2001 MiQP Results

2001 was year three of the "modern era" of the Michigan QSO Party. Since the rules were changed in 1999, the contest continues to grow in popularity. Activity levels are such that the many of the top stations are making QSO totals under the current twelve hour format which approach the totals under the old twenty-four hour format.

Once again, the ionosphere cooperated in that most of the MiQP bands were open for at least some period of the contest. While 28 MHz was not as good as last year, DX stations were worked on 14 and 21 MHz, including some QSOs by the mobile rovers. 7 MHz and 14 MHz supported domestic activity throughout the day, while 3.5 MHz activity at night was down slightly.

The MiQP committee received 110 entries this year, a 60% jump from last year. By category, there were 95 single-operator, 6 multi-operator and 9 mobile/rover entries. While the total number of unique callsigns appearing in MiQP logs declined slightly, the number of QSOs reported by MiQP entrants jumped 60%, to over 17,000! To look at it another way, in the three MiQPs since 1999 (the first year of the new rules), the number of reported QSOs has increased 250%!

Compared against 2000, the top single-op score increased about 45%, the top rover score increased about 15%, while the top multi-operator score decreased about 20%. Not apparent in these comparisons is that there were a number of close battles in the rover and multi-op categories which add immensely to the activity levels of the contest.

Once again, as in 2000, we can report that all 83 Michigan counties were on the air during the 2001 MiQP. While the mobile rovers again played a major role in activating the sparsely populated counties, several counties which are normally difficult to work were activated by fixed stations, making the rare multipliers available for hours rather than minutes. QSOs were reported with 81 of 83 counties on CW, and 82 of 83 on SSB. The five most active counties in terms of QSOs reported were with Oakland, Washtenaw, Grand Traverse, Menominee and Macomb. The five least active counties were Mason, Oceana, Montcalm, Manistee and Wexford. It's interesting to note that the "least active" list has no repeat counties from last year.

As for out-of-state multipliers, QSOs were reported with 48 of 62 on CW, and 56 of 62 on SSB for 57 of 62 overall. The five most active out-state areas were OH, IL, PA, FL and CA, while no QSOs were reported with NF, LB, PEI, NWT or YT. The in-state Michigan stations truly appreciate the activity and support from all of the out-state participants.

Single operator entries form the vast majority of MiQP entries. 95 of the 110 (86%) of all MiQP entries were single op. With all the categories (high power, low power and QRP) to choose from there is something for everyone - and there was fierce competition for some of the awards.

For in-state entries, new records were set in the high power and QRP categories. (The excellent high-band activity involving the amateurs upgrading to new HF privileges in April 2001 simply wasn't there this year, which was a big factor in the record-setting low power effort from last year.) The same thing was true for out-state entries - high power and QRP set new records while low power did not, although probably for different reasons.

The Michigan single-op, high power winner is Dennis Ward, KT8X signing N8BU from Washtenaw county. No surprises in how he did it - QSOs split roughly 50/50 CW to SSB with a heavy emphasis on 40M, although Dennis did make MiQP QSOs on all five bands. His multiplier count of 154 led all single ops, doing an exceptional job of snagging the mobiles. The station includes an IC-765 and AL-1500 amplifier with computer logging. Outside, the antenna farm consists of a KT-34XA tribander, a Mosley 2L 40 and dipoles for the low bands.

Finishing in second place is Duane, K8AO from Delta county. Delta county was a rare one in the 2000 MiQP, but Duane made it un-rare big time in 2001. All but one of Duane's QSOs were on SSB with a heavy emphasis on 40M. In third was Ron, ND5S while Scott, N8ZPJ finished fourth.

Out-state high power single-ops were led by Jeff Clarke, KU8E who used the proximity of his Ohio QTH to great advantage in making MiQP QSOs. Inside Jeff runs TS-850 and TS-830 transceivers in a dual-radio setup with an L4B amplifier. Outside, the antenna farm is all wire dipoles and zepps - perhaps this is the secret to having a pounding signal into Michigan? Jeff also had the highest out-state score in the MiQP and set a new out-state record as well.

It was a VERY close race between the other two out-state high power entries. John, K4BAI in GA and Charlie, W4SAA in FL wound up neck and neck and only the final log checking could separate their scores. John wound up with more QSOs while Charlie had more multipliers. In the end, John's slight edge in CW QSOs proved to be the margin to grab second place by only 26 points.

