2011 Virginia QSO Party

Contest: Virginia QSO Party
Date: March 19-21, 2011
Mode: Mixed
Period: Starts 1800 UTC Saturday, ends 0100 UTC Sunday

BAND / Q PH / Q CW / Q DG
20 / 4 / 8 / 1
TOTAL: 13 QSO / 9 Mults
SCORE: 698 (TIME ON: 3 H 30 Mn)

SOAPBOX: I found myself wanting to work the VAQP more than the BARTG RTTY Contest, not quite sure why. Part of the reason was hoping there would be a good amount of participants on for the VAQP, but I found it somewhat discouraging that I only finished with 13 QSOs after some 3 hours spinning the dials.

This was just one of 3 contests I was playing in at the time, but I did have some good fun in the contest. I just wish conditions were better. I had some poor propagation to the East Coast, which did not help. No one was on 15M and 20M was really the only frequency I picked up my contacts on. I would switch between the CW and SSB “suggested” frequencies and could usually find a quick QSO.

I was able to log K4NVA, the club station of the Sterling Amateur Radio Club, which brought in 500 bonus points. My last QSO was a PSK31 QSO from N8RGQ, who was operating QRP. All in all it was enjoyable and just another new QSO party I can say I have participated in.