Contesting

Operating the ‘22 MI QSO Party

Michigan has 83 counties. I live in Washtenaw County (WASH) in Southeast Michigan. The Michigan QSO Party was yesterday, and I had a really great time operating it. I even racked up my best score ever. Here’s my report to 3830scores.com: Michigan QSO Party – 2022 Call: W8RP Operator(s): KB6NU Station: KB6NU Class: Single Op LP QTH: Ann Arbor, MI, USA Operating Time (hrs): 6.25 Summary: Band CW Qs Ph Qs 40 194 158 20 50 Total: 244 158 CW Mults = 67 Ph Mults = 63 Total Score = 83,980 This is my best score ever in the MI QP. I started out on 20m just after 1600Z. Band conditions seemed OK, and I managed to make 50 contacts in about an hour, but then the band seemed to give out, so I switched to 40m. Fortunately, 40m was in great shape. And, just maybe, using the W8RP call sign had something to do with it! W8RP was the call of Roy Purchase, proprietor of Purchase Radio here in Ann Arbor, MI. He passed shortly after I moved to Ann Arbor, but by all accounts, he was a really great guy. Maybe his spirit was watching over me yesterday. Phone? If you know me, you know I’m not a big phone operator. Even so, possibly the best choice I made yesterday was to work phone on 40m in the evening. Conditions were really great—for both in-state and out-of-state QSOs, and I picked up a bunch of multipliers that I probably wouldn’t have on CW. As you can see, I made almost 160 contacts on phone, and that took just over an hour and a half. Also on phone, I worked a couple of guys who recognized the W8RP call sign. One fellow said that he knew Roy personally. The second said that he used to live in Michigan and regularly patronized Purchase Radio. That was fun. I was going to go for 100,000 points, but about 0115Z I started getting tired. I exercised a little, intending to work some 80m CW when I finished around 0200Z, but I couldn’t work up the enthusiasm to do so and settled for the 84,000 points. The post Operating Notes: 2022 Michigan QSO Party appeared first on KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog.