results2010

U.S. Islands Awards Program

2010 W / VE Islands QSO Party Summary

    Sunny clear skies, seventy degrees with a gentle wind. Torrential rain, mid-fifties and enough wind to build whitecaps on the lake. Not too many 2010 entrants commented on weather other than the extremes.

    The WX was the big story for the 2010 QSO Party. Some expeditions in OK and TX woke to cold rain and high winds making passage to expected islands a life hazard, not to mention making a totally miserable day if it had been safe to get to an island.

    Most of the rest of the US got a break on the WX, so operators on the TX coast, the southeast and along both ocean coasts got in a pretty nice weekend for island activations.

    Class A (Island Fixed and QRO Expeditions) had a close race between Les, AD5WB on TX003S, Galveston and Rick, AA1KS from his always loud QTH on ME033S, Moose Is, Maine. AD5WB won by a small margin over AA1KS. Sounds like both of the big gun island stations were very busy.

    Joe, WA7JT from the Washington coast at Camano Island, WA003S and Loyd at VE7FCO on Vancouver Isl, BC001, also had a good showing from the Pacific coast.

    Class B (Island Expedition, less than 100w) was dominated this year by Don, KB5IQJ operating portable also on Galveston Island. That Galveston Bay salt water must have RF properties not found on other seaside locations!

    An interesting gathering of thirteen new and seasoned hams hit the air from Michigan’s Murray Lake Is, MI-089L, as the team from N8M used a special event call to celebrate the 16th QSO Party! Hearty congratulations are in order to the Multi team. They had the CW ops swatting at real bugs when they weren’t using the other bug. You all know how Michigan is in late summer!

    VE7RSV/p, Robert, showed up with QSOs from BC026, Broughton Is.

    Ward, N0AX, operating from near his new QTH in Missouri, had to find a new island when the one he intended to activate had a huge mass of heavily armed duck hunters at the ramp. He decided to forego taking a few shotgun shells in his tailfeathers and moved to Chateau Is, IL-003R for a quieter mixed-mode operating environment.

    The ‘ol CM, WA4JA, ambled 100 miles down I-24 to the Chattanooga area to activate Dallas Bay Is, TN026L. The island is part of a very nice county park a few miles north of downtown Chattanooga. After I set up the genset and rig on the island is when I concluded the connection had broken inside the mobile antenna mount, probably from a tree inside the park. That took away 40 m, so I used the copper pipe vertical on 20 and 15 meters to generate a Class “B” Checklog.

    Mark, KO1U, managed to do some roving on Plum Is, MA002S and Deer Island, MA027S in the Merrimac River. He also made a QSO before leaving home for the islands.

    The Class “D,” or non-island entries, saw John, W0YJT (formerly WB0YJT) in a repeat win from Topeka. Mike, K4MIA, found slim pickings from his Florida home for a Class D entry, but finished second.

    There were no DX or SWL entries in 2010 for some unexplained reason. There were a good many European stations who were answering island station’s CQs who showed up in submitted logs.

    Besides the islands mentioned, several more showed up in received logs, but no logs were received. Besides several CISA islands, the following US islands showed up in logs:

    FL030S, FL043S, GA003S, GA028S, HI025S, MD036S, NY003S, NY014S, PR006S, SC006S, TN026L, VA002S, WA004S, and a few contacts seen from W9EVT’s monster-sized shack on WI001L.

    Remember to include all KH6 stations as US island stations for scoring.

    In all, QSO totals seemed to be up slightly from 2009, and the total entries about the same. Propagation seemed about the same in 2010 as the year before, too. Thanks to all stations who submitted a complete log. It makes rescoring and checking so much simpler than it used to be for the CM.

    The US Islands group hopes to see an increase in contest activity from the fixed stations on resident islands such as Long Island, NY, the Florida Keys, and all over the state of Hawaii.

    It is impossible to warrant nice WX to cover all of the US and Canadian islands over a weekend. Last year it was snowing with 45 MPH wind in Tennessee with one group spending half the contest trying to secure equipment and keeping the tent from being blown into the lake. In 2010, it was “Chamber of Commerce” weather!   That is part of the challenge of contesting and being outdoors mobile or portable brings special operating conditions and unique equipment adaptations no matter the season.

    We hope to see you again on October 23 and 24, 2011 for the next big event. In the meantime, get active and put a Canadian or United States island on the air in your area!

    AND PLEASE REMEMBER….Submit a log no matter how few QSO’s you make in the QSO Party!

John Almon
WA4JA USI Contest Mgr.
Jan 26, 2011

A Call	State	Mode	Island#/Name	QSOs	Raw Points	Score
AD5WB	TX	Ph	TX003S, Galveston Is	269	293	13,185
AA1KS	ME	Mix	ME033S, Moose	210	254	10,922
WA7JT	WA	Ph	WA003S,Camano Isl	13	29	240
VE7FCO	BC	Ph	Vancouver, BC01	4	20	60

B
KB5IQJ/p	TX	Ph	TX-003S, Galveston Is	359	419	17,307
N8M	MI	M-M, Mix	MI-089L, Murray Lake Is	143	183	11,529
VE7RSV/P	BC	Ph	BC26, Broughton Is	39	55	1,155
N0AX/p	IL	Mix	IL003R, Chouteau Isl	48	52	1,040
N1QLL/P	ME	Mix	ME004S, Great Wass Is	12	16	112

WA4JA (Checklog)	TN	Ph	TN026L, Dallas Bay Isl.	104		4,736

C
KO1U/Rvr	MA	Mix	MA002S, Plum Is	123	136	3,944
			MA027R, Deer Is	21	25	325
					Total score	4,269

D
W0YJT	KS	Ph		12	60	600
K4MIA	FL	Ph		6	30	180
KO1U	MA	Ph		1	5	5
E
No Entry
F
No Entry

N8M Operators, KD8CWP, NY8D, W8DA, KD8EQP, KD8HNF, NF8J, AA8JR, AB8ND, KD8OHS, KA5S, KA8WGF, N8XX, AC8ZX

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