2008 MiQP Club Competition

The 2008 MiQP Club Competition benefited from the improved conditions and record levels of activity we enjoyed this year. A total of 170 of this year's 300 entries attributed their score to a club. The number of in-state clubs represented in the competition dropped by one from 2007 from 17 to 16, but out-of-state clubs jumped from 11 to 15. As in 2007, the in-state competition saw the second and third largest club scores ever submitted, and both the in-state and out-of-state competitions came within a whisker of having their all time records broken.

How To Increase In-State Club Competition?

The MiQP Committee is interested to hear ideas about how to increase the number of Michigan stations and clubs which participate in the Club Competition. Using the Pennsylvania QSO Party as an example, during that event you'll find dozens of casual participants filling the bands (particularly on phone) making points for their local clubs. It appears that this is a result of the local clubs making an active effort to get their members to participate.

How can we do this in Michigan? The Committee makes an effort every year to reach out to all Michigan Clubs, so awareness should not be an issue. Are awards effective? We used to offer the winning MI club a handsome plaque, but feedback from some clubs indicated they didn't have a place to store or display such a plaque.

Is there anything we can offer to the clubs to increase interest in the MiQP Club Competition. The Committee would like to hear your ideas via e-mail to:

mail@miqp.org

The top three in-state clubs are the same as last year, and in the same order of finish. Repeating their win from 2007 is the Southeastern Michigan DX Association. Their formula to success is much the same as last year - SEMDXA members were found at the #2 and #5 multi-multis, the #1 mobile-multi, the #2 QRP single-op, plus the #10 and #11 low power single ops. The SEMDXA total of 1,061,570 points for 2008 is the second largest club score in MiQP history, and came within 1458 points (0.14%!) of breaking the record for in-state clubs set by the Adrian ARC in 2004.

The second place club, the Adrian Amateur Radio Club, raised their second place score from 2007 by almost 22%, but still had to settle for second place behind SEMDXA. The Adrian score is also based largely on a large multi-multi score (#1 finisher K8XXX), but they also had help from the #3 and #4 SOHP entries as well as several smaller scores. As mentioned above, Adrian is the club which holds the record in the MiQP club competition with over one million points (the first time it had ever been done). Their 2007 total of 861,528 points is the third largest club total ever recorded.

Reprising their third place finish from 2007 was the Eastern Michigan Amateur Radio Club with 422,899 points, an improvement of 42% over than last year. The EMARC total benefited from the #3 multi-multi and #! QRP single-op entries. They finished with more than a 100K lead over the fourth place club.

Only one of the top three out-of-state clubs from 2007 were able to make the box again in 2008.

Among the out-of-state clubs, the Society of Midwest Contesters stepped up their game from their fifth place finish in 2007 to finish first in 2008. They put together nine solid scores (the largest number of any out-of-state club) to take the top spot. Also, they came within 4,112 points (3.3%!) of breaking the record of out-of-state clubs set by the Minnesota Wireless Association in 2004.

In second place is the only carryover from 2007: last year's winner, the Florida Contest Group put together seven scores, but one of those was K9OM's 3rd place Eastern Region score, and that was good enough to edge out third place.

Not far behind in third place is a familiar club name: the Yankee Clipper Contest Club, led by the eastern region winning score of W1UE. YCCC's total of 58,050 was only 7,248 points behind the FCG in second place.

Remember, scores for an in-state club must be made from Michigan, and scores for an out-of-state club must be made from outside of Michigan. In some cases, there were Michigan clubs with member's scores from outside the state, and non-MI clubs with scores from inside the state. In these cases the member's scores outside the clubs "home" region were treated as a separate club, and if there were two or more such entries, these show in the results. (For example, MRRC had four entries from Ohio, so these are shown as "MRRC non-MI".)

Club Name	Score	Entries
Southeastern MI DX Association	1,061,570	6
Adrian Amateur Radio Club	861,528	5
Eastern MI Amateur Radio Club	422,899	2

Club Name	Score	Entries
Society of Midwest Contesters	121,010	9
Florida Contest Group	65,298	2
South East Contest Club	58,050	4