Leading the way for the Michigan single-op, low power stations is Jim Callow, K8IR from Menominee county. Jim winning score came from a nearly 50/50 split between CW and SSB, with very strong numbers on 7 MHz. The K8IR station consists of a TS-570D inside, while outside the radiators include a C-4 at 40' for 40M-10M and a V-shaped dipole for 80/75 at 30'

Second place goes to Dale, K8RO operating from Oakland county. Dale piled up a few more QSOs than K8IR but with fewer multipliers and a larger percentage of SSB QSOs. Third place goes to Doug, N8NX who was also in Oakland county, which must be a great place to do MiQP!

The top three out-state low power entries form an interesting mix. First place goes to Glen Rantala, WA1UJU operating from Wisconsin. Glen led all the low power out-state entries in both QSOs and multipliers. Hot on his heels for second place was Jim, AD1C in Massachusetts whose QTH is many miles from the MiQP action. It is interesting to compare the two scores. Glen made QSOs only on 80M and 40M with the latter being the big band. Jim made QSOs only on 40M and 20M with the latter being slightly more productive. Glen had a roughly even mix of CW to SSB, while Jim had a 2:1 mix of CW to SSB. The end result was one of the closest finishes in this year's MiQP; only 556 points separated first and second place.

Not to be forgotten is the entry from John, NØIJ who finished in third place. John's Minnesota QTH proved to be a good spot for MiQP, only 1,128 points behind the WA1UJU/AD1C battle. John's score was similar to Glen's with no 20M QSOs and a heavy emphasis on 40M, but with a 2:1 ratio of CW to SSB.

This year's winner for the top in-state single-op QRP entry is Buck Switzer, N8CQA operating from Washtenaw county. Buck's secret weapon this year was commandeering the antenna farm of the K8CC contest station while its owner was mobiling around the Upper Peninsula Buck used an FT-1000D throttled back to 5W and an assortment of monoband yagis and wire dipoles. Two thirds of Buck's QSOs were on CW, and all but twelve QSOs were on 80M and 40M where wire antennas prevail.

Second place goes to Mike, KA1DDB way up in Dickinson county in the Upper Peninsula. Mike's effort is all the more impressive being so far from the middle of the MiQP action. All of Mike's QSOs were on CW. Veteran QRPer Walt, K8CV from Oakland County takes third with another all-CW effort. It's interesting to note that Walt and Mike also finished second and third in the in-state QRP category last year, but in the opposite order.

The competition in the out-state single-op, QRP category got real competitive in 2001 - last year's winning score would have been fifth this year! When the smoke settled it was Todd Fonstad, N9NE who came up with the win. Todd scored the top QSO count and multiplier total in the category; mostly CW but with enough SSB for a good multiplier total. Not far behind Todd was Bob, W3BBO whose Erie, PA QTH was well positioned to make MiQP QSOs. Only 128 points back in third place was Jim, NØUR in Minnesota who had the second-best QSO and multiplier counts in the category but had a higher percentage of SSB QSOs which hurt his points total.

For 2001 it was decided to separately recognize entries in the MiQP from outside of the United States or Canada. DX entries have a lot more difficulty making MiQP QSOs because of the distance involved, and the MiQP committee wanted to recognize their efforts.

Harry, PA3ARM was the top DX score in the 2001 MiQP. As you would expect all of his QSOs were on 20M and all were CW. In second place only a few QSOs and multipliers behind is Stanislav, OK1FCA, again with all of his QSOs on 20M CW. In third place is Dan, SM5IMO who broke the pattern and made a few of his QSOs on 20M SSB and 40M CW.

This award is given to encourage out-state activity by giving the entrants something different to work for. While other stations are calling CQ and looking for rate, the operator who likes to tune for DX can focus on working new counties. Working volumes of QSOs helps, but a good receiver and a good pair of ears can work wonders as well.

