2007 Michigan QSO Party Soapbox
|
|
2007 Michigan QSO Party Soapbox |
Solo portable operation with inverted vee
antennas, IC-746Pro and TS-830S - AD8J A much better result
than last year. Better propagation on 20M and no social events to attend.
I only missed one county I heard (IRON). Still, I am handicapped by not
having a beam for 20M. I had to wait in the background until the OKs
and DLs were finished before it was my turn. 40M is "MY" band as shown by the
majority of contacts being made on that band. Rig was a TS-570D, AL-811H
amp and a 33' vertical. A big thanks to all the rovers driving around
Michigan and making rare counties available to us - CU2JT
Thanks for a lot of activity! Now I have only two counties left to work
for "FULL HOUSE". See you in 2008- DL3GA First time
for the Michigan QSO Party - KØUK Condx rough with QRP -
K2QR My first time in MiQP, great fun. I believe I did spell
MACKINAC (he did indeed - ed.) Thanks to the sponsors for the nice event, and
see you next year! - K3MQ Only had a little over an
hour to play with the QSO Party. Took the equipment outside and played in
the sun and fresh air. Maybe I'll put in more of an effort next year. Lots
of fund - K3OQ Special thanks to the mobile stations for
activating the rare counties - K3TW I guess I did better
this year? Last year I only had one contact - K4GOP The MiQP
is one of my favorite QSO parties of the year. Top-notch mobiles, great
home/club efforts, and plenty of pileups to negotiate. The MiQP web site
at www.miqp.org sets the bar for state contest
content and ease-of-use. CA, FL, TX and the others better watch out! -
K5OT Thanks to the MRRC for a fine event -
K5YAA
Thanks to the MiQP stations for several new Michigan counties -
K6CSL
I had some issues which limited my time in the chair. Still had a great
time. There seemed to be a lot of activity. Started off low power, but
switch to high power, running about 400W. It really seemed to help
the rate. CU next year - K8A (NU8Z, op.) We had
planned to run multi-op/multi-transmitter for at least 8 hours operating time,
but almost no one showed up. We worked 40 and 80 meter phone for about two
hours before calling it quits. We considered trying a little CW, but there were
no ops capable of handling the high speeds which prevailed on the bands.
The weather was too nice to be inside contesting anyways. Maybe next year
we'll break the record we established last year - K8DAA It
was a fun contest as usual. I wish 40M had been a little better for QSOs
with in-state mobiles - K8MM Another great weekend in the
woods for Cheboygan County, although 40 meters continues to disappoint.
Come on sunspots! Many thanks to KN8S and wife Linda for hosting our MiQP
operation for another year - K8MQP Great time although not
the best band conditions - K8THU Great weekend, lots of
activity and a lot of fun - K8XXX Thanks for a great
contest! I had a great time working the party. Contests like your's give
new Generals a chance to learn HF operations and make contacts we will talk to
for years - K9SLY Had a grear time, band conditions on 40
were excellent. Tons of Michigan stations booming into eastern PA well into the
night - KB3JGU This was my first contest and some of my
first QSOs since my upgrade to General. I had a great time and will be back
again next year - KB8SOE It was a good time and I will mark
the calendar for next year for sure - KB9NK Tnx all for the
wonderful time - KB9YGD 1st time using SD. Just downloaded
it minutes before the contest so it added to the confusion factor. This was my
first contest ever - KD1IX This was the club's second
contest and the Mackinac 50 Award will be club's first award! Great
contest - KD8EUW Thanks to the Mad River Radio Club for a
great MI QSO Party. Tried outa new homebrew ladder line feeding a 104'
dipole at 20' which worked great - KE4QDM Wish the
conditions were better and I had more time. Maybe next year will be better -
KE5DHY Fun using SD - KE8UM I Will do it
again next year with better results - KG4JTC Great contest.
