2022 Virginia QSO Party
Post-Party Tidbits, Soapbox, and Stories
On 6 May 2022, W4TMO emailed:
Here's some pics of N4CW effort in 2022 VQP. Bert (N4CW) is
in the backseat operating where we stopped in Lee county.
On top of the car are a Tarheel model 75 and a backup
Antronic 20m whip. We hit such hard rain at one point the
Tarheel developed sporadic SWR which forced us to the backup for a
bit while things dried out. That's our mascot Scooby-Do
lashed to the Tarheel :)
Many thanks for putting on a fun
event. We had a great time.
73
Jim
W4TMOUSAF Retired
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On 13 April, Brian, KO4ECD, emailed:
had a great time during
contest. got a late start and only participated Saturday. setup
a fixed low power station in Essex county OCF dipole in pine
trees 35' high. looking forward to next year will work both days
as expedition. 73 KO4ECD
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On 13 April, we received a QSL Card from AB1XQ:
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On 6 April, we received a letter with an image from W4BUE.
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O 31 March, Mike, NJ2OM, emailed:
The VAQP turned out much better than I hoped
for! The Carolina Windom worked very well. I had set a goal
of 260 contacts but made 691, although 38 of those were dupes. I
worked many on SSB on Sunday who thanked me for a new county which
was one of the things I was hoping for. Here�s a picture of me at
the station in my mom�s detached garage.
Thanks,
Mike NJ2OM
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On 27 March, Andy, K1RA, emailed:
Subject: KW4VA/M VaQP 2022 Pix
Hi Gordon, great to see you today. Here's my album from the
weekend if you didn't get it from my last email.
73
andyz - K1RA
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On 25 March, Gil, KM4OZH, emailed:
--- here are a few pictures of my mobile. Some have been seen
before and some are new.this year. Before the contest I thought an
upgrade on 40m and up might be wise with the new solar cycle. Sure
glad I did because 90% of my hf contacts were made on 40. My
operating procedure changed this year with the addition of a home
built dual PTT button steering wheel mounted and an adjustable two
microphone boom. This permitted some operation while in motion.
This enabled me to make a 2 1/2 hour gain in my Saturday run. From
that I was finally able to activate all but 1 county listed in my
announced operations. I exceeded last years score by over 3000
pts. Once again I had a great time, thanks for a great contest.
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On 3/23/2022 4:45 PM, L�szl� V�gh wrote:
Dear Gordon!
Thanks for the 5 QSO! Congratulations for organizing so nice QP!
Thanks to some mobiles who was QRV also on 15/20m + resident
stations I can made much more points than last year.
regards, Laci OM2VL
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On 23 March 2022, Don, K8MFO, emailed:
YES. Those mobiles did a super job!
And it was great FUN to chase them.
73 Don K8MFO
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On 3/21/2022 1:54 PM, Duane Ettwein wrote:
What a great event. I had a great time. Thanks for
putting it on.
I have a tidbit of information for you that you might want to add
as a side note to your presentation. The USS Wisconsin Radio
Club has 6 German members. One of them has a business here
in Chesapeake. He comes here often and that is how he got
interested in the Wisconsin club. He brought a few of his
friends here in the past and they have become members as
well. I got them interested in the VA QSO Party since our
club is the sponsoring club on the certificate. Three of
them got on the air from Germany and worked the event. Two
of them made contact with me and one of them made contact with two
of our other members as well as 3 other participants in the
contest. This gives the event the international flare but
also a close contact since they are members of our club. I
thought that was interesting and thought you might think so
too. I don�t know if that has occurred before.
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Larry W8ANT, emails:
Please pass along my thanks to all who supported the
event. The spotting network was useful, as always, and
this year I used the mobile tracker and was able to make some
mobile contacts; the mobiles were always busy, but I did
manage to finesse the pileups from time to time, even with 5
watts. I did hear you at one point, Gordon, on CW late
afternoon Saturday, which was neat. I set a new personal
best for both QSOs and multipliers, which was my goal, despite
my CW being extremely rusty.
As always, I had fun. Lots of other must-dos, as always,
to distract me. Nobody on the low bands during daylight, as
always. (I checked periodically and I heard one station
on 160 Saturday evening. I'd argue that while Virginia
stations ought to get QSO credit for any other station, the
multipliers ought to only be other Virginia stations; this
would encourage more activity on the low bands at all hours.)
A few things were not the same as always:
40 meters was open for NVIS during
daylight, a very pleasant change. Last year I made just
a few 40 meter contacts; this year about half were on
40.
the downside to that was there was nobody
on 80 meters at all during the daytime; worse than last
year. Everyone was up on 40 or the upper HF bands until late
in the day.
A lot more interference from digital
operations on 40; digital seems to be creeping down the
band, like fungus. Not sure why, as there was lots of
room above
While I heard a lot of activity on the upper HF bands, the
strong signals, as expected, were not from Virginia. I
heard a lot of backscatter from Virginia stations, but
backscatter from 5 watts is not likely to be heard.
Anyhow, wanted to send you a quick thank-you for a fun time!
73 Larry W8ANT
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