Making the most out-state MiQP QSOs exposes one to a lot of multipliers, and so it was that Jeff Clarke, KU8E who ran up the highest out-state score also takes the plaque for working the most counties from out-of-state. In working 76 Michigan counties, Jeff only missed Baraga, Gogebic, Manistee, Mason, Montcalm, Oceana and Wexford. However, Jeff had some competition for the top spot as Dick, K9OM operating station NO4S and Andrew, K9CW tied for second with 71 counties apiece. What is surprising about the second place scores is that Andrew's counties were all worked on CW and Dick's were 90% CW! Third place was another tie between Glen, WA1UJU and Jim, AD1C who both had 65 counties.

Multi-operator stations are the cornerstones of MiQP. The rules allow (and even encourage) the use of multiple transmitters, with the goal of making every possible QSO. Multi-operator stations can afford to spend time on bands or mode where activity is less, providing additional opportunities for QSOs.

Congratulations to the W8PIF team from Menominee county for repeating their win in the multi-operator category. Once again, they operated from a portable site Field Day style and made the largest number of QSOs from a fixed station in the contest. Their score was significantly down from their 900+ QSO effort in 2000. A large part of this has to be due to poorer high band conditions for its the multi-ops, trying to cover all the MiQP bands, that suffer the most when the high bands are poor.. For example, in 2000 they had 182 QSOs on 21/28 MHz while in 2001 they had only 10. However, they made up for some of the deficit by operating more CW (54%) on the low bands, resulting in more points per QSO.

W8PIF had some serious competition this time, as K8JM from Lapeer county was only 1071 points (0.66%) behind to finish a close second. Their setup was completely different from W8PIF; single-transmitter vs. multi-transmitter, but tall home-station antennas vs. the portable setup. The JM crew had 27 fewer QSOs, but 17 more multipliers. However, only 44% of the K8JM QSOs were on CW, and the double point advantage was enough to pull W8PIF ahead for the win.

A similar competition existed for third and fourth place. K8EPV, operating from a permanent home station in St. Clair county managed to snag third place ahead of a portable effort by a group from the Hazel Park club operating from station N8KV in Leelanau county. The K8EPV crew came out ahead on both QSOs and multipliers, but the N8KV ops managed to keep it close with a higher percentage of double-point CW QSOs.

Many of the multi-op efforts utilized only one transmitter. The MiQP rules allow for multiple transmitters (limited to one per band). The idea is for the multi-ops to field as many transmitters as possible, offering the possibility for as many MiQP QSOs as possible, particularly for the out-state stations. If you have some space, its not too hard to roll out some coax and put up a simple dipole a couple hundred feet away, perhaps for 40 meters, for a second rig. Multi-transmitter operating is a lot of fun and can make a huge impact on your score, particularly for spotting the county-hopping mobiles who typically stick to 40 meters. Keep this in mind as you plan your multi-op setup for the 2002 MiQP.

2001 saw a record nine mobile rover teams compete in the MiQP - an increase of 50% over 2000. Since mobiles can be worked again when they change counties, they provide tremendous contact opportunities for the other MiQP participants. They also make a huge contribution in activating rare counties where little or no fixed station activity exists. The mobile stations made almost 5,000 QSOs during the 2001 MiQP - well over one fourth of the total number of QSOs reported.

One interesting development for 2001 was the number of mobile stations who came from out of state to participate in MiQP. Our thanks go to stations K8MR, W1NN (who came all the way from PA!) and AF8A for their participation in the 2001 MiQP.

After battling technical troubles last year, the K8XXX/m team worked out their problems and emerged as the top mobile station in the 2001 MiQP. By running multiple radios, they could utilize more than one open band and keep the QSOs coming. Most surprising is that they had over 700 QSOs on CW alone! Their 209K total sets a standard that will be hard to beat in the future. Congratulations on a job well done.

Second place was a closely fought battle between the K8CC/m and K8MR/m teams. While K8MR had eight more QSOs and one more multiplier, K8CC had 33 more CW QSOs which provided the narrow margin of victory.

The W1NN effort was unique in that it was a one-man show - Hal did all of the driving and operating by himself. Most operation took place sitting still, but careful route planning minimized non-productive in-transit time.

Another close battle was between AF8A/m and W8UE/m for sixth and seventh place. Although W8UE had a substantial lead in QSOs, both ops' dislike for SSB operating resulted in a shortage of multipliers on that mode. The AF8A ops (neither of whom are big fans of SSB either) managed to work enough SSB to land enough multipliers to grab the position from W8UE.