Guess I had better get an 80M dipole up if I want to work more of the guys -
KG8JK Good band conditions and plenty of good CW mobile and
fixed stations to make an enjoyable party - KN4Y
Alphabetical arrangement of counties and states on the check-off sheet would be
helpful (OK, we'll look into that - ed.) - KX8D 20M was too
long and very few hanging around 40 or 80 phone. Stayed the entire contest time,
hoping - NØWY See ya next year -
N1ABY
All contacts made with an indoor antenna - N2MH Fun as
always, other commitments kept me from operating longer. See you all next
year - N2ZN Operating QRP with a 16' tall flagpole an
antenna is a real challenge, but managed a reasonable number of contacts for the
time I was able to spend operating. I loo forward to next year's even and
improving my score! Rig: ICOM IC-703+ at 5W (battery powered) with a Force12
flagpole vertical - N3JV CW contacts were much easier to
find and make. 80 was a struggle here in Oregon - N7VS
Wx great, turn out good, condx so-so, but score took a hit for several different
reasons. Much better than last year though. 80M at 16:30 EDT was quiet and
open to most of Michigan. Only worked one mobile K8K/CLAR after hearing
him in ISAB but not being able to QSY quick enough! Lost him on move to
SSB (shucks!). Nice to work WL7 in the first hour on 20M! Thanks for all
the QSOs here in ISAB - N8I (WF5X op.) It looks like I
qualified for the Mackinac 50 award (he did indeed, not once but FOUR times -
ed.) - N8II Fun contest, wish would would have some short
skip on 40 meters during the daylight hours. Personal best, managed to actually
operate some SSB and get 36 phone multipliers, which helped the score
considerably. Thanks to the mobiles for some new multipliers, including
Kent county on phone - N8M (N8XX op.) It is always nice to
hear all the boys on from home - N8NA (a former Michigander)
Like using SD - N8SA Great to see so many from Berrien
county - N8SHZ Lost the 80M dipole in the second hour of the
contest. Loaded up the 160M sloper and use that. Lots of noice on
80, but great runs on 20 SSB. Cant't wait for propagation to make this contest
really cook and be able to work Michigan counties all day long on 40 meters -
N8SS I had only a couple of hours to devote to the contest, so
operated out of doors. It was a nice day at Stony Creek.
Congratulations to you guys fore running a well organized contest -
N8ZA
The bands were not that great, but being my first MiQP it was still a lot of fun
and I look forward to next year when I can learn from my mistakes and log many
more QSOs - N8ZI We'd like to thank Noel, W9EFL for his
generosity in allowing us to use his excellent station. The station is near
Marcellus, MI, which is in Cass county as it shows on QRZ.COM, so I announced
our operation to be in Cass county. However, while driving up to the station
Friday night to set up, a sign about a mile or so from the shack noted that we
were leaving Cass and entering Van Buren county. A quick check with Noel
confirmed that the station in fact in Van Buren, hence out last minute change of
county. We all had a great time and look forward to next year -
N9FN
I drove nine western UP counties. Excellent propagation at the start
deteriorated to difficult QRN-filled conditions in the last hours. The weather
was so unexepctedly warm that I had the air-conditioning on much of the time.
The landscape of this part of Michigan always makes the trip enjoyable.
Thanks to the many stations who rode along with me, and a 'tip-of-the hat' to
the MiQP sponsors - N9NE/m Propagation was much better than
last year - VE5BF Lots of fun - work from my mobile and
still managed a few QSOs - VE7HL Elecraft K1 & G5RV -
WØPQ Conditions better than last year although 20M will probably
never be good for our distance. Enjoyed chasing the three-letter calls. Thanks
to everyone - W1END Thanks for a great party! A fine
group of operators made it fun. Thanks to the MACKINAC-suffix ops for the extra
points. See you next year - W1WIU Found out after the
contest that a tree limb had taken down part of my 80M loop, which explained why
my amp kept shutting down! Tnx to W8LEW for my last county in Michigan.
CU again next year - W2UDT Thanks for all of the QSOs. Many
MI stations heard out here in AZ. A special thanks to all of the mobiles -
W6RLL Wow, what atmospherics! 80M was as noisy as
everm and the 40M ANTENNA (wire out window) would not load, Rig was an HW-16.
Only had a few minutes to operate, as had just driven in 475 miles from Branson,
MO. A good contest from Nebraska - W7DRA/Ø Our first
QSO party - W8ACW Great freeware -
W8DCQ
Did not get to participate as much as I had hoped to. The spindle cracked
on the mower and deck and that kept me busy for most of the contest. Good
news, got it repaired well enough that my wife would move the lawn. It always
looks better if I don't have to do it - W8KNO We did much
better this year. Thanks for running the contest - W8PGW
Bill, KC8VGG and I set up a Field Day-style operation in the Waterloo State
Recreation Area. A great spot, with great weather, no bugs, good signals
and no problems. Thanks for the QSOs - W8RU Thanks to
the operators whose patience llowed me to progress from the stone age to the
computer age for logging. I had to toss the pencial and trust my keyboarding -
W8TOM Thanks for the contacts - WA4ASJ
Operated from the cottage on Houghton Lake - WB8E Condx were
tough but it was still fun - WI8A Operated from From 5
counties in the UP: BARA, IRON, HOUG, ONTO, and GOGE. About 5 hours of actual
operating time, although my total day was about 14 hours, including 343 miles of
driving from my cabin near Winter, WI to the UP and back. Good condx on 40
during the day, but later it got very noisy. Eighty seemed good during the day
for in state QSOs but activity seemed light on that band. Gear: IC-7000,
screwdriver for 40/20, Bugcatcher for 80 (can't get my screwdriver to load on
80) - WI9WI/m