 Qs. Lots of activity and mobiles to chase which made for a fun contest. The HIQP is another story. I’m lucky if I can make two Qs QRP from here and so I didn’t try too hard.

Out-of-town guests occupied my attention for the weekend, and I was afraid that I might not even catch the multipliers for these two parties. But I was able to snatch minutes on a few short occasions to get on the air. OH was of course a breeze, and I mentally prepared myself at NOT gaining the HI multiplier. But the propagation fairies and KH6LC came through for me. On my end it meant getting up in the wee hours of the morning to catch him on 40m. And then checking 15m in the mid-afternoon. Incredibly sensitive ears to hear my 5 watts from a low wire! And no repeats needed for my callsign. Kudos to those HI stations!

On RBN 15m seemed to be wide open across North America for a good part of the day, at least for the big gun stations. Had to surf around to find two who could also hear me. Embarrassed to have done the minimum for the OH multiplier. If I'd have been able to get on in the evening they'd have been fish in a barrel on 40 & 80m.

Both parties were fun, but I had to deal with some thunderstorms which have been almost daily here for several months. Looks like I will also be dealing with them this weekend.
I had some weird propagation during the Ohio party, and I checked several times to see if I had inadvertently messed up a setting on my rig. Normally during the middle of the day on 20 meters, when the skip is the shortest, I can hear Ohio well. I didn't work a single Ohio station on 20m!! I only heard a few which were just a whisper. I checked the band numerous times, and the result was always the same.
All the best to everyone this weekend!

I was surprised by the lack of CO stations while KS stations were plentiful, especially since the two states abut. I thought maybe the CO stations were boycotting for some reason. Finally at about 7 PM, I started hearing CO on 20 meters. That was a huge relief, and I was able to keep my string intact. I was glad to see that Brent also got both multipliers.

I noticed in the KS party there was a great number of roaming stations that where in three (3) counties at one time. I guess Kanas is so flat you are able to have your operating station in a county corner with one leg of a chair in one county the other leg in another, and your rig in the third county. Of course I have no idea, but had that thought as I worked many three county roamers.
As for me on Saturday, it was such a nice day and the beginning of the college football season, I could not sit in my shack and work these QP's. Therefore, I took my station and TV outside, built a nice fire in the chiminea and had a great time. I was out there until about 9 PM. Obviously, I was distracted by the games and keeping the fire going so my scores were not high as I wanted, but had fun nevertheless. I have attached a photo of my op position on Saturday afternoon with my QCX and QMX and the EFHW antenna up in the trees. Sunday I was not on the air as we were visiting friends.

Another fun weekend, especially Kansas. I think the reason why Kansas has such big numbers is because of the number of Kansas mobile ops which can provide so many counties. I don't know how many times I worked some of them, but it was a lot. I am not sure how many participated, but it seemed like there was around 10 mobiles that were active during most or all of the contest. They certainly had some very big pileups during the times I operated. Typically during the GA QSO Party we have only 2 or 3 serious mobile op's that try to activate most Ga. counties.
Not only did they have several mobiles, but a couple of them were smoking at 35 plus wpm's. I really don't understand that philosophy because in many cases they are wasting time when slower stations have to keep asking for fills. Plus, the number of hams that try to work them is reduced because of their speed.
Being next door, TN. will be a two-band party for me.
All the best to all that participate this weekend!

For the KS party I constantly had to check if the station I wanted to call was a dupe or not. Have I already worked K0N, or was that N0N? And, oh, is he now in a different county? I almost despaired of catching a CO station. In the end I thank the two who were patient with me. And for the 40m openings in the evening.

The bands were crawling with Kansas stations, but I can't relax until I've nailed the multipliers and Colorada was not making it easy. This lead to some strategizing and note comparing on FB while we tracked down those few elusive stations.