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Everyone has their favorite state QSO party in the United States, and for many, it is the last weekend in April, when the Sunshine State takes over the bands with the Florida QSO Party.
Organizers expect this year to build on the growing success of this contest, which had over 100,000 contacts in 2009, closing in on a total of 1,000 submitted logs.
One of the many subplots in this contest is a familiar one as Ken Meier W8MJ notched his seventh straight win in the out-of-Florida Single Op Mixed category, easily outdistancing K3WW for another victory.
"The conditions on 20 meters probably were the best I have ever experienced from my place for FQP," said Meier afterwards on 3830. "It seemed like I had a pipe line straight to Florida on 20."
Meier came up one short of getting the double county sweep, as he found all 67 on CW, but couldn't get Monroe on SSB.
"Getting that double sweep is really nice to get, and a very gratifying accomplishment," noted Meier.
With his leading number of 900 QSO's, Meier came closest of any competitor to getting the SSB Sweep in 2009. Next best was VA3DX with 61, followed by HI3CCP with 56.
28 different competitors managed a Florida CW Sweep in 2009, several of whom were from Europe, as DL3DXX (the DX winner), G4BUE and CU2JT all got the magic number of 67; CT1ILT was just behind at 66. (One more mult for CT1ILT would have given him the DX victory).
"I use a different philosophy than most mobiles," Wooten told radio-sport.net, "instead of blazing through a county to reach as many counties as they can, I work as many people as I can in a county before moving to the next."
Wooten's other hidden asset is that he is among the best at copying calls and avoiding errors in his log, often having fewer than a 1% error rate for his mobile efforts.
Wooten says he hasn't made any changes to his setup, but he does hope to use more of the high bands during the FQP weekend.
"I will be using the same basic set up as I used last year which is an Icom 7000 and a home brew multi-band antenna which will operate 40-10 meters," said Wooten.
"I am hoping that 15 and 10 will be productive this year, as for the past 3 or 4 years those bands have been useless to the mobile stations."
The Florida QSO Party has two operating periods - 1600z on April 24 to 0159z April 25 and 2300-2159z April 25. All stations may operate the full twenty hours. For more information, go to the FQP web site.
While many operators use specific three-letter abbreviations for the county that they are in, Bowen often simply signed N400/M, a blast from the past.
"Many of you will recall that Ink, N4OO liked to join us each year in the Florida QSO Party by getting his truck all geared up, then driving to activate a number of counties, including rare ones such as Calhoun," said Dan Street K1TO on the FQP reflector.
"Ron, K8NZ and I have chosen to obtain a special callsign, N4O for this year's event in Ink's honor," said Street.
"Our route extends throughout all of south and central FL and reaches Wakulla County before circling back east on I-10, so it will be extra special to use N4O from "WAK" County, Ink's home."
2009 Florida QSO Party Winners
Nebraska QSO Party
1700z April 24 - 1700 April 25;
more on the rules at the
NQP web site.
7th Call Area QSO Party
1300z May 1 - 0700 May 2;
more on the rules at the
7QP web site.
New England QSO Party
2000z May 1 - 0500 May 2 and 1300-2400z;
more on the rules at the
NEQP web site.
Indiana QSO Party
1600z May 1 - 0400 May 2;
more on the rules at the
INQP web site.
