Upcoming Events

 QRP Afield

QRP Afield 2021 is held on the third Saturday of September, which is September 18 this year; as in the past few years, it runs from 1500-2100Z (11am-5pm EDT). You can read the rules here: https://www.newenglandqrp.org/qrp-afield-2018/ (still mostly correct).

Our weekend always has a number of other operating events going on, perhaps because it's the final weekend of summer. Five QSO parties overlap some or all of our operating period: Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington (the Salmon Run). There is also a major international contest, the Scandinavian Activity Contest (they were booming into NH last year; I worked a couple of them on 40 CW!), and this year we have Wisconsin Parks on the Air. There will surely also be some activations in programs including POTA, SOTA, and IOTA, and some special event stations. Here in MA there is one to commemorate the 100th anniversary of broadcast station WBZ; it will use the special call signs W1W, W1B, W1Z, and WB1Z. Also keep an ear out for the Chowdercon station, W1C; that will have NEQRP members operating portable from an island in Portsmouth NH.

This year, contacts with stations in other operating events are explicitly allowed. (If you can't beat them join them!) You are not required to complete the full QRP Afield exchange with those stations; instead, you should use the exchange required by the other event. (Their logging software probably isn't set up to record your power level or NEQRP number.) We encourage you to submit logs to any contests you make contacts in, even if you only make one or two contacts; the organizers use your data to check other logs.

I'm also introducing a new bonus. Any contact where both operators send a NEQRP number and submit logs that contain a matching contact is worth two points instead of the usual one. The normal power, location, and S/P/C multipliers still apply. That's meant to encourage people to make some QRP Afield contacts. (Don't have a member number? Membership in the New England QRP Club is free and open to all hams. Send email to kk1x@kk1x.net with the subject Join.)

You can work each station once per band per mode. For our purposes there are three modes: CW, voice (any voice mode including digital voice), and digital (everything else: RTTY, PSK31, JT65, FT8, SSTV, fax -- if it's not Morse Code and doesn't involve a microphone it goes here). All bands other than WARC bands and 60 meters are allowed, but you'll find most of the QRP Afield activity on 40 and 20 meter CW. (The only bands and mode that appeared in 2020 logs were 80, 40, and 20 meter CW.) Perhaps 15 will have an opening this year, and consider trying 80 to work some nearby stations, especially if you are in or near one of the states with a QSO party.

A field station must use non-permanent antennas and be powered by something other than the commercial power grid or a motor-driven generator. Usually that means batteries. No minimum distance from your house is required; operating from your porch or yard is fine. That said, we encourage you to get out and operate from a location away from home!

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Last year's submissions included a mix of logs that only included full QRP Afield exchanges, and logs that also included QSOs with stations in other operating events. That made it hard to compare the results, and I procrastinated reporting because I wasn't sure how to handle that. But I have compiled a spreadsheet with the best available data. You can see that here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18nwip7vXWWj0-O8E9p2sIyQRO2xZHWmzvftRqf5HjZg/edit?usp=sharing

I promise to get the 2021 results out in a more timely manner!

Leaders in 2020:

Top scores:

W1PID    3360

N5GW     2860

NN9K      2470

Leaders by ARRL/RAC section:

W1: W1PID

W2: W2JEK

W3: W3TS

W4: N4KGL

W5: N5GW

W8: WD8RIF

W9: NN9K

W0: W0UFO

VE3: VE3DQN

We did not receive logs from any other sections or from DX stations.

72, Shirley KE1L

2021 QRP-ARCI Fall QSO Party

The next QRP-ARCI sponsored contest is our Fall QSO Party.  This is a 24-hour operating event from 0000z to 2359z on October 9th. 

Look for others around the normal QRP operating frequencies from 160m to 10m (no WARC) bands. The exchange is RST, State/Province/Country plus QRP-ARCI member number (for members) or power output (for non-members). Club member numbers are good for life and can be looked up at www.qrparci.org

If you can operate just a couple of hours or many, be sure to submit your log by November 1st at www.qrpcontest.com  Last year's contest only had 21 entries. Mike W3TS took the top spot in the 250mw to 1w category, and overall top score, with 25,520 points. Leading the 1w to 5w category, and 2nd overall, was Jim W4QO with 21,000 points followed closely by John K4BAI with 20,020 points. 

Complete rules and details are available here:  https://qrparci.org/contest/fall-qso-party

Hope to catch you on the air!

73,

Paul K4FB

QRP-ARCI Contest Manager

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!