The mobile scores of W8RU, N8FGK and NW8W should be recognized as well, for they provided a number of valuable MiQP multipliers to many participants. Mobile operating in a contest is a big challenge, and their efforts to hand out rare counties were much appreciated.

The Michigan QSO Party Club Competition for Michigan clubs is designed to encourage activity in the contest and recognize those clubs whose efforts have contributed towards the MiQP. The table below shows the results:

Club Name	Entries	Score
Marinette & Menominee ARC	2	233,712
L'Anse Creuse ARC	7	102,425
Hazel Park ARC	3	85,884
Cherryland ARC	2	72,567
Eastern Michigan ARC	2	29,658
Motor City RC	3	23,590
Adrian ARC	6	21,631
Central Michigan ARC	1	18,600
Michigan QRP ARC	2	9,350
Great Lakes DX/Contest Club	1	8,288
Southeast Michigan ARA	2	7,455
Michigan DX Association	1	2574

The number of Michigan clubs having scores attributed to them almost doubled from seven clubs in 2000 to twelve clubs in 2001. Congratulations to the Marinette and Menominee Amateur Radio Club for repeating as champions in the Michigan Club Competition. Second place goes to the L'Anse Creuse Amateur Radio Club who posted the most entries, followed by the Hazel Park Amateur Radio Club who repeats their third place finish from 2000.

Again, many Michigan entries failed to attribute their scores to a Michigan club. Next year, make sure your score gets credited to your Michigan club!

The following individuals and organizations will receive a 2001 Michigan QSO Party plaque for winning their respective categories. The remaining top five entries in each category will receive a MiQP Certificate of Accomplishment. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Awards should be in the hands of the winners by the beginning of April 2002.

The MiQP committee expresses our thanks to the Michigan clubs and individuals who have supported the MiQP awards program.

Used my Ten-Tec Triton IV at 5 watts into a 105’ dipole at 40’ - AB8DF Slightly over half of my QSOs were with mobiles. Stumbled upon six #1 QSOs with the various mobiles, 20M was wide open to FL long after most MI stations abandoned it. No CW-only category? Thanks for all the MI QSOs in the Florida QSO Party too! – K1TO Operating mobile from the Upper Peninsula was a real eye-opener – you're a looooong way from a lot of the activity. CW was productive, but very hard to find a spot to call CQ on SSB. Twelve new counties activated – 52 down and 31 to go in our quest to operate from every MI county – K8CC/m Improved on my personal best from last year. Thanks again to the mobiles for making the contest more interesting, especially in the last couple hours. Was glad to hear so many yoopers on this year. The most I've heard in my several years in the contest – K8IR Great contest! – KA1DDB/8 Part-part time effort due to work, broken coax, family, etc. Had a great time though – KW8W Great fun to chase the mobiles; K8CC 17Qs/14 counties, K8XXX 16Qs/13 counties, K8MR 12 Qs/11 counties, AF8A, 9 Qs/8 counties, W1NN 9 Qs/6 counties & W8UE 8 Qs/8 counties - NØIJ Propagation was non-existant. Tried 10-15-20 and no luck. Only heard two stations on 40. Maybe better next year? - NØUR I enjoyed the contacts with the Michigan stations - N1YIS No propagation on high bands, static on low bands – N2CU Had a blast - thanks! - N8ZPJ A fun contest all around. Too bad the bands didn’t cooperate. See you all again next year! – VA3JFF Condx were a bit poor. Using a single band dipole for 20M in the attic of my house. Hope to have a better antenna next time - VA7LC I was off the air for several years so I was glad to get back on the air. Working both the Michigan and Ontario QSO parties at the same time made things rather interesting as I was keeping two set of logs at the same time. It was particularly fun when I had calls from several stations at the same time – VE3SYB Enjoyed the CW activity this year – W1END Thanks to all that copied my QRP signal - Elecraft K2 and wires/verticals. Hats off to the mobile operators - Fine Job! – W3BBO I don’t usually operate in QSO parties except for a few contacts here and there. This time I decided to stay with it and even operate in the SSB mode – my first time using SSB in a contest - WJ9B A nice way to spend a rainy Saturday morning…which led to an all day affair - WN6K